Edinburgh, Scotland

My friend Rachel came into town back in November and I told her we had just recently gone to Edinburgh, Scotland, with Stephen's parents.  She joked with me - so, we can expect to read that blog in March?  She was almost correct.  Here it is!

Stephen's parents came to visit us in London back in October - while Stephen was at work one day we had a golf cart tour around Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens.  It's a great way to see the whole thing in about an hour.  Phillip and Sandra:

Us after dinner one night:

They were with us in London for a couple days and then we all flew up to Edinburgh.  Edinburgh is a very old city, founded before the 7th century, and is the second largest city in Scotland (the largest being Glasgow).  It looks old, it has a much older and darker feel than London.  I really like it...

The Royal Mile is a stretch of road in the old town that leads from the Holyrood Abbey up to Edinburgh Castle.  

Walking into Edinburgh Castle:

Edinburgh Castle sits on a big chunk of volcanic rock ("Castle Rock") which gives it a high vantage point across the city and the water below.  There has been a royal castle or fortress here since at least the 12th century.

Looking down on the city and the bay:

Every day at 1:00 p.m. this cannon is still fired:

Off with my head:

Barracks where prisoners were kept:

Prisoners often carved their names into the wood - I thought it was interesting that the handwriting was so nice compared to today's prison carvings (not that I would really know):

We stopped for a break in the Missoni Hotel - all decked out in Missoni colors:

This was one of my favorite things to see - the Melrose Abbey.  It was established in 1136 and is where the heart (just the heart) of Robert the Bruce is buried.  

I love old ruins of abbeys, they have such beautiful architectural lines:

The burial spot of Robert the Bruce's heart:

This was my other favorite thing - Floors Castle.  It is the seat (and personal home) of the Duke of Roxburghe.  Little kids grow up here.  

It was incredible inside, I wish I had pictures but they weren't allowed!  Here's Stephen and his parents (if you can make them out) standing in back:

The view of the Scottish countryside from the front:

This was the doorman of our hotel!  I liked his outfit.

Bagpipes on the Royal Mile:

No trip to Scotland is complete without a whiskey tasting!

The most memorable thing about the trip by far was a tour through something called Mary King's Close.  A close (like "close to you" not "close the door") is kind of like a maze of underground alleyways and streets where businesses and homes used to be - only most of these things were self contained in one room.  It's literally very close.  Families would live in one room, no separate bathroom, very dirty and cramped conditions.  Animals, pigs, etc, would be kept there, too.  And slaughtered there.  Ceilings are barely 6ft high.  When it was originally functioning, before the plague and before the Royal Exchange was built, you could walk out your front door and look straight up and see a sliver of sky above you, with buildings built up on either side.  It has long since been bricked over and is completely underground now, several stories underground in some places (with only a lamp to guide your way).  It was not a pleasant place to be, especially when the plagues hit.  Plague victims were quarantined there, and died there.  There are many ghost stories that come out of this, but nothing affected me as much as the true story of what was used in some places as plaster - horse hair and the ashes of human bodies.  I literally looked up and saw it.  Now that is some recycling.   

Cambridge

We visited Cambridge recently - my dad's friend, Bob, was up there visiting his "adopted family", Mr. & Mrs. Lewcock, and asked if we wanted to join them for the day, we hadn't been to Cambridge yet so we went!

The modern city of Cambridge was founded in 875 when the Danes conquered Eastern England, and a bridge has been over the Cam River since that time - hence the name "Cambridge".  

Mr. and Mrs. Lewcock are pretty incredible people - Mr. Lewcock is a professor at Cambridge in Middle Eastern architecture (and has taught all over the place) and Mrs. Lewcock is an internationally known writer and textile designer.  They split their time each year between their three homes: Cambridge, Sri Lanka (her origin), and Australia (his).  They are fascinating people and we thoroughly enjoyed our time with them.  

Here they are at the pub where we ate lunch, isn't this just the cutest picture??  Can you feel the love?

They have visited Texas where Bob took them to Billy Bob's ("the world's largest honky tonk") and the stockyards in Fort Worth, where Mrs. Lewcock picked up a genuine Texas cowboy hat.  She brought it out along with her best Texan accent, both were great!  

Mr. Lewcock took us on a tour around the campus, the highlight of which was seeing the King's College Chapel.  It is considered one of the greatest examples of late Gothic architecture, and the place will knock your socks off.  

The chapel was started in 1446 by King Henry VI and took over a century to build.  It has the largest fan vault ceiling the in world and some of the finest medieval stained glass.  Amazingly enough, after mason John Wastell took charge in 1508 (the architect of the ceiling), the ceiling took just three years to build.  

During the WWII, most of the stained glass was removed for safe keeping.  Our punting chaperone (more about that in a bit), told us that in their haste to remove the windows and get them to safety, they didn't take very good notes about where it had all been originally placed.  When the time came to re-install all of the stained glass, it took a lot of thought and head-scratching to right it all again!  

We weren't around for the choral evensong, how I would have loved to have heard that! 

The view from the door of the chapel:

Punting!  By far the best way to tour Cambridge on a beautiful afternoon.  A punt is a flat-bottomed boat especially good for small rivers or other shallow waters.  A punting driver (ours called himself a "chaperone") stands on the back end with a very long, skinny pole (aluminum or lightweight wood) and while holding on to one end of it, finds the river bottom with the other and pushes, propelling the boat through the water.  (This is different from a gondola, which propels the boat through the water using an oar.)

Us, punting down the Cam River:  

As a novice, anyone can rent a boat and punt your way down the river unsupervised, but I felt no need to try given my God-given gift to fall anywhere.  Plus, those poles can get stuck in the mud at the river bottom - the trick is to let go of the pole if this happens and not try and hang on to yank the pole free.  Usually what happens is the pole remains firmly planted, and if you hang on, the boat will continue on without you and you fall in the river with a splash.  Of course if you let go, then you're stuck unless someone comes to help you or you can back up on your own - like these people:  

No thanks, I'll just leisurely ride around.  

The Christopher Wren-designed library at Trinity College:

The Mathematical Bridge between two sides of Queen's College:

Beautiful Virginia Creeper just starting to turn:

We walked up to the top of Castle Mound where an ancient 11th century Norman castle used to stand:

All that's left of the castle today is a big mound, but it gives you a great view of the town:

What a beautiful place to live.