Day trip from Edinburgh: Scottish castles and countryside

On the way to our first castle, we pulled over to look at two impressive bridges spanning the Firth of Forth, or the estuary of the Forth River in Scotland. This is the river that can be seen in the distance in my previous picture of the new city taken from Edinburgh Castle. This bridge opened in 1964, replacing an earlier ferry service that ran for over 800 years. The bridge was built to last 120 years, but recent structural inspections have found that the steel cables are starting to rust underneath their casings. There is no way to fix this, so there is now a major debate in the Scottish Parliament over who will pay to have the bridge replaced. With 8-10% of the cable strength already lost, officials may have to divert some traffic to decrease the daily load by 2014. It may have to be closed completely by 2020.


Right next to the Forth Road Bridge is the Forth Railway Bridge. Situated just to the east, the rail bridge remains an engineering marvel and is something that Scotland takes great pride in (it's even on some of their money). Construction started in 1883 and was completed in 1890. It is the first major steel bridge in the world, and is still only the second longest bridge using cantilevered construction. It took more than 54,000 tons of steel and over 6 million rivets to build it. It was massively over-engineered to regain public confidence after a different bridge failed and collapsed, killing 75 people on the passenger train that was crossing it at the time. Like the Golden Gate Bridge, it needs frequent paint jobs to prevent corrosion. It has lead to the local phrase "Painting the Forth Bridge" referring to a task that is never complete.


After stopping to see the bridges, we continued on to Doune Castle. It will look familiar to fans of Monty Python and the Holy Grail as this castle was used extensively in the filming of the movie. The most famous scene that took place here was likely the one where King Arthur and Patsy arrive at the entrance banging the coconuts together to imitate the sound of a horse. The gift shop and ticket office has a pair of coconut shells that visitors can sign out to go take pictures with and recreate the scene for themselves.


In addition to the prominent role that Doune Castle played in the movie, it does have a significant historic value. It was built during the 14th Century by the Duke of Albany, and is one of the few examples of a castle that was completed in a single building period that has remained relatively untouched and complete. Many other castles were started in one period and later added on to gradually over hundreds of years to fit current needs. The windows in the curtain wall in the background of the picture above indicate that when the castle was designed it was intended to have more internal towers and personal quarters than were ever built. There would have been rooms in front of where the windows are, but for whatever reason that part of the castle was never built.


Doune fell into disrepair during the 18th century. The wooden roof caved in and by 1800 it was a ruin. It wasn't until the 1880s that the restoration began. The roofs were rebuilt and the interior rooms, like the Lord's Hall in the picture above, were restored. Today the castle is owned and maintained by Historic Scotland, a government agency that oversees historic buildings and monuments. The picture above is very strange in that there is that mysterious smoke in the center of the room. I had fallen behind the rest of the group and was alone in the room when I took the picture. What makes it even more strange is that the picture I took right after this one came out clear. Fog on the lens wouldn't look like that nor would it go away so quickly. I thought maybe it was my breath, but if so it should have appeared in more of my pictures. Jessica took a picture with a similar smoke in it in a different room of the castle. I like to think that there is more to it than a simple breath...certainly is creepy!


After Doune Castle, we continued into the city of Stirling to see the Wallace Monument. It stands tall at the top of a hill over the city. It commemorates Sir William Wallace, a Scottish Knight who became a national hero in the Scottish Wars of Independence. One of his major victories happened at the battle of Stirling Bridge in 1297, where he defeated the invading English army...something that was unheard of at the time.


Not only can you walk up to the top of the hill, but you can also climb the 246 step spiral staircase to the top of the monument. Along the way there are two or three rooms to stop in that serve as a museum honor William Wallace. They have some objects believed to have belonged to Wallace, including his sword.


The monument itself was constructed in a period of only 8 years and was finished in 1869 during a time of high national pride. The total cost was 18,000 pounds. The tower stands 220 feet tall and is made out of sandstone in the Victorian Gothic style. At the base, there is a bathroom, a cafe, and a gift shop. You can definitely tell how important this monument was to the Scottish people by the size and complexity of the building.


It was very foggy, as you can see, the day we visited. I can only imagine what the view from the top here would be like on a clear day. The fog was really neat to see though and, as one of the other students in our group pointed out, it was certainly an authentic Scottish climate experience.


After the monument, it was only about to 20 minutes to get to lunch. We ate at Nicky Tams, supposedly the most haunted pub in Stirling. Our group leaders always aim to provide the most authentic eating experiences and to avoid the chain restaurants. To make this possible, we called in our orders a few hours ahead of time so that they could accommodate our large group.


I had macaroni and cheese for lunch with a nice cold pint of Guinness. Syracuse paid for the food, but seeing as it's against school policy to buy students alcohol, we had to buy our own drinks at the bar. One of the waitresses was from California. I don't remember what brought her to Scotland...I think it may have been for school and then she wanted to stay. She described the challenges for Americans to get permission to live in the UK permanently. I think she said that she could only stay for up to 2 years to work and then she would basically have to get married to be able to stay. Britain has agreements with several other countries where they will allow citizens of the other country to come to live and work in the UK and British citizens can do the same in the other country. Britain and the United States do not have such an agreement.


A fitting picture to hang on the wall of a pub! Looks like the perfect size drinking glass to me.


After lunch we walked through a little more of the city and up the hill to Stirling Castle. From the parking lot of the castle, this was the view looking out over the city. That's the Wallace Monument sticking up in the distance.


This is Sterling Castle which, like Edinburgh Castle, isn't all that interesting on the inside but does provide great views of the surrounding countryside. It is also a historically and architecturally significant building. This has long been a strategically important site for defense because Stirling sits at what until recently was the last downstream crossing of the Forth River. Mary, Queen of Scots was among several Scottish Kings and Queens to have been crowned here. Like Doune, it is also owned and maintained by Historic Scotland.


One of the views from the castle.


The trees in front of the hills almost look like they are painted in. It is amazing to have such a view that remains for the most part unspoiled by development. That is one of the things that is so nice about Scotland...not only do you have beautiful historic buildings, but so much of the landscape has been preserved as well.


Looking across one of the castle yards...still within the walls.


All of the pictures of the countryside above were taken from the walkways behind the outer walls as seen here.


Even in the wintertime, everything is so green. This is another one of the yards inside the castle.


After Stirling Castle we made our final stop at Argyll's Lodging, just a block down the hill from the castle. I believe it is operated by Historic Scotland as well. It is the most complete example left of what a 17th century Scottish town house would have looked like.


This is the dining room. The wall covering on the far wall around the door is original, the rest of the room was restored to look authentic.


Finally, our bus driver (on the left) to take us home. Syracuse tries to use him for as many tours as possible because he is such a fun guy and always dresses up in tradtional Scottish attire. That is his brother on the right. It is amazing how paths cross. His brother (also a tour bus driver) took a group from Glasgow to Stirling Castle the same day as us, AND had a couple of Syracuse students with him that had elected to go to Glasgow rather than Edinburgh who had no idea we would be there too.

Friday night in Edinburgh: dinner and a ghost walk

You have seen this hotel twice already in the previous post, but its even more incredible at night. No, this was not the one that we stayed in...ours was really nice, but much more quaint. I took this picture as we made our way to the underground ghost walk, somewhere between 8 and 9 pm.


St. Giles Cathedral is considered the head church for the Church of Scotland, the equivalent of the role Westminster Abbey plays in the Anglican Church in England. While England and Scotland have separate state churches, the Queen is the head of both of them. The Anglican Church (of England) is known in America as the Episcopal Church, while the Church of Scotland is known as the Presbyterian Church. I will likely have pictures of the inside in an upcoming post, but I like this shot at night that I took while on the tour.


This is looking up the street that the entrance to the underground tunnels is off of. You enter through what looks like a regular store front and take stairs down to below street level.


At the bottom of the stairs you are in a long tunnel with many rooms and other passages off of it. In one of the first rooms there were displays of some of the artifacts that have been found here.


This is what most of the main tunnels looked like. There are storage rooms off to the side. Most of these rooms would have been used for storage and things of that nature.


The Discovery Channel has been here to do a segment for one of their shows about underground parts of cities. I think there may have been one of the ghost hunter shows here as well to see if it's haunted. We didn't find anything out of the ordinary, but it was still a great experience to explore old Edinburgh's past.


This is the Royal Mile at night, as we were looking for a place to eat after the tour. This area at night is full of young people out on the town looking for their next pub. The funniest thing we saw that night was a group of young women scantily dressed walking around with an inflatable sex doll and singing loudly. We assume (hope) it was a bachelorette party.


Jessica and I decided to grab dinner at the Pizza Express. It is kind of like a luxurious Pizza Hut that serves classy pasta dishes and nice wines with your meal. Interestingly, they do have Pizza Hut and a sister chain Pasta Hut over here as well, but they are much more upscale than in the US - only offering full sit down table service and more gourmet menus. Our waiter was very nice, and was interested to hear where what part of the States we are from (all Americans stick out like sore thumbs, even when we try to blend in) and what we are studying. It was a nice finish to an exhausting day, and from there we went back to the hotel and went to bed in preparation for the next day's trip to see castles and the countryside.

Last weekend's visit to Edinburgh

Our trip to Edinburgh started at King's Cross Station at 5:40...our train departed a little after for what would be about a 4 hour trip. King's Cross station is featured in the Harry Potter books where students board the Hogwarts Express to go back to school. In the book, the train leaves from platform 9 and 3-quarters. The secret platform is only accessible to people with magical powers who run through a brick wall that separates the Hogwarts Express from the rest of the station. After the books were released, a special sign was erected inside London's King's Cross, and a luggage trolley sawed in half was placed coming out of the wall so that children and tourists could take pictures "pushing the cart through the wall." We didn't have time to see it then, but plan to go back for pictures!

The train was great...nice and comfortable, plenty of room, and free wifi and power outlets for computers. A snack cart came around several times that we took advantage of to get some tea. Kevin and Darren (pictured above) decided to skip the tea and went for rum and Coke. The trains between London and Edinburgh are part of the National Express rail service...a national consortium made of up most of Britain's passenger train companies. They travel up to 120 mph...it is quite something when 2 trains pass each other going opposite directions. It makes a huge "whoosh" and only last for 3-4 seconds (and these are long trains)! The British government just awarded the contract to several companies to replace the current trains with newer ones that are more efficient and can carry 20% more passengers. The deal is worth 7.5 billion pounds, and will safeguard over 12,000 jobs. The trains will be phased in between 2013 and 2015.


We arrived in Edinburgh around 11. The platform is pictured above. The train station and rail lines divide the new and the old cities. We had to walk up a huge flight of stairs to reach one of the main streets through the new city. From there, the walk to our hotel was only about 5-10 minutes. We checked in, and many people went straight out to the pubs. Jessica and I took a walk over to the old city, as I remembered walking down many of these streets when we were here in 2000 (it's not that big of a city). Then we made our way back to the hotel to turn in early for the night...we had to be up and have breakfast early because our walking tour (led by one of our professors) started at 9 am sharp.


A nice view of a clock tower in the morning sun. This is part of an elegant hotel in the new city right near the train station. Along the street there are trimmed hedges with large flower boxes full of flowers down the length of the building. It is also in the picture below...the building on the right hand side.


The view looking from the new city across to the old city. The bridge carries traffic over the rail lines below. It was a beautiful sunny morning, nice and cold out and a little misty...perfect to start our morning walk.


One of the first stops was a graveyard. Scotland has a lot of these little cemeteries tucked around their cities...they liked to honor their past, especially important members of society. This applies to Edinburgh in particular because it historically has been known as bourgeois city. There may have been more significance, but I stopped paying attention at certain points to take pictures and to make sure that I wouldn't break my neck while standing on the icy hill.


Mountains and rolling hills surround the city on three sides, making Edinburgh one of the most picturesque urban centers in Scotland. Along with a rich history, it also accounts for a lot of tourism that benefits the city's economy.


Looking out at Arthur's Seat (the cliff in the background). The top is supposed to provide great views of the city. It is supposed to be easy to climb, as there are sloping paths that take visitors to the top. It is a popular attraction for tourists. I did not climb it, electing instead do some more exploring of the city, but several people from our group did and said it was amazing.


The gate in front of the Queen's official residence in Scotland.


This is the Queen's Palace itself. There is more to it than this, but having to stick my camera lens through the bars of the gate, this was the most I could get. While it is very nice, it certainly is not one of the grandest of the Royal palaces.


Completed in 2004, the Scottish Parliament Building was very controversial. There were public disagreements on nearly every part of it, including its location, design, architect, and even its construction company. To top it off, it opened three years late and 10 times over budget (original estimate: 40 million pounds, final cost: 414 million pounds). At least it won several architectural awards once it was finally finished and the dust settled.


The Debating Chamber is where Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs, as opposed to MPs who meet at the British Parliament at Westminster in London) convene to make decisions and discuss issues. While Scotland is still represented by MPs in London, a referendum in 1997 restored limited authority back to a separate Scottish Parliament (hence the need for the new building). This new governing body mostly deals with domestic issues, such as the healthcare, education, and infrastructure systems in Scotland. Education has always been a big issue in Scotland - something the country takes great pride in. Scotland historically has had more colleges and universities than England, and to this day many of the UK's top leaders where schooled in Scotland (former and current Prime Ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, respectively, among them).


I seem to have a fascination with taking pictures of gates and doors. I really liked this gate that I saw along the Royal Mile (the main drag through the old city). And I will like it even more when I get around to cropping the garbage can out that appears in the background to the right.


Already saw the gate, so here is a door to prove my obsession. This was in a little church yard that is in the valley (if you go back to the earlier picture of Arthur's Seat, you can see the church yard in the lower left. Not really sure why we stopped here, but I liked how the red door pops.


I should have mentioned that I like alleyways too, and Edinburgh is full of them. There are a lot more of them once you get up on top of the hill (the old city is built on a hill) because they were originally used as garbage and waste chutes. People would dump their garbage and their chamber pots out the window into these channels, and when it rained it would wash the waste down the hill and out of the city.


Edinburgh Castle is at the top of the hill. The castle itself isn't all that interesting, but does provide amazing areal views of the city. It is also the inspiration for the Hogwarts castle in Harry Potter.


Looking out over the new city from Edinburgh Castle.


And looking out over the old city from the castle. I love the mountains in the background, it makes it almost look like we're in Switzerland!


Only in Scotland: Scotch flavored condoms. What can I say...


After we walked through the old city, we stopped in the National Portrait Gallery and then continued on to walk around the new city. We finished at this really elegant luxury tea house called the Dome. Syracuse was nice enough to pay for it, which made it even better.


So there could have been nothing better than to end the afternoon with a nice cup of tea, and a table discussion with Forbes, our professor guide for the trip who was always down for a nice chat.