Last Day in Edinburgh

We were spending our last day in Edinburgh today and wanted to make the most of it so Shane and I again hit the streets as Chris had a business meeting to attend and then another round of golf. It was misting lightly as we journeyed out to the Edinburgh castle. A majestic castle that overlooks the city and can be seen from almost every vantage point.

It is an unbelievable marvel with a storied history of battles between the English and the Scots to hold it.

I don't know about you but I find it utterly fascinating to walk the hallowed halls, walls and cobblestone  streets and alleyways of these castles and cities that were teeming with life centuries ago!

Upon leaving the castle, we passed the oldest cathedral in town and took a look inside. 

Magnificent! We could not take photos because we did not have a photography pass, I am sorry to say.

From there we walked the Royal Mile, which is the oldest street in town which takes you on a medieval styled journey from the castle to Hollyrod Palace, where the Queen stays now when she is coming into town. She was arriving the next day so unfortunately it was unable to be toured. Did she not know that I, Princess Margaret Rose, her sister was in town? Ha!

We passed by many a shop and pub but our mission was to get to Arthur's Seat, a green cliff that rose high above the city which you could hike up and get a magnificent view of this expansive city. Shane had wanted to do this and with our late start, yet again we had to hustle it to get back to the hotel in time to get ready for the last dinner of the conference where they were going to be making Scot's of everyone who was in attendance. More on that later.

It was a steep walk and I am glad that I had boots on for it was much more rocky than they had explained. The concierge at the hotel did look at us a little dubiously as we asked for directions on how to get there. Maybe our attire of non hiking gear caused him to draw out on the map the circuitous long way up to the top? Of course upon arriving at the seat we both decided that it would take too long to go that route so we motored it straight up the mountain path.

The views were worth it!!

We grabbed a Scottish Calzone for Shane on the journey back to the hotel and after eating it he promptly crashed. I thought Chris would already be in the room getting ready but he was not. He was delayed due to his celebration of a Hole In One that he made at the North Berwick Course, the second oldest links course in the world! Overjoyed is an understatement on the golfing experiences that he has had on this Scotland trip.

Absolutely hysterical is an understatement on what went on as he was trying to "dress" for the evenings affair. All of the men were given kilts that had been rented for them for the dinner that evening. When in Scotland...do as the Scots do...maybe? An Italian in Scotland was all that I could think of as well as maybe a famous one??? For everyone greeted him as if so, for his celebrity status elevated as news of his earlier Hole In One got around.

We ate dinner at an unbelievable venue that started it's life as a Bank and has been converted into a Restaurant that has been aptly named, The Dome. 

It had not one, but two domes that created a killer atmosphere.

Look at this floral arrangement! It is the biggest that I have ever seen!

Add to that, a beautiful presentation of the food,

a wonderful walk home past the gorgeous sights

and lights of Edinburgh

behind kilted men...

how could it not be a perfect end to a perfect visit to Edinburgh?

Onto Stirling tomorrow morning and then our final destination of Loch Lomond. 

Until then~

Meg

Dundas Castle...Here we Come!

To the countryside we went today to take part in the Highland Games at Dundas Castle. We got to play make believe and pretend that we inhabited this stately castle that is still privately owned today. We drove up by a coach...

 (bus) to be greeted by our own pipes and drums.

We looked out over our lands as the sun was shining down on us and marveled at their beauty.

The rhododendrons were a bloomin and the firth sparkled in the distance.

We pulled our coach into the carriage house and proceeded to our clan leader for we were participating in the Highland Games!

McKenzie was the competition for we were the Clan MacDuff...proud and strong

tossing hay bales over tall poles with a pitch fork while 

seeing who could swig the most Scotch.

We tugged the rope, threw the wellies, shot putted the stones, rolled the hagis, hurled the logs and even had to fill in for one of the drum corps. We excelled at everything but the drumming and my partner's Clan even took first place! Although he be of Clan MacEwan...he is well loved.

After participating in such a rousing afternoon, we were plum tuckered out so we felt it was time to get a brief respite from the activity by heading inside.

As we passed under the flickering candles of the hall

and then past the fireplace, we remembered that we needed to check on our lands from our "Keep" for we had been gone for some time.

As those that have gone before us, we circled up the stone steps and ascended to

our great Hall

 where we checked on our meal preparations before heading further upwards.

All looked well in our kingdom below, 

so we descended down our stone staircase which would take us to the main part of the castle where we could freshen up and maybe take a short nap in my blue and yellow covered toile bed chamber, one of my favorites!

"Honey, no you cannot leave for the beach tomorrow for your friend has left already,"

"What? Who did he go out to dinner with?"

"It's okay, mom will be home soon. I know that you are bored and want everybody out of your house."

"The recipe for the Gazpacho is in my office closet in the wicker basket in the manilla folder. It isn't in there? Try the file sorter on my desk. Not there? How about the file cabinet to the left of my desk?????

As I was brought back to reality by the phone call across the Atlantic, after another changing of the guards,  I thought to myself,

"Downtown Abbey...here I come!"

What a fabulous day!

Until tomorrow~

Meg

Edinburgh ~ a Most Glorious City

It feels like Groundhog's Day, for yet again, Chris got up at 4:00 am to travel back to St. Andrews to play another course. When in Scotland...Golf! Shane and I had other plans. We were hitting the pavement to tour the city that was bustling around our hotel. Unfortunately, we missed the am departure and hit the after lunch crowd. Shane has been a trooper as long as he fuels up on lots of sleep. Okay by me, he is here with us and I am so very thankful that he is experiencing the sights and sounds of this glorious city. He was my translator for all the Latin inscriptions on buildings and monuments and it was certainly much more fun to have a partner! I will not bore you with text but show you instead what we saw today...and we did not even put a dent in all that Edinburgh has to offer!

Edinburgh Castle rises from the stony cliffs and presides over all of Edinburgh. We are being hosted at a dinner there tonight for which I cannot wait!

The Scott Monument~ Shane questioned as we drove into the city and saw this from afar, " What is the building that looks like a drippy castle?" We walked up the 287 steps to climb the "drippy castle" and it was worth it for the views were fantastic.  

I do have to say that the stairs were quite narrow for this is a view of the wider section going down. You literally had to press yourself against the wall to let people by going in the opposite direction.

View of of Princes Street, the main street in Edinburgh into the heart of the New City as they call it in Edinburgh. The heart of the city is basically referred to as the old and the new. The new being around 300 years old. You can only guess what the age of the old is!

Monument on Calton Hill which is Edinburgh's first public park that overlooks the city. As you can see it was quite a gray day so I hope to capture better views on Thursday. It is called the Acropolis of the North for there are all sorts of monuments built up here that resemble the Acropolis in Greece.

We did not see the interiors of any buildings today except for the Public Records building, circa early 1700's,  which had an incredible domed ceiling where Wedgewood medallions were interspersed in the ceiling...beautiful!

We passed by lots of iron work gates where tiny alley ways led off in the distance.

Flowers were a reoccurring theme that beautified so many surfaces and gave light to this gray city on a gray day.

The pictures from our dinner at the castle will not transfer from my phone to the computer so they will have to wait. 

Until tomorrow~

Meg

Musings from Scotland ~ Day 3

Stunning views were had today on our drive over to Edinburgh. We left the quaint town of St. Andrews around 1pm after sleeping in yet again. The one and only complaint that I can voice on this trip is the lack of sleep. They tell you, to avoid jet lag, you should stay up the remainder of the day when you arrive even though it is 1 am in the time zone you are accustomed to. I only made it until 4:30 the first day we were here. Not a very valiant effort but once I sat down on our hotel bed when we checked in, I was done! Unfortunately, my body woke me up after it's little power nap at 8:30 that night. Chris was golfing, Shane was sleeping and try as I might, sleep would not come again. That is the night that I looked out the window and saw the magnificent rainbow. Maybe that is what woke me up...the magic was calling. Anyway, sleep found me again around 1:30 am, then 3:30 am last night. That deviation in sleep was caused by a late night "decaf" cappuccino had in the pub at our hotel. I think the waiter had a smug little smile on his face when after my request, he replied, "Decaf...of course." The caffeine combined with multiple texts and phone calls at what began at 11:30 pm Scotland time to the kids and the "changing of the guards" back home was a deadly combo for a blissful nights sleep. 

Enough about my lack of sleep. I was fortunate enough the next am that Chris had decided to follow the route that might be his only chance to play the Old Course at St. Andrews and that was to arrive at the "Pro-Shop" (forgive me my ignorance of the game for I do not think that is what it is called here) at 4 am.

So as I was going to bed at 3:30, he was getting up to hopefully be successful in his attempt. He was, and after teeing off at 6:30 am, he returned at 10 am to wake us both up to tell us about his "Jeeves" moment (non golfers...look it up.) Shane and I in our sleep induced haze quickly got it together, ate breakfast and we were on the road.

This is the only shot I was able to get on our much better attempt at our, driving on the other side of the road, journey to Edinburgh. Our late departure caused us to hightail it over to our next destination where the conference was being held. We drove into Edinburgh stunned by the beauty of this city clothed in grey stone. Our heads were on swivels as we tried to find our hotel. Think Philly traffic, with few traffic lights, much more narrow roads, road signs that use few words and the beauty tempting you to take your eye off of where you are going! 

We arrived at our destination and after finding out we were on the 6th floor (top floor), could not wait to see the view out our window of this beautiful city!

Okay...You can't win them all but if you craned your neck and looked up...

you could see the other side of the clock tower!

We only had a short bit of time before we had to be at a dinner in which Shane was not attending. After looking in the fridge in the room that contained the Honors Bar we deemed that it would cost a small fortune to keep him hydrated ( Shane has to drink close to two gallons of fluids a day.) Off to the concierge I went who kindly directed me to a mall very close to the hotel. Upon entering the mall I walked past a "Pound" Store. It looked vaguely familiar and lo and behold, it turned out to be a Dollar Store! I stocked up on large water bottles and munchies and back to the hotel I went. Of course, I could not resist heading into the Starbucks that I found at the bottom of a flight of stairs heading underground. It was aptly named "Waverley Steps Starbucks". 

We again ended our night at a pub and in a country famous for it's Scotch I felt that it would be a betrayal to order a "decaf" coffee so I ordered a vodka and tonic. Sorry, no offense but I just have not been able to acquire a taste for Scotch.  I swear, that if they had this kind of tonic at home...it might become a problem. The most delicious vodka and tonic I have ever had! The bottle stated that it was a botanically brewed tonic with herbal additions. Have you ever heard of that? If you have and know where I can get me some...please give a shout out!

”Edinburgh is an experience A city of enormous gifts Whose streets sing of history Whose cobbles tell tales.” Alan Bold

I cannot wait until morning when I can hit the cobblestones of Edinburgh and experience those tales!

Until tomorrow~

Meg