Scotland Trip: Days 6-9

Monday, July 13
Today we just wanted to relax and kind of get our bearings. We slept in, got up, hung out and generally did much of nothing today. We did eventually book our trip to Inverness on July 28-30 and we are super excited for that! We had also been trying to book a trip in to Edinburgh for a while but ticket prices were rather steep. As we were looking, we stumbled upon a killer deal where the both of us for return tickets could get there for £32. I still get a kick out of the fact that I can literally probably go from coast to coast of Scotland in about 3-4 hours. I can't even get from northern to southern Utah in that time! It's amazing! I have also decided that Scotland must be much farther north than I realize, because I have been putting myself to bed at 10 and it's a struggle because it's so light outside still. Overall, though, not a bad day. The weather has kept ok actually!

David took this photo out the front window at 10:30. I don't know that it completely does it justice, because it is quite light at this time!

Tuesday, July 14
Today was our exciting trip in to Edinburgh. We had to get up early - which hasn't truly been hard to do as it's so light at around 5 that I wake up anyway (read "wake up" not "get out of bed"). We had to be down the the Singer station by 9:10 in order to catch our train. Not knowing what the weather would be like, we packed jackets and lunches. It was actually quite chilly and I was getting worried that we'd actually get a full day of rain for the first time, on a day we couldn't just go right back home.

Waiting for the train :)

Getting into Edinburgh was quite easy, in the long run. However, we got off at our one stop on the trip and almost didn't get back on! We thought we'd have to go up to the upper level trains, and it turns out we just had to wait for another train on the same track. We did get back on and everything was fine. We arrived in Edinburgh and it was absolutely amazing! For a big city, it didn't seem as crazy as, say, San Francisco. The rain did start once we were off though.

We saw the Scott Memorial immediately - don't know how you'd miss it. It's this massive Gothic-looking building that you can actually climb up and have spectacular views of the city. It was only £4 a person to climb it and I figured why not. It was only 287 steps so it seemed easy enough :) WRONG! I haven't truly done that much since my surgery in way of massive exertion. These steps were probably less than 3 feet wide and super spirally and narrow. We only had to slide over once for someone coming down to pass - but it was crazy tight. You could tell how many people had climbed it because of the worn steps - they were pure rock, but worn away in divets. Once we got to each level it was more and more beautiful views! My heart felt like it was going to burst out of my chest however! I can't believe how out of shape I felt! Literally after coming down - which was worse than going up - I was so shaky you could visibly see my legs shake! It lasted about 30 minutes after and was definitely something that caused me to second guess my choice to climb it in the first place! Knowing that we had to climb the hill to get the castle, we decided to wander to take a quick break.

The exchange rate has gone up by $0.08 and it's harsh. We should've exchanged when it was $1.64 to the £1 but we thought it would go down. Instead it's gone up. After exchanging some money we decided to head up to the castle.

The Scott Memorial. It is actually a lot larger than it looks from this picture. This was the first thing we saw and I knew right away that I wanted to climb it.

David went ahead of me - which was fine as I continuously needed breaks lol.

A stained glass portrait of St. Andrew, the patron saint of Scotland.

My handsome husband on one of the landings.

The architecture is beautiful!

Looking at the castle from our vantage point - an excellent view!

 Going up to the castle was a bit perilous looking after our trip with the Scott Memorial. I was beginning to get super tired and we didn't really have any directions that would take us up to the castle. We pretty much had to watch the tour buses and try to follow them. I ended up finding us a short cut through the buildings that took us to High Street. All the cobblestone streets were fascinating - but super harsh on my feet and walking was tricky at times.

This is a shortcut I found to going up to the castle. It was named Milne's Court and I thought that it might make Renee laugh seeing it :) she had told me to look out for things named Milne.

Entertainers on High Street. This was the invisible man :)

There was always pipe music to be heard.

I think I had believed that we would have to pay for tickets, but David was quite taken aback. It cost us £14.50 to get in, but I thought it would be well worth it - I've never seen a real castle in real life. We walked up to it and it just looked like it was carved from the hillside. I kept trying to tell myself it was all real - super old and all, but it was hard. For all that it's worth, the castle was fascinating, but I was a little disappointed. I guess I expected it to be like This is the Place in Utah. The old buildings stand and the decor looks like it was taken out of the 1800s; but the castle was completely different. A lot of it had been updated and most of it was being used for galleries to house things, rather than getting to see what it would've looked like 500 years ago.

The galleries were awesome, but there was one part of the castle that was completely original. It was part of an outter wall that King David I had built. It was truly amazing and made me feel like I was going back in time! But even the areas that dated to the 1500s that Queen Mary stayed in were quite fixed up and modern. The best part of it was the Foog's gate (built in the 1600s) and St. Margaret's Chapel which is original. We couldn't originally go into the chapel because someone was getting married. Once we were able to get in to it, it's amazing anyone fit in to have their wedding there! It was built in the 1100s! The history is amazing, but as I mentioned, I was a little disappointed. Overall it was worth it though, to be able to say that I had been to the capital city of Scotland and to see the Castle there.

I've never seen stone worn this way! It was kinda shivery making!

This cannon is shot off at 1:00 pm every day. David says he heard it, but I honestly didn't! Apparently it used to be used mainly to let people know to set their watches, but is now shot every day at 1.

Part of the War Museum we were able to view inside the castle.

I loved the regalia of this set up!

A very old original Saltire. 

We couldn't actually go into this building, which I was disappointed in! Apparently it's still in use for some reason.

Looking through Foog's Gate, built in the 1600s.

I thought this was an old church, but it turns out it's actually a War Memorial. We couldn't take any photos inside, not even sneaky ones as the people watching it were very very very angrily getting after other people taking photos.

A very sweet gesture I thought!

This well is 34 meters deep and was the main water access for the castle for quite some time.

The building on the left was the housing of Queen Mary in the mid 1500s.

We were able to walk through this exhibition but were not allowed any sort of photography of the actual jewels. They were absolutely beautiful though!

This fireplace was massive! I know the pictures won't do it justice so David took my photo in front of it!

See? It's massive!

One of the two statues outside of the War Memorial.

I loved that the beams were original.

This is looking down into the original outer wall where David I had built rooms.

 

This room was a barracks of sorts. It was meant to hold 100 men at a time!!

The original great hall.

Another hall looking down into the ruins.

The outer walls of the Chapel.

Looking inside the tiny chapel! 

Looking out the main gate, this made it feel like a real castle - gate and all!

David insisted that I get a picture next to the telephone booths.

We decided to go home early because we were both now on the verge of dying due to soreness. Lucikly we didn't have to stick to our actual time which had us getting on a train at 8 and were able to make it back by 6, just in time for dinner. I ate something called chicken pechora which is an Indian dish, but wasn't spicy like I had expected. We were quite content to shower and go to bed early. I was able to soak with a muscle relaxant so that my knee would not swell. Needless to say we ended up staying up later than expected...stupid light nights!

Wednesday, July 15
Today we were very warn out and didn't want to do much, but we needed to go the mall. I needed a new pair of jeans because I put off getting some before we left and now the ones I have are starting to come a part. If that doesn't make you feel bad, knowing that the difference in UK and US sizes is 4 sizes bigger doesn't either! Shopping was quite the feat as my feet and legs were soooo sore. We had literally walked 6 miles and climbed the equivalent of 41 staircases yesterday!

We got some gelato on our way out the door (something I miss when we're back home - but came to love in Australia), and David and I cooked dinner - chicken Alfredo - which was a task in and of itself. Try as we may, we have yet to find something even remotely considered Alfredo sauce and when we ask, people look at us like we're crazy...we're slowly starting to believe it's a strictly US thing...although I swear it isn't! We have ended up using a white sauce - which has no flavor - and adding a packet of like four cheese cream sauce to it to give it flavor, it works, but isn't quite what we're used to. Regardless, dinner was extremely yummy and made me feel a bit like we were at home again. Sam and Linda were astounded at fact that David was actually cooking and were very pleased with our meal :) we went to bed like usual - late - but enjoyed the day nonetheless.

Thursday, July 16
Today was another laid back day, which I'm totally fine with - I don't honestly think I could run around like a crazy person every single day! We started off rather early, David went for a run while I slept, and then we had to go to the dentist's office for Linda. After that we finally visited David's uncle George and aunt Janet and cousin Lewis in Bishopbriggs. They were fantastic people and prepared tea for us which was rather nice! They have a lovely home and a very sweet dog named Penny. We chatted with them for quite a while, and it was nice to get to know more of David's family.

We stopped by Asda again on our way home and asked one last time about Alfredo sauce. Still no reply. We're going to try a carbonara sauce and see if that is similar. We had burgers tonight, which were very lovely! Different, because the meat is a different than the US - obviously - but still nice - I will never turn down a good burger! David and I enjoyed a nice bottle of wine and I've been working on this blog ever since (the photos...that's what takes so long). I think as long as I keep only one major event (ie our trip to Edinburgh) in each blog post, they should be relatively easy!

David and I are going to go see Ant Man tomorrow and then we have the Highland games on Saturday. I'm helping Eileen and Linda make Scottish Tablet for Eileen's wedding favors on Sunday and then I think we're heading to Stirling on Monday, Rangers game on Tuesday and Eileen's wedding on Friday. So keep an eye out for at least one more blog before Sunday and another soon after!

PS I'm trying to get pictures of the signs...if you know me you know I love random street signs and Scotland isn't lacking in that department!