Day 23: Edinburgh, aka THE COOLEST CASTLE EVER

I actually woke up before Mom this morning, for the first and last time ever. She was so exhausted from the days coming up to this that she actually slept for eight hours. But don't worry, we'll soon return to the usual routine of me going to bed early and sleeping in while she hikes off into the sunrise for a bit before breakfast.

This morning we started at the Scottish National Museum, headed on to Edinburgh Castle, and then did a bit of strolling and shopping and eating before returning to our accommodation in the suburbs. It was a fun-filled, knowledge-packed day. Man, the Scottish Museum is epic: perhaps it doesn't have the same scale as the British Museum, but full of great pieces on technology, sailing, and the history of Scotland from prehistory to the present. We only spent a few hours here because we quickly became tired from all of the knowledge we were absorbing  (well, I did at least; Mom was as usual still a powerhouse), but it's a place we would like to visit again for sure.

The main hall is beautifully designed

We saw the room on natural history, full of fossils and life-size models of different animals. There was a giant sloth that was several meters tall and had the largest Calcaneus I have ever seen (or ever expect to see), and some fascinating information on marsupials and other animals. I saw a flying squirrel the size of a serving platter and of course a fossilized T. Rex.

Those arms have to be vestigial, they are utterly useless

There were lots of interesting sections on technology and cultural history, and one wall full of different items with an interactive display.

Dad, this is your new Saturn V project.

After a snack at the cafe, we went on to Edinburgh Castle. We weren't sure how to get there from the museum but through an unusually lucky turn of events we walked in the right direction and found ourselves on the Royal Mile right before we decided to ask for directions. Then it was a simple matter of turning left and going to the end. 

When we arrived, we took a short tour that told us about all of the different places to visit (there are several museums dedicated to various aspects of life in the Castle since it was constructed--most were about the military, unsurprisingly), as well as providing a bit of history and color to the castle. Afterwards, we toured the royal building which houses the Crown Jewels (we weren't allowed to take pictures but they were quite impressive, a nice big crown and a sceptre and a sword and scabbard, as well as the Stone of Destiny, a big rectangular rock upon which all of the kings of Scotland were crowned until the English stole it upwards of a thousand years ago--Queen Elizabeth II recently gave it back under the condition that when a king of England must be crowned it has to travel back to London for five days). Apparently when the Crown Jewels were rescued from the chest they had been stored in for safekeeping, a crystal wand was found with them. Nobody knows what its purpose is or why it was there. 

After that we wandered around a bit, saw the giant cannon called Mons Meg (it fired big balls of granite twenty inches in diameter to a distance of a couple of miles back in the day when the castle was occasionally under siege) and the One O'Clock Gun (much less impressive, it was fired at one o'clock every afternoon to keep everyone's clocks synchronized for the shipping trade) and St Margaret's Chapel, which is the smallest one I have ever seen (although I'm not a church connoisseur); it apparently houses a maximum of 24 people and is frequently used for intimate weddings. 

Mons Meg

The Great Hall had really neat ceiling work, not to mention an impressive collection of arms and armor and a knowledgeable staff member who told us all about how the Highlanders fought (one-handed sword in right hand, spiky shield and dagger held in left so the dagger stuck out from behind the shield a bit--truly formidable)

Looking back on the castle later that evening. It has never been taken by force, only by siege (the longest lasted three years)

We wandered a streets a bit, reaching the edge of New Town (a relative term, it's Georgian so about as old as anything gets in the US) and seeing some lovely old neighborhoods such as the Royal Circus before turning back, doing a bit of shopping (I broke down and bought a tartan scarf, suppposedly of the antique Clan Buchanan design), and taking the bus home. We caught a bit of the sunset, which was absolutely lovely, and then turned in for the night (if the sun is down it's probably at least ten thirty, these northern latitudes confuse a person).

Well, nothing too stellar but the first actual sunset in quite a while now, it's usually just cloudy

Then we had a light dinner (lunch was late) and toddled off to bed before tomorrow's big flight to Shannon. Erin go bragh, everyone!

Day 22: HEY GUYS MOM'S HERE

I took a very early train to Edinburgh this morning with the goal of meeting Mom at the airport. After about three hours of sort-of sleep and my first ever taxi ride, I saw a friendly face for the first time in three weeks! It was a good feeling. 

We chatted for a while as I figured out what to do about our accommodation for the night: I had not had the best wifi in Inverness and found out that the AirBnB app for Android does not like to send the messages you ask it to, so I hadn't contacted my host as I thought I had. Borrowed a phone, got the information I needed, and we were soon on our way to Ashley Terrace. We dropped off our bags there (our room wasn't quite ready yet) and went off to explore Edinburgh. 

Our host has an adorable cat named Hugo!

We explored the city a bit--Edinburgh Castle is probably the most imposing one I have ever seen, certainly the most formiddable castle in a working city. It's truly impressive. 

Would not want to storm that castle

We shopped a bit, sat in a Starbucks, and wandered the Royal Mile before toddling off home. A nice introduction to Edinburgh (pronounced Edinbruh if anyone doesn't know, and if you really want to get into it you rool your r).

Day 21: Last-minute changes

So today I did something I've never done before: I ditched my plans to reach Edinburgh tonight and instead chose to hang out in Inverness another day, see some more of the Highlands, and hang out with one of the people I met last night. I went out to the Black Isle Brewery, where the other guy from the pub works, and saw how they make their beer. The property is shared with a farm, which is an interesting concept.

We drove out along the road toward the Isle of Skye for a little bit before realizing that it would be impossible to spend any real time there and still be in Edinburgh to meet Mom at the airport. I did get to try some Highland burgers, though. I had a Little Wyvis burger (named after a nearby mountain called Little Wyvis: there's a taller one called Wyvis), which was truly massive. Two 1/4 pound patties, another patty of black pudding, an egg, bacon, onion rings, and lettuce and tomatoes. It fell apart as I tried to eat it and I could only manage about half of the thing before my stomach warned me that explosion was imminent.

For the rest of the day, I saw more of Loch Ness and Inverness, had a very late meal of soup at a pub, and went to sleep. Sometimes it's nice to change plans.

Day 20: Loch Ness--no ichthyosaur sightings yet

This morning I made plans to get some hiking in and maybe hop down to Loch Ness. I got a late start, unfortunately, and didn't actually catch a bus to the little lakeside town of Drumnadrochit until almost one. Finally got a view of the loch, and it is gorgeous.

The third deepest lake in Europe, and certainly the largest lake in Britain (by volume)

I went on a lovely little hike to a viewpoint called Craig Monie, which offered excellent views of the hills by the loch. The trail itself was quite pretty too!

Beautiful countryside I got to see

I met some Americans at the top and spent the rest of my time in Drumnadrochit with them. We hiked down to the loch, which involved a bit of pathfinding and at one point fording a stream that supposedly had a footbridge but really had some logs that had washed up in the shallows and provided a sort of a crossing. But we got to the loch! It was peaceful and beautiful, and seemed to be a nice temperature (by the hand-dip test).

I haven't seen clear skies since Arizona, practically, but the clouds sure have been dramatic

Playing with my waterproof shoes

Later that night, I met up with one of the Americans at a pub to catch some traditional Irish music. We ended up talking with a couple of the musicians until that bar closed, then went to another one that was open until three. Got to try whisky (which I don't like yet) and some local organic beer from the Black Isle (which I quite liked, as beer goes). Made some new friends and even practiced my Scottish accent! It was a great night.

Day 19: Ridin' that train!

Woke up this morning, had some tea and packed my bag, and headed out to see a little bit of Glasgow before I jumped on the train to the Highlands. Glasgow is actually an interesting city, with some nice buildings and charming streets. I wasn't in town long enough to meet any Glaswegians (my hosts were from other countries) but I'm sure they would have been nice. I was looking at a streetmap and a gentleman walked up and offered to give me directions to the tourist information center which had apparently moved since the map was made, which was extremely kind of him. I saw the Gallery of Modern Art and actually found a piece I liked, which was a pleasant surprise. This guy had taken the Edinburgh Yellow Pages and found all the listings under Places of Worship and then constructed cardboard models of them. It looked really cool.

Pseudo cardboard mockups for daysss!

The rest of the gallery held more typical strange things but I was really pleased with this find.

I got on the train to Inverness and wound my way to the Highlands. The landscape was beautiful: stark hills rolling off into the distance, covered in dark red heather. Although the hills (fells? mountains? I'm not sure what the Scots call them) faded as we approached Inverness, it was still extremely pretty scenery.

I checked into the Dionard Guest House and went downtown to explore a bit and also to have dinner. I tried Lamb Stovies at a delightful pub called Hootenanny and then strolled back for an early night. On the way through the town I came across a Highland band, complete with bagpipes and drummers twirling their pom-pom things! It was a real treat, although I only caught a couple of songs before they started moving off and I continued on my way.

Real Highland band!

Then it was time for sleep in a nice, lovely, private and impersonal room with ensuite shower and nobody asking me any questions about my life. It's surprising how nice that can feel when you've been staying with chatty strangers for a couple of weeks.

Day 18: Halfway in and completely knackered

I'm taking a bit of a rest today and tomorrow, though, so I'll soon be back on my feet and exploring with as much energy as ever.

I said goodbye to York this morning and took the train to Scotland, arriving in Glasgow late in the evening after taking a couple of stops along the way in Durham and Newcastle.

Durham is a small town about forty five minutes north of York, which is known for its cathedral, the best example of Romanesque construction in Europe. It's almost a thousand years old, having been constructed before the flying buttresses of Gothic cathedrals were invented. It was made to be the final resting place of St Cuthbert (one of the biggest medieval saints of Northern England), who was originally buried at Lindisfarne but was moved at the end of the first millenium and finally arrived in Durham in 995 CE. The cathedral was completed in 1133 and also houses the remains of the Venerable Bede, England's first historian and the first historian to use the AD dating system (I was a bit more excited about this guy). It was a bit darker inside than other cathedrals I've seen, partly because it's Romanesque and partly because the stone is fairly dark, a medium brown. Photography was not allowed inside the cathedral, so the following image was found online (the interior is really cool, otherwise I wouldn't have gone to this effort).

Really neat columns, the round ones were all decorated with big geometric patterns

We were allowed to take pictures of the exterior, though:

The tower, from the monks' area

I wandered around for a bit, then went down to the River Wear and walked along it for a bit. I was worried about missing my train so I headed back up and then I sat at the station for a bit longer than I intended. I did the same thing in Newcastle, I think I was a bit burnt out from all the wandering I've been doing recently.

Newcastle was a nice city, actually. I only spent a little time looking at it, but the streets were pretty nice and there was a big set of food tents by a giant monument to someone whose important was obscured by someone selling plants. I tried a kangaroo burger! It tasted like a burger, not really much different from anything else between two buns, but the caramelized onions were excellent.

Nice square in Newcastle

I finally arrived in Glasgow at about nine thirty and got to my lodgings for the night at ten. Hopefully I'll never stay in a place quite so sketch again. It was definitely a living room that they had set up as a bedroom. I did not sleep well because I could not get that fact out of my head.

Day 17: Last sights of York

It was a rainy morning, but I decided to walk to the city center anyway. I met some Mormon missionaries on the way, it was interesting that I had to go across the Atlantic to actually run into any. Since they weren't actually at my door they only did a little bit of Mormon-ness but they were very nice, very sweet. I did end up with a business card from them, though. Shortly after that I gave up on the rain and took the bus the rest of the way.

This morning I decided to actually visit the Minster. I got a ticket that's good for a year, apparently, so if anyone's swinging through York in the next year, let me know and you can get into the Minster for free. And if you have the opportunity, take it! It's beautiful. I spent quite a long time just looking straight up, my neck hurt after a bit.

The arch of the main tower was just magnificent

The organ was amazing

The joinings for each vault (I really should look up the vocabulary here) were beautiful and unique

I then took a break and wandered the streets a bit, wending my way to the Castle Museum. The name was a bit misleading, because it was built on the remains of the old York Castle but has nothing to do with castles. It has a replica of a Victorian street (apparently the old buildings were actually moved to the museum) and the old York prison, and this weird exhibit on the 1960s that wasn't really related to anything else.

Victorian street

A replica of a clockmaker's workshop

There was also a little bit of an old mill down by the river Ouse (yes, pronouned "ooze"). It was nice, and had a couple of Canadian geese. They weren't very nice.

The old millwheel

Goose!

Goose family! The goslings were really cute, but the geese hissed if you moved near them, though they were often difficult to avoid

My host made dinner for me tonight, which was very kind of her, so I left the city center early and walked part of the way on the city walls. They afforded some very nice views of the Minster as I walked back.

One last look at the Minster

I had a very nice meal, all vegetarian (my host is a vegetarian nurse who smokes and stereotypes very quickly, it's a bit odd), and went to bed early so I could wake early and pack everything back up. It's amazing how quickly everything can explode out of a backpack.