Gretna Green (JC)

Woke up leisurely, had breakfast and we planned on taking the train to Gretna Green. This town is famous for doing quicky marriages. It is also known for offering marriages to 16 year olds, where 21 is the non-consent age in England.

We realized that we didn't have the rail schedule, so Rhonda called up for information. The lady on the other end of the phone asked "What time are you thinking of going to Gretna Green?", so Rhonda replied "around 11:00am". The lady responded, "There isn't an 11:00am train, but there is one leaving at 11:03am." ARGH!! (Typical British "efficiency".)

First Smithy's shop wanted 70 pounds for the marriage and Celtic ceremony. SMB 70 pounds! (If you don't know what SMB is, you don't watch enough South Park and yes, the reference is somewhere on that page).

We aren't cheap, but the idea of spending 70 pounds on a (mainly) Christian ceremony was a bit amusing to us, being Jewish and all, we figured that the blacksmith would burst into flames if he performed that on us. We researched the remarriage ceremony before we left for Glasgow and were fully aware that there was a blacksmith in Gretna Green that performed the ceremony for free.

We went down the road to the other Smithy's shop and got married! The ceremony was quite nice and the blacksmith had a good sense of humour. When it came time for me to kiss Rhonda he kindly requested "No tongues".

We did a fair bit of shopping at the Smithy's shop. Rhonda got a souvenir necklace for herself, my mom and a friend of her mom's. I, on the other hand, got a couple small bottles of Gretna Green scotch. The blacksmith got his honourarium in the form of our purchases.

We are heading back to Glasgow. The area between Gretna Green and Dumfries is rolling green hills. The weather - HOT & SUNNY - someone must have worked their magic so that Rhonda's hair would stay pretty in the heat.

Lots of cows and sheep. Green everywhere!

Every morning when we leave on a day trip, the innkeeper asks us where we're going. This morning when we told her we were heading to Gretna Green she replied "There's nothing there!" Rhonda mentioned that we were going to get remarried and she just smiled and said "that's sweet" and that was the end of it.

When we got back to the B&B, we were completely blown away. The innkeeper had covered our beds with confetti, streamers, rose petals and there were helium balloons hanging from a little lamp. We couldn't believe that this sweet lady, who we had only known since Sunday, would go to the trouble of doing this for us! On top of all this, she got us a gift, too. A cute little pink pen that had a plastic strawberry dangling from the top and a bar of swiss chocolate. Rhonda told me that I can have the pen, she has dibs on the chocolate...