Day 19 Da Vinci Code and final post

As we work our way back to Edinburgh we stop at the Culzean Castle.   A 'modern' castle in that it was built in the 18th century; 1777-1792, not in the 15th century.  Hey, indoor plumbing, not chamber pots; gas lighting, not whale oil.

A few highlights:

An indoor bath tub.  Note the two sets of 'hot' and
'cold'.  No faucets tho........

In the entry way we found several walls full of flintlocks and sabers.  We asked, 716 pistols.

A great 'swan pond' as well.

This is inside of the 'gas house' below the mansion.  One of the first
uses of coal gas to light the mansion.  They didn't burn the coal, but rather
heat it to drive of a gas, scrubbed it to removed impurities, stocked
it and pressurized a piping system.  Quite sophisticated for the time.

Scottish Deer.

Our final stop is one of our most interesting, the Rosslyn Chapel.   Built in the mid 1400's and intended to be a huge collegiate church dedicated to St. Matthew.  A full foundation was built, but only the choir, Lady Chapel and part of the transepts were built before construction was halted soon after the founder's death in 1484.  Made of sandstone, it is the most 'tricked out' church we have seen.  Hundreds of figures; Biblical, allegorical, mythological, whimsical and botanical are carved throughout the chapel.

There are enough 'New World' carvings of plants that many believe the founder's grandfather, the sea adventurer, Prince Henry of Orkney, did indeed, set foot in the New World a century before Columbus.  Whoa!

Another great story/legend.  The master mason, after completing his most expressive chapel pillar needed to take a year off to recharge his creative batteries.  When he returned, his apprentice mason's pillar was so much more beautiful and creative than his, that in a fit of jealousy, he murdered the apprentice.  Both pillars are in the front of the chapel for comparison.  The master mason was hung for the crime, and effigies of both are carved in the chapel.

Now we get to the reason that attendance has quintupled in the last 15 years.  Dan Brown's The Di Vinci Code.  The book has sold over 80 million copies and the climactic scenes of the movie were filmed here, primarily in the crypt and vestry below the chapel.  A great book and story, but no floor doors, Free Masons, or Shroud of Turin.  But a beautiful and unique building to enjoy.

No pictures were allowed inside.  The Docent stepped out so I grabbed a few.

A great adventure to Scotland.  19 days on the road in a fully packed sedan with right hand steering.  Tom was excellent as the driver.  Driving on the 'wrong side' is challenging, Tom, again could not be faulted.  Probably more stressful are the one-lane roads on the Isles of Orkney, Skye and Mull.   It was like driving on a driveway, with lots of traffic, for a week.  Fortunately our car had a GPS screen to assist in our travels.  We had maps, but the GPS really saved the day.

The food was great. A mentioned before, better than Irish food, but not up to Spanish cuisine.  Scottish food isn't necessarily unique, just well prepared and presented.  I must of had fish and chips at least six times.  Each the same, each different.

History?  Throughout time, they were either getting beat up by the English, or 'bickering' among themselves.  Bickering is a bit tame.  Clan wars were constant, vengeful and bloody.  For generations.  In modern times, the Brits and Scots have agreed to disagree.   A couple of years ago, the Scots voted to stay in the United Kingdom.  As of a couple of weeks ago when the UK voted to 'Brexit', the Scots aren't sure that their unity vote was a smart move.  (The Scots voted overwhelmingly to stay in the European Union.)

The people were universally friendly and courteous.   I can't remember the number of times people said 'thank you', and 'please'.  It is their culture, it is who they are; we could learn from them!

Visit Scotland!

Blog Bonus Food and Drink

Time to give an assessment of the food of Scotland.  Speaking to our last two adventures, better than Ireland, not as good as Spain.  Most of our breakfasts have been ‘self-catering’, in other words, we are in a bed and breakfast but we supply the breakfast!  With Airbnb, you will frequently rent the entire home or flat, but it is expected that you prepare your own breakfast.  We knew this before we came to Scotland so we packed some cereal, pancake mix and different hot drink mixes

They farm a lot of salmon in the lochs.  Actually quite good.

We did stay at a few traditional B and B’s as well where they serve a traditional Scottish breakfast.  Eggs, sausage, bacon, and haggis.  What are haggis you ask!  A sheep’s heart, liver and lungs mixed with suet.  You chase haggis with a couple of Imodium. 

Here it is, a typical Scottish breakfast.  Eggs, beans, tomoato,
mushrooms, haggis, or black pudding, bacon and sausage.

The flip side to Airbnb is the previous renter may have left food, and you may as well, so there will be a mix of options for food.  Plus, of course, we stop at a market every couple of days for fruit, and bread to supplement.  Our second meal of the day is usually bread and cheese.  Plenty of both here in Scotland. 

A bit of a disappointment.  Nachos.  Looks like the plastic entrails of
the fake Loch Ness monster.

Finally, dinner is the adventure.  We have found the best food at the pubs. Friendly staff, good service, lots of choices.   A good selection of food from vegetarian to chicken, fish and beef.  With the gazillion sheep everywhere, we thought we would see more mutton on the menus.  I had a mutton burger once.  I think the sheep are for wool exclusively, (and haggis).

They do take their burgers very seriously here.  Always a good choice

A few standouts:  Fish and Chips.  Found everywhere and you are never disappointed.  May be hard eating fish and chips back in the states.  Fish is always fresh and chips are ‘chips’, not French fries.  We found a great pizza place in Falkirk.  If you eat in the restaurant and not take-away it is two for one!  We couldn’t resist: two large pizzas.  Another new experience, a Portuguese meal.  Stumbled on this restaurant in St. Andrews.  Great food, great hot sauces.  Next holiday destination?? 

Ah, comfort food.  Roast, peas and postatoes.

Enchilada, Scottish style.

Drinks?  Beer.  Tried several Scottish beers, kept going back to, and have stayed with Guinness.  Reason?  It is the only one served cold!  Scottish beer, by definition is served room temperature. I can’t make the transition.  

Curry and Nan

The classic Scottish Fish and Chips, with salad and cole slaw.

Day 18 Glasgow's churches and museums

The day started with the Riverside Museum of Transport.  It opened in 2011.  If it moved in the last 100 years in Europe and the United Kingdom, there is an example of it here.  Trains, bicycles, cars, buses, motorcycles and ships. Although not viewer friendly, the 40 odd cars on the wall was amazing.  As was the 30 odd motorcycles displayed similarly.  

Huge locomotives, buses that go back to when they were on rails and pulled by horses.  Hundreds of intricate models of ships that go way back in time.  Really amazing. museum.  Moored outside, also for touring, was the tall ship Glenlee, a cargo ship built in 1896, one of only 5 afloat today.

Next we visited the Govan Old Parish Church to look at the unique Viking hogback stones.  These were thought to be grave slabs, but very unique from what we had seen before from the 10th to the 12th century.

Next,  the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum.  This museum opened in 1901 and now has 8,000 object on display in 22 themed galleries.  A good, solid big city museum, but our favorite piece was Salvador Dali's Christ of St. John of the Cross.    Not known, (at all) for his faith.  He surprised both his admirers and his critics with this piece.

 Next to the painting of 'God's view of Christ' was this description.  "Dali had studied nuclear physics and felt that the discovery of the atomic nature of the universe proved the existence of God.  He set himself as the first artist to paint pictures that would combine science with religious belief, and called this Nuclear Mysticism."  

Other exhibits we enjoyed.

Close up of above.

"The King" after his better days.

We finished the day at the Glasgow Cathedral.  Briefly, it was built in the 12th century as a Catholic Cathedral, but at the time of the Reformation it was one of the few Catholic churches that wasn't burned to the ground by the Reformers.  The local's protected it with their lives, literally, and the Protestants relented.  At one time it actually held three different services; different denominations.  A beautiful church both inside and out.

Day 17 Stirling Castle to the Denver Broncos........??

Our foggy, rainy day started at Stirling Castle.  High on a promontory, the Scots have been building and rebuilding at this location since the 15th century.  It is quite a hodge podge of of buildings upon buildings.  Many Scottish kings and queens were crowned here, and it has survived eight sieges over the centuries.

Many carved "plates" in the ceilings.  Beautiful

For years now, they have been reproducing the original tapestries that hung in the
royal apartments.  The originals were all destroyed, but the plans were discovered
and copied meticulously

Down the street is the Church of the Holy Rude.  A brief history lesson.....King James V, (the King James Bible guy) had just one surviving legitimate heir when he died in 1542, Mary.  Unfortunately, Mary was only 6 days old when she became Mary, Queen of Scots.  BTW, she cried during the whole coronation while someone held the crown above her head,  Fast forward to 1567; she was forced to abdicate for political and religious reasons, to her one year old son James VI.

Here is the irony.  Mary was a Catholic and at her son's coronation in the Church of the Holy Rude, which she missed since she was languishing in prison, John Knox preached the sermon.  You remember that John Knox was the Martin Luther of Scotland during the beginning of the Reformation.  The postscript to this crazy story is that Mary, eventually fled to London under the protection of her second cousin Queen Elizabeth I, (staunch Protestant), but after 18 more years in exile and confinement, Elizabeth felt a bit intimidated and had Mary beheaded.  Whoa.

The original oak rafters.  Beautiful.

But, the best part of the Church for me was that the chief organist was practicing for a concert tomorrow, and we could sit and listen to a several hundred year old pipe organ being played in 600 year old church.  Stunning.

Next, the Flakirk Wheel.  Scotland is known for its locks between all of its lochs.  But that takes time to move a boat through the locks to get to the different levels of the different lochs.  So what makes sense?  A Jetson's inspired Wheel.  It rotates and lifts a boat 79 feet, but it still takes two locks to finish the job at another 36 feet.  It is used primarily to give paying customers a one hour ride up and down and a bit a a cruise in between.  I think a technological challenge beat out a practical solution.  It is huge, look at the people on the lower left.

Finally, the Kelpies in the Helix.  The Kelpies are 100 foot tall, 300 ton steel......horse.....heads.  Years to fabricate, months to assemble.  Really impressive, but I couldn't help think that it is a copy of the Denver Broncos mascot, Thunder.  You decide.

Day 16 Trossachs National Park, and "Freedom!"

A leisurely drive with some hikes from Glencoe to Stirling and the National Wallace Monument.  Or the real "Braveheart".

The Trossachs National Park covers 720 square miles.  it contains 22 lochs, (lakes),  Hiking, backpacking, cycling, camping, a ski resort, a few golf courses thrown in as well.  A four season national park with winter ice climbing on the numerous water falls as well.

We finished the day in Stirling, Scotland.  This is where William Wallace battled England in the fabled Wars of Scottish Independence in the late 1290's.  Although successful in leading skirmishes against the English, he was eventually caught and executed (hanged, drawn and quartered and beheaded) in London.  The English wanted to make an example of him; his body parts probably traveled more then he did during the war.  They were displayed all over England and Scotland as a reminder of what happens when you loose a war.

Mel Gibson's "Braveheart" is a sanitized version of history.  Inspirational perhaps, but when someone soon after the movie's release carved a statue of Mel Gibson as William Wallace it was quickly beheaded.  They repaired it, put it behind bars for display, but it was trashed and spray painted.  They eventually removed it from public view.  Mel Gibson is not William Wallace.

Below is the 220 foot sandstone Monument built in 1869.  It is well respected by the community.

Day 15 Rain, clouds, castles and another movie set?!

First stop was at McCaig’s Tower in Oben, where we stayed the night.  Picture below of a well-conceived but ultimately a failed gift for his family and the community.  In 1897, Banker McCaig wanted to commemorate his family with a Roman Coliseum like structure above Oben.  

Also, he would keep many of the local stonemasons and sculptors busy creating this masterpiece and filling it with art.  But, alas, he unexpectedly died 5 years later with just the first two outer walls built, and construction ended.  Apparently his family had neither the time, money or interest to continue with his legacy.

Next we headed south to Kilmartin.  An indoor and outdoor museum about how the pre-scots lived going back 5,000 years.  Within 6 miles of the museum building, 800 archeological sites have been determined. 

 

These are two 'grave slabs'.  Basically tops of coffins.  The one on the left is dated 712, the right is from the 500's.  No bones underneath, just the slabs.  Hundreds of these are everywhere.

Below are a couple of pictures from Dunadd Fort.  This site goes back to the Iron Age, (3-400 BC).

It's been excavated several times in the last 100 years. The "footprint of fealty" sits at the top. You would put your foot into this carved imprint to swear your allegiance to your lord.  My foot was too big.

Inverarary for lunch and to view the Inverarary Castle.  Ancestral home of the Duke of Argyll, Chief of Clan Campbell.  We didn’t pay to go into this one.  All castles are starting to look alike on the inside.  Lots of oil paintings, overstuffed chairs, china and sterling silver.  This one looked great from the outside, we settled for that memory.   Oh, this one is currently occupied by the above, he and his family live in the heated part of the 500 year old building.

Next, Kilchurn Castle.  This one is unrestored, but free.  Also, more like it really was in the 500 years ago.  Notice how thick the walls are with Tom in the lower right hand corner.

Finally, in walking through Ballachulish Quarry next door to our Airbnb We stumbled on, what we think is another movie or TV set.  Lots of trucks, and people.  After they all left, we went back and took a few pictures.  The Ballachulish Quarry was in full swing in the 19th century mining the slate roofing tiles we have found all over Scotland.  These make 200 year roofs.

My latest sheep shot.  This is an old guy.