Edinburgh Day Four

Today we decided to take it easy, so we bought a ticket for the Edinburgh Tour Bus. You can ride all day and hop off when you want to see something then hop back on for the rest of the ride. Each tour guide tells the story a little differently so you get a variety of information while you just sit and look. We wanted to see the John Knox House but it was closed (Sunday) so we went to see St. Giles Cathedral, which is the oldest church in Edinburgh. Our tour guide said that it is not a cathedral because it is the Church of Scotland. I think that it may have once been a cathedral and after the reformation, led by John Knox, it became Protestant.



It is beautiful inside, but not nearly as grand as some other churches we have seen. One of the tour guides said that Edinburgh does not do anything to excess. Perhaps this is also reflected in the architecture. The column in the photo below is one of the oldest parts of the building. This is the church where the Order of the Thistles assembles when they have business to conduct or someone to knight. The Queen of England is the head of the Order of the Thistles.



The tour bus took us by the Grass Market, an area that was used for trading of animals. There is a wide space between the two sides of the street where grass once grew, for the cows, sheep and horses to eat. At the end of the street there is a round stone that marks the spot where Edinburgh once held public executions. They say hundreds of people turned out to watch them. We hopped off here to take a look around and took a break at the White Hart Cafe, on the site of the oldest pub in Edinburgh.



At the end of the day we returned to the Royal Mile to have dinner at the World's End. This pub got its name from its location. It is situated near the city wall, which the residents of Edinburgh cosidered to be the end of their world. The food here was great! I had a lamb roast with potatoes and Yorkshire pudding. Garold ordered cranachan for dessert: raspberries soaked in whiskey with granola and creme and a shortbread cookie.



On the bus ride home we had a little trouble figuring out which stop to take, but a very nice elderly couple stood up to help us out. The people of Edinburgh are some of the friendliest I've ever encountered. At least half dozen times in the last few days people have offered to help us find our way around.

Edinburgh Day Three

Today we took a bus to the city center and went to the National Museum of Scotland. On the way there we passed by the Court of Judiciary building where this man was playing the bagpipes.



The museum was pretty nice but not organized as well as some. We wandered around for a long time just looking for exhibits we wanted to see. Some of the more interesting exhibits included a giant steam engine, a skeleton of a young Viking boy of about 12 whose bones show that he was cut into four pieces and buried along with animals....perhaps as a sacrifice, and this life-sized effigy of Mary Queen of Scots that was commissioned by her son, James I, perhaps out of guilt for distancing himself from her during her lifetime.



And there was of course a display of a wide variety of items designed to torture and kill...this seems to be a recurring theme in European museums. Here's a photo of a guillotine that was once used in Scotland, but not for Queen Mary.



After trudging through the museum for several hours along with hoards of school children on a field trip, we were ready for a quiet and peaceful retreat. Lucky for us this nearby garden was free and open to the public.



Around 5 or 6 went back to the apartment, collected our luggage and called a cab to drive us over to the other (West) side of Edinburgh, where we will stay at the Beverly B & B for a few days. On the recommendation of our hostess we walked a couple of blocks to the Hampton Pub for dinner. When we arrived, the place was full of people who were engrossed in watching a soccer game (here they call it football) on TV; once the game was over many people left. I tried the fish (haddock from the North Sea) and chips and Garold had the lasagna.
Some random observations on food in Scotland:
tomatoes, mushrooms and beans are served for breakfast
sausage is served everywhere all the time
vinegar is on almost every table
silver settings almost always include a big (serving) spoon

Edinburgh Day Two

Today our host Gordon drove us out to see Rosslyn Chapel, after a late breakfast at Clarinda's, a tea room located on the "Royal Mile." It is a medieval chapel that conjures up thoughts of William Wallace and Robert the Bruce. The small town of Rosslyn was founded by the masons and artisans who worked on the chapel for 40 years. The inside of the chapel is elaborately decorated with sandstone carvings. It is still owned by the descendants of the St. Clair family who built it. Part of the movie "The Da Vinci Code" was filmed here.



Of course, every chapel must have a cemetery. As luck would have it there were mourners gathering on this day. While we waited for them to pass, I found this old gravestone with the surname Wallace. Could this be a descendant of William?



Behind the chapel and through the cemetary, there lies a path that leads to what is left of the Rosslyn Castle. So of course we had to investigate....



The castle itself was built here with a view of Rosslyn Glen. It is hilly and thickly wooded terrain that could have been easily defended.



Here's a corner stone that bears the date, "1586."



We walked down to the bus stop and caught the local Lothian bus #15 back to Edinburgh. The ride back took about an hour, but it took us all the way to our apartment. We took a little nap before going back out to get some dinner. Tonight we ate at a Thai/Indian restaurant, and had Tom Kah soup, with coconut milk, chicken, lemon grass and ginger. It was spicy but delicious.

This will be our last night at Gordon's apartment. Tomorrow we will move over to the other side of Edinburgh to spend a few nights in a B & B.

Edinburgh, Day One

Another six hour bus ride got us from York to Edinburgh. Our host Gordon met us at the bus station and drove us and our luggage to the apartment. We have so much room here it almost feels like home....includes a kitchen, wireless with laptop and a washer/dryer! The first night we walked to The Fisher, a restaurant recommended by Gordon. Garold ordered salmon with butter beans and sausage and I had the Orkney Scallops, with broad beans, baked in the scallop's own shell with pastry. These scallops are hand dug by a family in the Orkney Islands, north of Scotland, and shipped fresh. They were still attached to their shells and included the roe. We both had creme brulee for dessert, and agreed it was the best we've ever had.
The next day we got up around 9:30 and headed out to see Holyrood Palace, where British royalty stays when they are in town. Here's Garold walking down Croft-an-Righ on our way to the palace.



This is Holyrood Palace, once the home of Mary Queen of Scots. It was here that her secretary was murdered by her husband and his friends, who suspected adultery. Mary, who was pregnant at the time, gave birth to a son (James I of England) soon after the incident. The infant was taken from her and she never saw him again. She fled to England seeking protection from her cousin Elizabeth. But Elizabeth perceived her as a threat to her throne, so she imprisoned her for 19 years, then signed her execution order. It took two strokes from the executioner's sword to complete Mary's beheading.



The royal palace was built on the site of this 12th century abbey.



There are signs of previous excavations, which were authorized by the current Queen of England.



The Queen's Garden is nothing short of spectacular. There are many varieties of flowering plants and trees here that I had never seen before.



After touring the palace and gardens, we hiked up Salisbury Crags. This is a mountain formed 350 million years ago when a volcano erupted. The yellow flowering bushes that grow here (corce) are covered with huge thorns. Each leaf is a thorn!

York Day Two

Today we went first to the Castle Museum, which according to Rick Steves is one of Europe's top museums. There were thousands of artifacts on display and a couple of recreated streets that show how the English lived a couple hundred years ago. Some of the shops, such as the candy shop, were attended, while others (like the candle shop) were not. Prison cells projected animated characters who were actually incarcerated there once upon a time. One such character was Dick Turpin, a well-known highwayman, who was hung and is today buried in a cemetary in town where his is the only gravestone.
Here's one character who managed to escape:



On the same grounds is Clifford's Tower, all that remains of a 13th century castle. According to our tour guide, the castle itself was blown up by York citizens who got to celebrating and shooting off rockets, one of which came back and landed right in the chimney of the castle and blew it up! (Who knows if this is really true, or just one of those stories that people like to tell?)



Next we hopped back on the tour bus and rode around to Yorkshire Museum, which is located on the site of St. Mary's Abbey. The grounds there are so beautiful they are used for picnics by the locals and tourists. Today there were a lot of children running around, some young people lying out on blankets, and some families having a picnic lunch.
We didn't have a picnic but we did have a "cream tea" at Bailey's Tea Room. It was a pot of delicious Yorkshire tea for two, served with buttered scones, with jam and whipped cream. So delicious!



Here's a photo of Garold standing in an arch, part of the ruins of St. Mary's Abbey:



The Yorkshire Museum has a collection of Viking artifacts, including shoes, a helmet, and some combs that they made from deer antlers. It is built around the abbey, so the original abbey walls are down in the basement, too, along with some Roman artifacts. York has been ruled/influenced by lots of different cultures.

When we left the Yorkshire Museum, we rode the bus around to see the Quilt Museum, but unfortunately it had already closed, so we walked across the gate (street) to the Black Swan Pub and had another pot of tea. It was a comfortable place to hang out, so we decided to eat our dinner there, too. We shared a shepherd's pie, served with peas and a pitcher of gravy.



This is our last day in York. Tomorrow morning we will catch a bus for Edinburgh.

York, Day One

After a 9-hour flight,a 6-hour bus ride and a mile and a half walk, we finally arrived at our destination....the Foss Bank Guest House in York, England. Foss (in Latin fosse is a ditch) is the name of the narrow canal that is located across the street from our B & B. It is one of two rivers in York, which originally made it an advantageous place for people to settle.
Here is a photo of the city's most prominent landmarks, York Minster. Built between 1220and 1468, it is one of the oldest Anglican churches in England. It was built on top of the Roman fortress that was built by the 9th Roman legion sent here by the Emperor Vespasian in AD 71. Years later, it was spared by Henri VIII when he dismantled all of the monasteries in England.



Another prominent structure in York is the city wall, which was built by the Romans when they were in charge. It reportedly took 3 legions of Roman soldiers to keep the Brits under control! This is a photo of the ancient city wall at Bootham Bar, with York Minster in the background. There are four main gates around the city wall. One close to our B & B is called Monk Bar, off Monkgate and fairly close to Huntington Rd. In the lingo of York, a gate is a street and a bar is a gate.



The walls are open to the public during the day and are an easy and safe way to traverse the city. We walked from Bootham Bar to Monk Bar and saw some pretty amazing views from the top of the wall. Here is a view of someone's backyard garden:



On the outside of the city walls there were thousands of yellow daffodils in bloom:



We stopped by this old church (St. Cuthbert's) to see the "Devil's door." The tour guide on the bus said this door would have been left open during baptisms. If the child cried when holy water was sprinkled that meant the devil was leaving, and this is the door he would use to exit the church. Just to the right of the Devil's door was a small window, which was used to pass food and clothing out to lepers.

Red Top Mountain

After Christmas this year, we took a trip up to Red Top Mountain, just north of Atlanta. We stayed in a rustic cabin with a view of the lake -- the water was a little low. There are lots of hiking trails throughout the park, ranging in difficulty from very easy to very strenuous. Laura found this fallen tree on one of our hikes.

Cousins Elena and Isabella came up to play with Grace. They went hiking and played hide and seek later in the cabin.

It was very cold, but we were disappointed because it did not snow. Grace had to put on a coat, hat and gloves just to go outside to play.

We went on a hike together one day. The boat dock in the background was unusable because the water level in the lake was so low.

Laura the explorer found this gigantic rock to conquer!

Here she is doing the dance of victory.

All that hiking and climbing was tiring.....time to relax and enjoy the view.

The woods were quietly compelling. There's nothing like a walk in the woods to make you forget all about work.