17 May 2014

Today is Sabbath and prior to our trip, we found the nearest SDA church to our cottage in Dalton-in-Furness. It was to take between 30 and 45 minutes to get there but was only about 17 miles away. This is due to the tiny roads on which you can barely go 40 mph safely even though the speed limit is 60! We had a little trouble finding the building because the address online did not have a street number. After two attempts, we did find it and free parking on the street.

The building was originally a Methodist church which was sold to the Adventists in the 1980's.

SDA church, Dalton-in-Furness, UK - taken by Mom

We past a man in a shirt and tie on the sidewalk and I wondered if he might be one of the members. After we went in and signed the guest book, the man reappeared in the church... sure enough, he was the pastor! We made it just as they were about to start church. We took our seats and waited.

Front of the church the acquired from previous church

Once they did start, the pastor had asked two newly baptized members from the church in South Side near Liverpool to give their testimonies. It was very interesting to hear their stories. The younger man had been through a lot of trouble with the law, drugs, and mental health problems. Now he is clean and doing a course on how to evangelize. The other man had quite a bit of exposure to religion, but once someone gave him "The Great Controversy," he learned a lot more that led him to join the church. He was older than the first man and originally from Ireland.

Craig (barely visible) and David receive a special blessing by the pastor and (?) an elder

After church, we enjoyed chatting with the congregants and were invited to join them on a hike the next day at Tarn Hows (a lake near where we are staying). We shook hands with the two men who gave their testimonies and then headed on our way. The first place we wanted to go was some place for lunch and where we could change our clothes. We headed towards a nearby abbey and when we saw a hotel near it, we decided to check it out. Unfortunately, the restaurant in the hotel was closed for the owner’s birthday. However the lady at the desk was very friendly and told Jan about a nice restaurant not far away with good food called "The Brown Cow."

- taken by Mom

 

It was actually a pub so you had to find a table, order at the bar, tell them your table number, pay, and then take your seat.

taken by Mom

We ordered a broccoli bake with vegetables

and cheese cannelloni.

- taken by Mom

We didn’t have to wait too long. The food was delicious but piping hot! After eating, we were able to change our clothes.

We drove back to the abbey and found we could park for free and walk around it on the street’s sidewalk without paying admission.

We couldn’t see it up close, but still close enough. It was much like the ruins of so many other abbeys we have seen on the trip. Part of it were held up with more modern devices, no doubt for safety.

Then we drove on towards the seashore. We ended up in a little village called Roa with free parking again! We were able to walk to the seaside and look across to a little island called Piel. We also saw a lookout structure that was used to watch for ships.

Watch house in Roa - taken by Mom

It had beach cobbles that were whole and not knapped as they are in Norfolk (I’ll be looking for that when we get to Norfolk later!). Mom went down to the water’s edge to look around and found some shells.

Once we reached the ferry landing to take people over to Piel Island, we sat on a bench and enjoyed the sunshine and sea air for a while.

Piel Island - taken by Mom

As we started our drive along the west coast back towards our cottage, we happened to see Conishead Priory and Buddhist Temple and pulled off to see it. There was another free car park and we were able to walk on some of the trails below the buildings which had some beautiful old and big trees and bushes including a rhododendron that was absolutely huge!

Huge rhododendron - taken by Mom

Eventually we came up to the buildings and found people milling around. There were some beautiful gardens and a green house. We could see the temple, but we couldn’t approach it very easily because they had party tents surrounding it for some upcoming festival. Technically, I think the whole place was closed for that reason; but no one asked us or the other visitors to leave. We did go into the Priory.

- taken by Mom

Apparently it was destroyed like some many other Catholic buildings by Henry VIII’s laws. It has not been a church for a long time. It was a type of spa for coal miners from Durham in the first part of the 20^th century. Now it is used to house Buddhist monks or students.

After that we drove home to have a relaxing evening at our cottage in our outdoor sitting area and through the gardens.