Day 16–July 2–Paisley Abbey

On our last full day in Scotland, we deliberately took a day off from tourist stuff and went to church–the church where Kristin’s great-great grandfather and mother were married. The pews do not have hymnals; you are given one as you enter the sanctuary. We did not know to ask for the version with music; the standard version only has words. We will remember this the next time as we would have loved to sing; we have long been fans of John Rutter and other modern British composers, and attending a service made it very clear from which traditions their melodies and harmonies derive.

After church, we went to the parish hall for coffee and had some very interesting conversations. All of them started out with a few minutes of delicate questions and discussion that could be summarized as “did you vote for the idiot Donald Trump?” followed by a frank series of questions that can be summarized as “how on earth did elect an idiot like Donald Trump?”

When coffee time was over, we walked through town and visited the high church on the top of the hill in town to walk the cemetery. Like the Greyfriar’s cemetery, the monuments were very interesting; you could tell when money flowed freely and when times were tough. We had a late lunch/early dinner at a pub before heading home to pack for an early train to London and then the Eurostar to Brussels.