The Bridges

Hello Again!

One of the things that we missed when we left Scotland was the completion of the new Forth bridge. It felt like they were just inches away from completing it when we drove to the airport. Well, it’s all done now, and I’ve got some pictures to prove it!

I was picked up at the airport by an old friend, Dean Norby. Dean is a priest here. As we approached the bridge, I surprise him by pulling out my phone and filming the trip across. I told him how we hadn’t been able to see it before we left, and that I thought you guys would like a peek. So here you go. A video of the bridge crossing…..

But that’s not all. When Alex was visiting with me, and when I was taking him back to the airport, we got to see all the bridges at night. They were really beautiful. So I went back and spent a good 3 hours photographing them. Take a look at these. I wonder if Joshua remembers the big, red, rail bridge….?

These bridges are amazing! It was fun when trains went by while I was taking the pictures. Some of them have long white streaks because of the lights from the train. I also really like how the orange light from the Rail Bridge and the blue light from the new road bridge (called Queensferry Crossing) look like their competing to take over the sky.

Anyway, that’s all I have to say about bridges. I love you guys! It was great to talk to you this morning (your morning, my night).

I’ll write another one in a little while.

Good night!

The Trip to Scotland

Hello Elsa, Joshua, and Cheryl!

I’ve been meaning to write to you about my travels for a while but I couldn’t seem to get all the bits and pieces together to make it work.

The flight to Scotland was really long. It took about 30 hours, airport to airport, not including being delayed in Dubai (a city in the Middle East) for about an hour because someone got sick on the plane. I felt bad for that person.

After you guys left me at the airport, I got on the plane when my turn came. It was so huge! It had stairs, but I wasn’t allowed to go up them. That was a bummer.

The Christchurch Airport

Man, that plane is big!

You might remember that to get on an airplane, you have to walk down a tunnel - except this plane was so big, it had THREE tunnels!

Walking down the tunnel

I got a seat by the window and spent the first part of the flight looking out at the land below. This is a video of our plane taking off from Christchurch. Can you see where our house is?

Once up in the air, I spent a lot of time looking out the window, especially as we passed over the mountains.

The Sunset from 30,000 feet up!

The first part of the flight ended in Sydney, Australia. This was a little bit weird. First, they made us all get off the plane, even if we were going on to Dubai on the same plane (that was me). Then, we had to go through ANOTHER security screening, complete with x-rays and chemical tests (to make sure I didn’t have anything that would explode). Then I had to walk a long way through the airport, just to get back to where I was when we arrived! I also realized that I had forgotten my iPad charging cable, so I bought one there. That annoyed me even more. Then it was back onto the plane, and up into the sky again, this time for 17 hours straight!

3 tunnels, 1 plane!

The boarding tunnels in Sydney

The flight to Dubai from Sydney was remarkable mostly because I got to sleep. I really enjoyed the neck pillow we bought in Christchurch. I couldn’t have rested so well without it. One of the interesting things about the 17 hour flight, too, is that it was entirely in the dark. It was night throughout the flight because we were flying away from the sun. That meant that it was very early in the morning, before the sun had risen, when we arrived at Dubai. Dubai is in a desert, and the land around it is is very flat. This meant that the lights of the towns and cities and roads spread out like beautiful patterns on the ground. Here are some pictures of that.

We got to talk a little bit when I was in Dubai, so I won’t bore you too much, except to say that the airport was massive (I had to take a bus from one part of the airport to another, and then I had to go through security again - I don’t know what they think I might be able to get up to while in an airplane over the pacific ocean), and the airport is filled with gold. Literally. I couldn’t believe all the shops filled with gold. And they don’t sell it by the piece, the sell it by weight. It didn’t seem to matter how much work a piece of jewelry took, it was sold based on its weight. It was interesting to see designs I hadn’t seen before. Here’s a picture of one of the gold shops.

Lots and lots of gold. Like Scrooge MacDuck levels of gold!

From there,, it was a daylight flight to Edinburgh. No real pictures from that part of the journey, but I’ll write another story soon, and I’ll talk about my first few days here.

I love you guys