Sons of Scotland
Well, we're really hitting the vacation stride now. We both woke up around 9:30 and I didn't really move until around 10. Whatever, it's a vacation.
We do seem to be slowing the pace a bit though.
We had some breakfast and some lunch at our little apartment here. Afterwards, we went on down to the Royal Mile in the City Centre. I'm finding that I have far fewer profound observations to make about traveling than I did at first. I'm used to traveling... I've adapted to the UK... I'm not sure what to say about it.
We walked around for a bit. There are several stores that remind me of an old SNL skit. "Welcome to All Things Scottish, where if it's not Scottish, it's CRAP!" The most cleverly named one was 'Thistle do Nicely.' We also found The Bow Bar, significant if you've ever worked or camped at The Bow. This place has also been featuerd on the Travel Channel.
So we toured Edinburgh Castle. Getting in cost about £11 each, plus about £5 for a guidebook. The giftshop alone probably took up an hour of our time. We saw a ton of interesting historic memoribilia, and we got to try an AMAZING honey meade called Lindisfarne. It's really quite impressive, and steeped in over 500 years of history. Including once incident where a possible ancestor of mine, Sir William Crichton, Chancellor of Scotland, in a bid to gain power hosted two members of the rival Douglas family for dinner at Edinburgh Castle and had them killed. He was declared an enemy of the state, and then forgiven by the King James of Scotland only a few years later. As a matter of fact, the name and arms of William Crichton are in a stained-glass window in the Grand Hall of Edinburgh Castle.
In this grand hall, my father and I met a gentlman named Murray. He was quite a freindly gent indeed! He told us all about the great hall there at Edinburgh Castle, and about Crichton Castle and about some local places to find a good ale. He also knew quite a bit about Medieval weapons and warfare, and showed us a replica of the William Wallace sword.
There's not a whole lot else to say about the Castle that wouldn't be extremely dull to someone who's not directly interested in the history.
Afterwards we stopped in another store, specializing in tartans. My father bought a fleece jacket because it's cold out here. Then we got dinner at a fairly unremarkable Spanish-ish restaurant near the castle called Maxie's. Don't bother. It's cozy, but not at all Socttish.
After dinner was a quick drink at The Bow. The bartender from the Travel Channel wasn't there.
Then we took the bus back up and we've been relaxing.