Nancy and I just returned from 14 days in the British Isles
and London. The trip was our retirement gift to ourselves. It is really a
different world across the pond. Not only do they drive on the “wrong side of
the road,” it is blastedly expensive by the standards here in the States.
Our first taste of difference was when we exchanged some greenbacks
for pounds at the Pittsburgh Airport. It took a buck-fifty to get one pound. An
all-day ticket for a London tour bus (called a “ho ho,” short for hop on hop
off) was 28 pounds per person. That equates to about $41. A traditional
breakfast, for two people, like one might get at one of our chain restaurants (eggs, bacon, hash
browns and coffee) for $20, would cost about $40 in London.
While we saw some expensive cars like Mercedes Benz, we saw
very few, if any, pickup trucks and SUVs. There was no wonder why when one does
the conversion of cost per liter to cost per gallon of gasoline. They are
paying around one pound and fifty pence per liter. There are 3.8 liters per
gallon. That calculates to about $5.66
per gallon. That explains all the tiny cars and motor scooters on the streets.
Folks in London seemed very comfortable riding their bicycles around town and
through traffic.
If a Coke were ordered it came in one of those small glass
bottles which used to be common here. The Coke would cost the equivalent of $4.
There were no free refills. Another Coke would be another $4. Only in some of
the thruway convenience stores did one find our ubiquitous plastic bottles. In
the pubs draft beer had to be pumped up rather than being CO2
pressure fed. Beer is served either at cellar or room temperature, so were the
Cokes, though you could get ice for the Coke.
We did see a portend for many of our church buildings. In England,
Ireland and Scotland, church buildings large and small were standing empty,
allowed to fall in on itself, or were converted into other uses such as museums
and housing. It did not matter if the buildings were Catholic, Protestant
(Lutheran) or Presbyterian. Upon returning home, I found an email from a friend
in another presbytery asking if I knew of any grants to help replace an aged
and failed furnace. I drove past a church in the borough of Indiana and once
again saw masonry work being done to the outside of the building. I am afraid
our aging building will either have to be maintained at great expense, re-purposed, or allowed to collapse.
When
I traveled in Rwanda, I gained a new appreciation for our life in the States.
In the British Isles, I came away with a similar, but different appreciation. I
am more and more convinced that unless we travel outside our own valley
villages and towns, even just here in the States, our vision will be forever
limited to “the way it has always been.”
