Vacation Pt 3 – Edinburgh!
We chose to add an extension to our tour by having two quick days in Scotland. It was well worth it because we were able to relax a lot more and take in a slower part of Europe.
If you have a Facebook account, you can view my photos here. The bottom 15 should be at the top.
Day nine we arrive in Scotland at 7am and begin our tour first thing in the morning. Most of us were still trying to wake up from the partial sleep on the shaky train ride in addition to the little drizzle early on in the morning. We get on a coach and tour the windy roads of Edinburgh with our tour guide who came dressed in full Scottish garb with a plaid kilt, booming voice and beard to top it off. He was so talented, he truly loved his job and he was a very proud Scotsman. His explanations combined with the lush, green scenery and scattered sheep and cows gave us a little taste of the great country that Scotland is. After a historic explanation of Edinburgh, we walked up to the Edinburgh Castle where we were able to overlook the entire city. Little did we know that this day was Armed Forces Day and they were having a parade! We saw all the different divisions of military that Scotland has and some squads of kilted bagpipers too!
After watching the parade for a little bit, we went to Oinks for lunch where we had some pork sandwiches with the traditional food, haggis. Haggis is minced lamb heart, liver and lungs but it tasted like stuffing, like what you have at Thanksgiving. After lunch we went on a search for some low-priced cashmere since Scotland is covered in sheep! While looking, we ran across a William Wallace impersonator. If you’ve ever seen the movie Braveheart, this was a true story that brought great victories to Scotland. Not only did the events put Scotland on the map, the actual movie benefitted the country greatly because it increased the tourism industry immensely. We spoke with this gentleman for about 15 minutes telling us how he does this on the side and he’s a drama teacher full time. He even went inside (trusting us with his swords) and brought out his large sword so I could feel the weight of something that costs around $4,500 US. Another proud Scotsman! It was a cool experience and he was a great person to talk with.
Day ten, our last day before departure. We start out on a bus ride headed towards Stirling Castle which is about an hour and a half outside of Edinburgh. We stop off real quick at the Falkirk Wheel which is a rotating boat lift. The only way to connect Glasgow with Edinburgh by water is by using 11 locks and this wheel to lift the boat from the separate canal 80 feet into the air. After watching this in motion, we head towards Stirling Castle which is the 12th Century home of James IV. We had the opportunity to see the Scottish crown jewels which are actually older than the English crown jewels since they were melted down during the time of Oliver Cromwell. The unique part of this tour was an entire wing of this castle has been under construction for the past 50 years and they JUST opened it to the public 2 weeks ago! What kind of timing is that! It was neat to see, but they repainted all of the walls, recarved all of the ceilings and rewove all of the tapestries. Because of this, everything looked new and very Disney-like. It was neat to see 50 years of reconstruction and 1000 year old buildings, but it just didn’t feel right to see everything so new and pristine. Either way, they did a wonderful job at preserving it and maintaining the integrity of the building and art by using the same techniques they used in the past.
Then we saw Edinburgh’s cantilever railway bridge called the Forth Bridge that opened up over 100 years ago. While gandering at the old bridge, there were tankers practicing putting out oil fires since there’s a nearby oil rig about a ¼ mile away from the bridge. To us it looked like a water show, it was amazing! We had a little bit of free time after this back in Edinburgh so we walked the streets, people watched and took an outer look of the Scott Monument which is a Victorian Gothic structure 200 feet tall completed in 1846. After taking a nice stroll around the streets one last time, we retired back to our hotel (an hour and a half away) where the group came together one last time for a final drink of European wine and whisky as we looked back on the great time we spent together.
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