Scotland Trip: Days 13-16

Monday, July 20th
Today we needed to run back to Callander to exchange David's belt for his kilt. Then we headed up toward Stirling. Stirling was somewhere we'd wanted to get to but it almost became a last minute decision to go because we'd failed to plan in advance to get there. It is the home of the Stirling Castle (which, by the way, I think I would've enjoyed so much more than Edinburgh, but we didn't go in in) and the Wallace Monument.

Stirling is the home of the Battle of Stirling Bridge where William Wallace, the country's most well-known hero (played heroically by a non-Scotsman, Mel Gibson in Braveheart) beat the English for the independence of Scotland in 1297 BC. It still amazes me the history of this amazing country. That's well over 700 years!

Looking through the opening gate.

Wishfully looking through the main entrance. I was definitely bummed to not go in. 

Looking from the Castle to the Wallace Monument.

There was so much more history throughout Stirling.

I have actually been obsessed with getting to an old cemetery for this reason. Morbid, I know. But just to be able to see headstones that are older than my own country would be amazing! I was actually telling David to see if he could get his parents to stop in Callander to see their cemetery and he kept telling me just to wait. I was bummed because, while I've never been fond of them, I was dying (I am in a punny mood lol) to see one here! It just so happened to be my lucky day! The Stirling Castle is utterly SURROUNDED by a cemetery!! I was in love haha. The weather today was considerably worse than it has been most of the time we've been here. Very rainy, but it didn't stop us from getting out at Stirling Castle to check it out.

 

Probably my favorite grave in the whole cemetery.

It is a much more rustic looking castle, and like I said, I was bummed to not get to go in, but the graveyard made up for that.

From there we headed over to the Wallace Monument. I was super lucky to find this adorable pin which I haven't seen at any of the shops we've gone in to for souvenirs. The guy at the desk was super nice too, when I went to pay he asked if I'd been to the Stirling Castle, to which I replied that yes, we had, but that we hadn't actually gone in. He asked why and I said we'd been to Edinburgh and that I was disappointed that we hadn't gotten to see Stirling. He gave me a 10% on my tickets anyway!

To get to the monument it was a 10 minute hike or they had a free shuttle that would take you to the top. owing to the fact that my feet have been unbearable as of late, we opted for the shuttle up. Plus it was a rather rainy day and who wants to walk up in the rain?

When we got to the top, it was amazing! The monument was huge! The moment we entered though, it was like deja vu of the Scott Memorial all over again. 267 steps to the top, so less than the Scott Memorial, but it was those silly tight spiral staircases again.

The memorial had levels for different parts of the monument. The first was the Hall of Arms. This housed replica weapons from the times (and the Wallace Sword...we couldn't decided if it was the real one or not, but either way it was MASSIVE) and the story of William Wallace.

"1297 The Scottish army defeats the English forces at The Battle of Stirling Bridge."

"1305 Wallace is captured and taken to London. He is tried and convicted of treason. Wallace is drawn, hung, and quartered."

Turns out Wallace was really just a middle class citizen of the time. He became a rebel and a pest to the English and eventually worked his way up to being the Guardian of Scotland for his valor and leadership in battles. Eventually he became a seriously known criminal in the English's' eyes. He was eventually handed over and as one of my pictures reads, but I will type so that you can actually see it:

'In February 1304, the Scots again made peace with Edward (King of England). Wallace considered joining in. But Edward set such harsh terms for him that he refused. So the king demanded that the Scots nobles bring him Wallace to stand trial for treason and war crimes against civilians.

Wallace entered a life of hiding. On 5 August 1305, fellow Scot Sir John Menteith captured him near Glasgow. The English took him to London where, after a speedy trial, Wallace was executed on 23 August 1305.

"William Wallace... was drawn through the streets of London at the tails of horses, until he reached a gallows... especially prepared for him; there he was suspended on a halter; but taken down while alive, he was mutilated, his bowels torn out and burned in a fire, his head then cut off, his body divided into four; and his quarters transmitted to four principal parts of Scotland." - Matthew of Westminster, Flowers of Hisotry (c. 1310)'

Rather gruesome I think. But I suppose we are talking about the Middle Ages. Anyway we continued up through to the next room, which was known as the Hall of Heroes. It housed busts of some of Scotland's most esteemed citizens, ranging from Robert Burns, a famous poet, to King Robert the Bruce, first king of Scotland.

The next level was known as the Royal Chamber which told the history of how the monument was built. It's amazing the work that went in to this project. It was built in the early 1800s and was quite a popular thing of the times.

After climbing to the final level, known as the Crown Spire, we were rewarded with 360 degree views of Stirling. If it weren't for the rain I would've stayed up there all day! The mist had started to creep in though, and it was quite spooky. We headed back down, which was possibly worse than going up because it made you quite dizzy. Once we got back to the ground, we realized we had hit this perfect break time for the shuttle and rather than wait 15 minutes, decided to walk back down the pathway to the parking lot again. The walk was really quite nice, something I had been hoping to do was get out to see the scenery and I was definitely rewarded in this effort! It even kept the rain off of us for a bit :)

Pretty sure this wasn't made for coins, but it sure has a bit of money there!

David was explaining different kinds of vegetation to me.

Ok, I'm not completely sure, but I think this is a thistle, it was super prickly but it made me super happy.

Thistles and daiseys :)

After that we stopped by the Thistles shopping mall and David and I got a cookie milkshake from Millie's...we're now addicted by the way and it will be the first thing we try to replicate with our new Ninja mixer (shout out to Ian for that, thanks!). We grabbed some Gregg's sausage rolls on the way home for dinner and enjoyed the rest of our night in.

Tuesday, July 21st
Today was a day David has been waiting for for quite some time. My first ever Rangers soccer match! I suppose I really should be using football with this blog, but it just sounds weird coming out as football...sorry! We decided to spend most of the morning at home and then go in so that I wouldn't tire out too quickly (I feel so old and out of shape!! Stupid injury I tell you!). We caught a train from Singer in to Partick and then I got my first-ever true subway experience! The subway in Glasgow has two lines that both go in a circle. You can always get on one of them. I really should have taken a picture of the map - I will at some point!

We got off at Buchanan Street and wandered a bit before heading down to George Square. Then we walked over and had to see the oh so famous, Duke of Wellington statue. Apparently as a joke, people have been putting a traffic cone on his head for quite some time. For a while the police were taking it off, but eventually it was known that it wouldn't be taken down anymore as it had become a staple attraction to the town.

We loved the seagull on the top...

The lovely Duke of Wellington with his traffic cone hat :)

Glasgow really reminded me of a slightly flatter version of San Francisco. No one else quite agrees with me, but it was that blend of old and new architecture and just so many people and traffic and public spaces. Plus there were always street performers and it was just so different!

We met up with some more of David's friends, Ross and Laura, and it was nice to finally meet the faces I'd heard so much about! They really are a nice couple and it was nice to again meet this other part of David that I've never known about. We got a chippy for dinner and then jumped back on the subway to get to Ibrox stadium. It was a very different atmosphere from what I'm used to with RSL. Luckily it was Laura's first time to the stadium as well, so I wasn't the only one.

The game was Rangers versus Burnley and was just a friendly match. Apparently it wasn't quite as full as David had expected, which was a disappointment. My first instincts were that the stadium looked like a baseball stadium, all covered. It was definitely much much bigger than Rio Tinto. The atmosphere was kinda dull though, and it was a little hard to be fully engaged when I didn't know any of the players playing. Unfortunately, the Rangers lost 0-1, but for a first time together team I suppose it wasn't so bad - they've had a lot of changes to their roster apparently.

Purple hair to match my purple shirt :)

On our way back to Partick, the subway was ridiculous! It felt like we were sardines in a can! I was literally having to duck so that I wouldn't get my head chopped off by the doors! It was a very different experience and I'm not sure I love the subway quite yet, a little too rickety for me! Laura drove us home, which was nice of her! We got in and went straight to bed.

Wednesday, July 22nd
Today was spent doing a multitude of different things. We started out going in to Glasgow for Eileen's final dress fitting. Her dress is so beautiful and I am so glad that she asked me to come along! I can't wait to take some photos for her for the wedding coming up this Friday!

After, we quickly jaunted over to Asda for some last minute things. David and I are cooking dinner tomorrow for Eileen and his parents. We're making cream cheese stuffed chicken wrapped in bacon - there's gotta be a better name than that lol - and baby potatoes and green beans. I'm excited to be cooking dinner again (and of course, everyone is excited to watch David cook, something he never did before).

Other than working on blogs, I haven't done much of anything. I got quite frustrated a little while ago, after about 2 hours of loading, the internet just shut out of my blog completely - meaning all the photos for my last blog were completely not uploaded! Eventually I got them, and I really do love my last blog post :)

Anyway it's been a long day and we have a long, but super exciting weekend ahead of us!

Thursday, July 23rd
Today was  a very lazy day. We kinda just did absolutely nothing all day long! I have almost finished my book and I'm not quite sure what I'm going to read while we are still here let alone on the flight home.

Eileen came over in the evening and we were able to cook her dinner for her pre-wedding night :) it was delicious! We did a cream cheese stuffed, bacon wrapped chicken with roasted baby potatoes and green beans. Then we did ice cream for dessert with flake and buttons to go on top with some whipped cream.

We're looking forward to Eileen's wedding tomorrow and it should be a good time!