Scenes from Scotland: Edinburgh or More Photos of my Brother

Scotland is very welcomingUnless that part in Gaelic actually means Now Go Home.

We only had about three days in Scotland, so we spent most of our time in Edinburgh on and around the Royal Mile, which runs between Edinburgh Castle and the Palace of Holyroodhouse (Holyrood Abbey, to be more specific). Holyroodhouse is the Queen's official residence in Scotland.

Of course we first had to find the statue of Greyfriars Bobby. We almost tripped over it, actually. I think every bus we took went past it. It's entirely possible we might have been breaking the law if we hadn't found it AND taken a photo.

View from Greyfriars Kirkyard.

St. Giles Cathedral. St. Giles is the patron saint of cripples (just doesn't sound PC anymore) disabled people, lepers and Edinburgh. And horses, breast feeding, mental illness, rams, forests, sterility...He was apparently a very popular saint.

St. Giles front door, the very impressive stonework of which I believe dates to a restoration done in the late 1800s. Phil managed to get in the way, of course.

Holyroodhouse gate. And Phil.

A lion, the symbol of England, holding St. George's Cross.

A unicorn, the symbol of Scotland, holding St. Andrew's Cross. And if you superimpose the crosses and add St. Patrick's Cross (British readers please bear with me for a moment — this isn't generally taught over here), you get the Union Jack (Poor old Wales is just lumped under the Cross of St. Andrew). Image snagged from Ward's Book of Days

Meanwhile, at the other end of the Royal Mile:
Edinburgh Castle

Phil and Bill. I prefer not to stand under a portcullis, myself.

The medieval seigegun, Mons Meg. And Bill. And Phil.

Do I have to even say?

The Lion and Unicorn fighting for the crown.

A view of Edinburgh and the Firth of Forth (a fjord) from the castle.

And just so Lesley doesn't feel gypped:
Me eating haggis (you probably don't even want to know. But it was good) at the Royal McGregor pub on the Royal Mile, which is a tourist trap according to Mr Farty. He prefers the Worlds End pub down the street where he can get a really good Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster. Also check out the photos on Mr Farty's sidebar at Better Oot Than In for better views of the entire area.
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I remarked that I was posting some photos of Scotland, so my mother wants me to mention that they got another border collie yesterday (they have two now) and named her Céilidh (pronounced Cay-lee) which is a traditional Gaelic dance. She promised to send me photos.

So Bob, did it work?

Proof that I've been to Scotland

I took Bill to England two years ago last October/November for my grandfather's 99th birthday. Since this was the second time Bill had ever been off this continent (he went to Hawaii once), we decided to cram as much into the three weeks as possible. After heading down to Devon with my parents to see my grandparents, my aunt Hilary gave me a few driving lessons (it was very nice of her to put her car at such risk), and Bill and I rented a car (well, I rented a car. Nobody wanted Bill to try and drive on the other side of the road, including Bill) and headed back to London (with a side trip to Stonehenge) where we met up with my brother. After a few days in London, we took off on a road trip that went up the M1 up through Leeds (I might do another post on the Royal Armory at Leeds) and then cut across through Jedburgh to Edinburgh. Bill was in archeologist heaven the entire time.

Before we got to Scotland, we had to stop at Hadrian's Wall (Phil, does this count as another post about you? It does have photos of you...). You can see in this photo that the wall was built as two parallel walls, and then the interior was filled in with rubble and concrete: There were several forts along the wall. This is the ruins of Vercovicium (Housteads) The pillars supported a raised floor (some of which is still there). Hot air from wood burning stoves circulated under the floors for central heat. The Romans were big on comfort. The granary:The latrines:And an artist's rendition of what the latrines probably looked like:We could tell we were getting close to the border, because we met a large Border Collie. He looked very similar to and was about the same size as (huge) the one my parents had for their first 12 years of marriage. We finally made it to the Scottish border, and took the typical touristy pictures:Bill is in the Vauxhall Astra in the background because it was cold and rainy and he's a wuss.
Next post - maybe some actual photos of Scotland....
All photos taken with my Canon PowerShot A540.

Heilan Coos

My brother has a new herd of these near him in Virginia.

He says either they're Highland cows or someone has taken some giant brown sheepdogs and glued horns on their heads.

When we were in SCOTLAND last October, I kept my eye out, but never saw ANY Heilan coos. I thought I saw a herd way in the distance once, but then I thought I saw one in Devon, too, which isn't really known for Highland cattle. South Devon and Devon cattle, yes, which are brown, but not shaggy and much bigger. Of course, the farthest we got into the Scottish Highlands was Stirling, which could have been part of the problem. And I was concentrating on driving. Normally I don't concentrate quite that hard when I'm driving (aren't you glad you don't live near me?), but driving on the other side of the road takes a lot of concentration.

Interestingly, this isn't the only herd of Highland cattle near him.

Shrewsbury

Since I can't figure out how to upload a photo to my profile, here is a photo of me with my husband Bill and Charles Darwin. We recently went on a (very expensive) trip to the UK. We were driving through England, Scotland and Wales with my brother- without really much of an agenda, and just happened to decide to stop in Shrewsbury for the night. Coming into town, there were big signs saying "Welcome to Shrewsbury; the Birthplace of Darwin." Kind of exciting for a car full of atheists/ humanists/ Brights, etc. (well, I'm not sure that my brother was all that excited, but then he IS an engineer).

I'm actually from England originally, and have been back several times over the years-this time we were there for my Grandfather's 99th birthday. Bill is an archeologist who has never been off the North American continent (ok-he's been to Hawai'i, but that doesn't count), and he wanted to see as many historic and prehistoric things as we could cram into three weeks. We had planned to go to Stonehenge, Hadrian's Wall, Edinburgh, the British Museum, the Natural History Museum, the Tower of London, the HMS Victory, Bath, and as many castles, cathedrals, and abbeys, ruined or otherwise, as we could, but Shrewsbury was a bonus!

We never did get to Portsmouth to see the Victory.

Reminder to self: NEVER visit England again during the half-term break. The entire City of London was crawling with kids. The Underground was packed all day, and we couldn't get more than halfway through the Natural History Museum. We gave up and went to a pub.