It's Sunday evening and I'm at Robyn and Neil's apartment in the Tollcross neighborhood of Edinburgh. We had dinner and are spending some time catching up on work / blogging / rest before Robyn and I leave for London early tomorrow morning. More on that later.
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| View of Edinburgh Castle, stumbled upon during a walk. |
Edinburgh Castle
Edinburgh Castle has the absolute best views of the city and is the best part of the skyline. Similar to building restrictions in Washington, D.C., the city of Edinburgh does not allow anything to be taller than the Castle. This would be challenging anyway since the Castle is on a hill, but it does mean that there aren't any significantly large buildings apart from the Castle. It also means you can see the Castle from various points in the city, which has made many of the walks I've taken exceptionally beautiful.When I first entered the grounds, I decided to do a self-guided tour but was disappointed in the lack of information provided on the plaques at the different sites. When I realized this, I went back to the entry and bought an audioguide. This was a good choice as it provided TONS more information than the little written plaques did. Guided tours are provided free with the entry fee but you have to catch them at the right time and the audioguide still has more detail, so I would have rather had the audioguide included.
Various parts of the Castle have been built at different times, starting in the 12th century. The oldest building on the grounds, also probably the oldest building in the city, is St. Margaret's chapel. It's a tiny (but still beautiful) chapel that was built by King David I in the early- to mid-12th century to honor his mother, Margaret of Wessex (canonized in 1250). It's partly the oldest surviving building because Robert the Bruce allowed it to stand when he took control of the Castle in 1306 and destroyed most of its buildings. He also left money toward the end of his life for the restoration and preservation of the chapel. The audioguide talked quite a bit about Robert the Bruce because he helped re-establish Scotland as an independent nation after a few years of turmoil and partial English control.
Quite a few of the sites were about different battles that had happened at the Castle, particularly sieges on it relating to contentious orders or succession and/or England trying to control Scotland. I didn't find this as interesting, so I won't go into much detail here. Suffice it to say, the Castle has a very important role in Scotland's military history. More interesting was the fact that it was used as a prison during various British wars in the 18th and 19th century, specifically the American Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars. They had a place where visitors could go and see the doors to the prisons, including various writing and drawing prisoners had carved into the wood. Also in this exhibit was information about the lives of the prisoners while captive, including their rations of food and examples of their craftsmanship. Apparently, the prisoners would make items and trade them with the citizens of Edinburgh for tobacco, letter writing materials, money, etc. The things they made were beautiful - you would have no idea that they came from various parts of their rations unless told. They also had a couple of bunk rooms set up to look like they would have in those years, complete with audio of actors pretending to be prisoners talking about topics like the American Revolution.The big exhibit surrounds the Honours of Scotland, including how they arrived in Scotland and which monarchs have been crowned using them. The oldest is the Stone of Destiny (Stone of Scone), a stone seat that Scottish rulers sit on to be crowned. It was taken from Scotland in the late 13th century by King Edward I of England and remained there until the 1990s. Most English rulers have been crowned on the stone, including Queen Elizabeth II. Although the stone is now stored in Perth, Scotland, it will travel to Westminster Abbey whenever the next coronation happens (assuming Scotland doesn't declare its independence first...). The main part of the exhibit is about the crown jewels, which are the Crown, the Scepter, and the Sword of State. Mary, Queen of Scots was the first monarch crowned using all three together (at the reasonable age of 9 months). The Honours were also used to crown Queen Mary's one-year-old son, James VI (who later became James I of England), and James VI's son, Charles I (who was so unpopular, they executed him and began stripping power from the monarchy). When Scotland and England were officially unified into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707, the Honours were determined to have no purpose to the new kingdom and hidden in a chest in Edinburgh Castle. Sir Walter Scott, the famous Scottish writer, got permission to uncover the Honours in 1818 and they have been on display virtually ever since. The one exception was during WWII, when people feared Germany would attack Great Britain - during this time, the Honours were hidden in the basement of a decrepit tower (David's Tower) at the Castle.
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| Great Hall - famous for hosting a banquet for James VI/I. |
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| Ornate fireplace featuring crest of combined thrones. |
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| Original thatched roof of the Great Hall. |
After seeing the Honours (which were, of course, very beautiful), I saw the part of the Castle that was most recently used as a royal palace. After the creation of the Palace of Holyroodhouse in the 15th century, Edinburgh Castle became a less popular choice for royal residence. However, visitors can see the bedchamber where Mary, Queen of Scots gave birth to James VI as well as the Great Hall that was used as a dining room. It's not clear to me why she chose to give birth here, given that she spent most of her time in Scotland at the Palace of Holyroodhouse. James VI only ever returned to the Castle once and it has not been used as a royal residence since 1633, when Charles I stayed there on the eve of his coronation as King of Scotland.
Overall, I really enjoyed my visit and the views it provided! I took plenty of pictures to show how pleased I was :)
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| View of Edinburgh from the Castle grounds. |
Thursday Evening & Friday
On Thursday evening, Robyn and I read news reports about the Brexit vote and went to bed thinking (like most people) that remain would win easily. We woke up on Friday morning to the news that the leave campaign had succeeded and the pound had already dropped 15-20 cents to the dollar. I'll make a separate post about the Brexit vote and its aftermath, but we took it as an excuse to go shopping on Friday afternoon since the exchange rate was the best it has been since the 80s. First, we walked through the Morningside neighborhood, which is where Robyn will be living next year with three of her friends (Neil will be doing a medical residency in a town called Elgin, about four hours North of Edinburgh). It was a very cute neighborhood with mixed age demographics. We also popped in a grocery store, which is when I realized that people in the UK don't refrigerate their eggs. It was a weird sight, but I did some research and it's all because of the different production processes in the US and UK. I won't go into it further, but you can read more here and here.
We then took a bus to Prince's street, the main shopping street in Edinburgh. We went in several uniquely British / European shops, including Oliver Bonas (which Robyn describes as a cross between Anthropologie and Forever 21) and Primark (kind of like if Target only made clothes and they were about 1/3 of the cost). We ate dinner at Bread Meats Bread, a restaurant that specializes in meaty sandwiches. I had a cheeseburger but I swapped the American Cheese for Mull of Kintyre Aged Cheddar. I only note this because on the receipt they charged it as "Posh Cheese," which I really enjoyed. We also had sweet potato fries - it's been a long time since I've had them and I had forgotten how good they are! The orange drink in the picture is IRN BRU ("iron brew"), the most popular soft drink in Scotland. It's basically a type of soda made in Scotland, but it doesn't taste quite the same as any soda I've had. The best description of the taste I can think of is if you melted an orange lollipop and added carbonated water. It's pretty good, and they have it everywhere here!
That night, we hung out with Robyn's friends Gaby, Fraser, and George at a bar near Robyn's house. I met Gaby and Fraser just after I arrived on Monday, when we had dinner and watched Game of Thrones with them. This was my first time meeting George, who is dating another of Robyn's good friends. Fraser and George both live in Edinburgh but Gaby currently lives in Glasgow. We played Pub Quiz, which is basically the British trivial pursuit, lamented the Brexit vote, and sampled whisky (different than whiskey or bourbon, I'm told).
Glasgow
On Saturday, Robyn and I took the train to Glasgow, the biggest city in Scotland. It's only about an hour away by train, so it was an easy jaunt. There, we met up with Neil (who had been visiting his family in Lanarkshire, close to Glasgow), Gaby, and Fraser. We first went to the Lighthouse, which is the city's hub of architecture and has amazing views of the city. Gaby works for the Cultural Trust of Scotland, so she had actually helped create some of the exhibits in the building related to the celebration of Scottish culture. Uncle Timm might enjoy knowing that one of the exhibits was about various architectural uses of timber, including awards for "Best Use of Timber."
Next, we went to lunch at a vegan restaurant called the Flying Duck. It was a basement bar that served vegan versions of all sorts of classic food - for example, I had a chili cheese dog made with a vegan hot dog and vegan cheese. It was delicious. We then took the subway to the Kelvin Bridge so that we could walk along the River Kelvin on the Kelvin walkway. We hit the walk at just the right time to miss the rain, and it was quite lovely. Glasgow is known as a dirtier and rougher city than Edinburgh; we did see some evidence of this (i.e. trash in the river), but mostly the areas we visited were very nice. At the end of the walkway, we climbed a set of stairs to the Botanical Gardens. We walked around the outside as well as inside the "hothouses" (greenhouses). After this, it was time for dinner in the West End neighborhood. This was a nice, trendy area of town and we ate at a Vietnamese restaurant called Hanoi Bike Shop. The food was delicious and we were joined by two of Gaby's friends, a gay couple named Zach and Dave. Zach is from California's central valley and Dave is from Australia, but they met in San Francisco. They moved to Scotland a few years ago when Dave got a job at the university in Glasgow.
When we finished dinner, we (sans Dave) went to Swing Club because someone told Gaby they were having a big jazz night. When we saw how small the venue was and realized the music wouldn't be on until well past 9, we decided to go to a nearby bar to get a drink and chat instead. Around 9:45 we started talking about leaving, but we thought we had until 10:30 to catch the train. Then around 9:55, someone remembered that rail strikes are going on so the second-to-last train was leaving at 10:08. Robyn, Neil, Fraser, and I rushed to the station and barely caught the train, but we ultimately made it back to Edinburgh by 11:15.
Palace of Holyroodhouse
On Sunday, Robyn had to work again, so I went back to the Royal Mile. This time, I visited the Palace of Holyroodhouse at the opposite end from Edinburgh Castle. They only allow pictures outside the grounds, but I assure you that the inside was equally aesthetically appealing. Holyroodhouse has been used as a royal residence since James IV and James V (grandfather and father, respectively, of Mary, Queen of Scots) conducted extensive repairs and additions to it in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. However, much of the existing palace wasn't built until the middle of the 17th century and it wasn't used regularly until the reign of Queen Victoria. I was doubly lucky in my timing because they are currently doing an exhibition on Queen Elizabeth II's wardrobe in honor of her 90th birthday AND this was the last day the Palace will be open in June because Her Majesty the Queen and His Royal Highness the Prince of Edinburgh will be taking up their annual residence there next week!
Entrance to the Palace includes an audioguide, which leads you through the various display rooms. After entering, I understood why we're not allowed to take photos: Much of the decor on display is extremely old, including quite a few tapestries that are beginning to look worn by age. The tour progressed through the dinning room, the state rooms, and the apartments of Mary, Queen of Scots. The audioguide provided both historical and current uses for all of the rooms, as well as the option to hear more detailed information on various topics or continue more quickly. Most of it is what you would expect - this is where the Queen hosts formal dinners, this is where the Queen met the Pope, etc. - but some of it was new to me. For example, the tour discussed how Queen Victoria brought the Palace back into more regular use because of her love for Scotland. She acquired Balmoral Castle early in her reign, and Holyroodhouse was a convenient stopping point on the way there. She also brought tartan into the royal wardrobe, including the fashioning of several tartans for the royal family. Tartans are the traditional patterns woven into wool for kilts, sashes, scarves, etc. We generally think of them as plaid, but that's technically not accurate. They are an extremely important part of Scottish heritage and it's common for Scots to wear their tartans at significant life events, such as weddings and graduations. There are distinctive patterns for each Scottish clan (as well as many Scottish institutions, such as universities) that emerged during the 19th century. The English banned the wearing of tartans, along with other aspects of Gaelic culture, from 1746-1782. So, although Queen Victoria wasn't the one to lift the ban, she was the first British monarch to fully embrace wearing tartans / Scotland's national dress.
Next Up...
Robyn and I will leave very early tomorrow morning for London! We are flying out of Edinburgh at 7:00 am and plan to spend the day walking around the city and possibly going on the London Eye. We are planning to try to get day-of tickets to the Mousetrap on Tuesday, but if that fails then I will likely go alone after she is back in Edinburgh. More soon.
Cheers (as they say here),
Colleen
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