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| Robert Bruce and William Wallace guard the castle entrance |
This Monday, a few friends from home and I went into Edinburgh (here they pronounce it Edin-bruh), the capital of the land to the north. Taking the bus, it was about a 2.5 hour ride from here to Edinburgh, with many (beautiful) stop along the way. The bus seemed to halt in the middle of the country-side to let people on. As we got closer to the city and once we were in Edinburgh proper, the stops seemed a lot more logical.
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| The 6.5 ton Mons Meg can fire up to 2 miles |
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View from the castle of the First of Forth and North Sea.
St Andrews is on the piece of land jutting out into the Sea. |
Once there, not really having any plan except to wander around and go wherever we thought might be cool, we walked about the downtown area for a bit, slowly making our way to the impressive looking castle perched upon one a huge rock face rising up in the middle of the city. It was a long walk up (and kind of expensive once there), but it was worth it. The castle itself is still completely intact, and there remain certain ceremonies that are held almost daily (such as the cannon fire, that shoots off at 1pm each day, except Sundays, Good Friday, and Christmas; and the annual military tattoo each August). There is even a governor of the castle, who still lives in the governor's residence in the castle itself. No one is allowed in there. There are also several military regiments whose headquarters are there. The castle itself is like a little village, with roads winding all around the buildings and its own chapel, St Margaret's Chapel that was once converted in the 19th century into a gunpowder store-room. At the top of the castle, in addition to having the best view, are the crown jewels and the honors, made obsolete when the kingdoms of England and Scotland were united in, I think, the 1600s. They were very cool to see, mainly because among them is a sword easily four feet long. Also there is the Stone of Destiny, or Stone of Scone, that every documented King of Scotland has been crowned on, starting with Kenneth MacAlpin and going all the way to Elizabeth II. It was taken to England some years ago, but in the 1950s some university students tried to steal it from its place in Westminster Abbey. They dropped it and it broke in half. They failed to mention this on the tour, and it has since been repaired, but you can see where it was broken. The burglars were caught but the stone itself was returned to Scotland some years later, under the provision that every future monarch of the UK be crowned sitting on it.
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| View from King Arthur's Seat |
After the castle, at the behest of my visitors, we sought out the Elephant House, an outrageously over-priced café where they say JK Rowling started the Harry Potter series.
From there, we tried to go to Holyrood Palace, the Queen's official residence in Scotland. We arrived too late to get in, so we decided instead to climb to King Arthur's seat, the highest point in Edinburgh from which you can see the entire city and the surrounding Firth of Forth and North Sea.
It was all very fun to see all these things and hang out with my friends, but by the time we got back to St Andrews, after another 2.5 hour bus ride, we were so tired from walking all day that we passed out.
