Scotland2005: Edinburgh Day 2

Hello again. It has been a lovely day here in Edinburgh -- the sun came out after the morning high-overcast burned off, and it's been a beautiful fall day, though a bit chilly. By the way, for those of you reading on the blog site the pictures posted prior to this post are not ones we've taken, but stock ones Tony has found on-line while I write the entry.

We got to bed about 1am after the so-called "Cowboy Night" with the BearScots group. It wasn't so much as scary but rather a surealistic nightmare of sorts. We arrived about 930p and were one of the early arrivals. The "DJ" was playing very loud music -- none of which was country. A few folks started to arrive wearing "cowboy" gear that was scrounged from Scotish thrift stores and to call it "cowboy" would be a stretch. Even in the largest drag bar, I don't think a child's purple sequined and rhine stoned hat would be called "cowboy". There were surprisingly a few blokes in kilts as well. At least Scotsmen know how to wear a kilt and look good -- the craze in the States of any old gay man wearing a Utilikilt is proof positive. You have to have the presence and most of all the legs to be able to wear a kilt -- and far too many of the guys we see in Seattle don't.

No one was dancing, (and the crinolines were not billowing shall we say) and at the peak of the night, there were about 150 guys. This is perhaps because the DJ had no country music -- or at least anything we'd consider country, the most he could do was a Tammy Wynette disco remix. They did manage to try and teach one line dance which of course Tony, being the former line dance instructor, nailed and by the end of the song -- which believe it or not was Joan Baez, "Night they Drove old Dixie Down" -- Tony was the only one dancing and thus he won a teddy bear.

Afterwords one guy came up to Tony and said "You're the first 'Chinky-person' I've ever seen with a beard!" And thus the night continued. [Tony writes: And believe it or not, Gary is NOT exaggerating- shocked I know - this night was truly my worst 'country bar' experience]

We did however get to renew some old frienships from our last visit and do a bit of catching up in the foyer where the music wasn't so loud.

This morning we woke up about 8a and decided we'd see a few of the sights in Edinburgh proper that we hadn't seen last time. First stop was a very well preserved 15th century castle called Craigmillar. It is said to be the best and most complete preserved medievel castle in the area. We took a local bus about 3 miles to find it, and then walked another mile. It really was a fascinating ruin, and early Sunday morning, we had it all to ourselves. It took us a good 90 minutes to wander through the ruin andexplore all the rooms before heading back down to the bus stop.

When one explores a lot of old castles as we have been doing, one becomes very adept at climbing circular stone staircases -- its a wonder that folks in the day weren't constantly dizzy from the circular stairs. However, it can be quite tiring on the feet, and for some reason, despite daily walks of 4 miles in the same shoes I'm wearing, I developed massive blisters and sore spots, to the point I was hobbling like an old man by the time we got to the bus. We stopped at a local drug store for supplies-- moleskin, bandages, shoe inserts etc, and went back to the hotel for alittle self-surgery on my feet. I'm still very sore, but not nearly as bad, and I'll have to let things heal and go a little slowly I guess for awhile.


We had lunch at the "End of the World" pub -- so named because its in the building that once was the gatehouse to the old walled city, and since the world was Edinburgh, and everything outside wasn't, this marked the end of the world. I had steak and ale pie, and Tony had a burger. The steak and ale pie was actually quite wonderful. The burger was, well, a burger.

After lunch we walked, or rather I limped, Tony walked, down to Holyrood Palace, which is the Queen's official residence here in Scotland. It was named Holyrood since King David in the 1100s was hunting in the area and was gored by a buck, and was saved because he had a piece of the "true cross" around his neck that stopped the buck from goring him. "Rood" means cross, and the Holy Cross is what saved him, so he dedicated the lands and and Abbey on the spot to that. Later, the Stuart kings built a palace next to the Abbey.

Since the Queen wasn't home, they let us in for a tour. It has served as a royal residence since the early 1500s, and it's where Mary, Queen of Scots private secretary was murdered by her jealous husband, thus setting off the chain of events that lead to her abdicating the throne to her son James. In fact the other castle we visted this morning, Craigmillar, is about 5 miles south of there, and is where Mary would go to "escape" to the countryside.

Holyrood is very much still a royal residence, the audio tour was narrated in part by Prince Charles, and apparently the Queen still uses the palace several weeks a year. It was full of wonderful artwork and antiques and paintings, and a lot of history -- much of which pre-dates the US, which makes you pause to think how old this place really is. Craigmillar was abandoned in the early 1600s -- about the time the Pilgrims landed!

Next to the palace are the ruins of the Abbey, which was destroyed in the reformation wars between the Catholics and the Protestants, and another reason Mary had to leave since she was a Catholic, but we don't want to dwell on Scotish history. The Abbey ruins are very cool -- picture an unroofed unwindowed Catholic cathedral, with grass growing in the central nave and you'll have a good idea of what this was like.

After the tour we rested our feet in the Starbucks across the street --which is like every other Starbucks, although a taste of home is good, and it beats the typical weak English coffee most every place else serves.

Now its off to meet some friends from Bear Scots who have been kind enoughto act as tour guide and drive us to some of the castle ruins outside of Edinburgh Tuesday -- and the weather forceast says the rain will stay out to sea!

We still have no idea where we are going later this week -- though we did finally find a national railroad time table so at least we can plan our rail trips. I suspect we'll do that in earnest tomorrow or Tuesday.

Goodnight from the Internet Cafe in New Town Edinburgh..

Gary and Tony