Scotland2005: Edinburgh Day 4

It's always a wonderful experience to make new friends -- but a good friendship has to start with a common denominator of some sort, and often that is belonging to a "group". As a rule gay people have that connection simply by being gay and being part of the "club" -- and subsets of the gay community such as the Bears are that way even more so. A Harley-Davidson rider can run into another Harley owner somewhere and there is an instant bond and friendship, Tony finds this in his chorus family too -- we ran into a chap from the London Gay Men's Chorus here and they spent hours talking -- and people who belong to a given church do the same thing -- even in strange towns where they know no one.

So it is with Tony and me. Tony found through the Bear Scots group, a fellow and his partner who offered to drive us to some of the historical sights in Edinburgh and vicinity that were not readily accessible without a car. We spent the day with them, and just got back from a late dinner, and spent a lot of time talking about life, and travels and pets and other things, all through that common connection with the Bear clubs.

Malcolm and Jonathan have been together as long as Tony and I have, and Malcolm was kind enough to take a day off work and drive us to some rather remarkable castle ruins that we would not otherwise have seen. Driving anywhere in Scotland is a challenge, and although we didn't travel as many miles as we routinely do in the US just running about in a day, it was rather exhausting on poor Malcolm I fear. The roads are narrow and winding and one must actively "drive" -- we weren't motoring up and down I-5. Tony and I are most grateful and hope to be able to return the favor at some point if they should ever make it out to Seattle.

Malcolm picked us up in his little Vauxhaul -- like all European cars, a bit small, and with three big guys it was a tight fit. Jonathan stayed at work today. We first went to a favorite castle of Malcolm's, and one I'd wanted to see but that was closed for the winter. My personal motto of "It's easier to get forgiveness than permission" came into play and with a gleam in our eyes, we set off down the path to Castle Crichton -- a massive 14th century ruin, out in the pastures south of Edinburgh. The castle itself was locked, and since we were lacking in medeival seige equipment, we couldn't storm it -- the best we could do was Tony doing a gymnastic vault over a barbed wire fence. He was unable to gain access, and Malcolm and I were quite satisfied looking at the exterior.

We decided we needed a morning coffee and scone, so we stopped at a quaint tea room in a small town nearby for a break before continuing on to a small little castle called Hailes. We then went to the coast to Tantallon Castle -- a massively huge ruin that was mostly destroyed when Cromwell's forces attacked it in the mid 1600s. It was the most impressive, almost scary fortress I'd seen in Scotland. It was over 6 stories high, and we spent almost an hour crawling all over what we could, and going all the way to the top where the view over the Firth of Forth was spectacular.

We motored a ways up the coast to a small town for lunch at a Seabird center, which reminded Tony of a rather disconcerning sight yesterday -- we were walking past the St. Andrews aquarium and Tony noticed that the cafe attached was a Seafood one! I suppose if they run out they can just run to one of the tanks next door...but I digress.

Our last stop was Dirleton Castle, which was built about the time of the wars with England in the 1200s, and was partially dismantled by Robert the Bruce when he became king. It too was complete enough that you could use your imagination to see where things were and how they worked, but in a ruinous state, much like the Native American ruins in the Southwest at Mesa Verde -- and these were built about the same time. Our common questions and comments were on the massive size and thickness of the walls-- often well over three feet thick; the darkness, which would have been even greater in the years it was occupied; and the fascination with the"plumbing" and cooking facilities, as well as the large number of people it would take to construct these huge buildings, and the staff to maintain them, and just how they did that with the tools of the day.

Back in Edinburgh we picked up Jonathan and headed out for drinks, a nice supper and wonderful conversation. We walked from their flat in old-town to a nice steak place and back, through twisty streets with buildings -including theirs -- that were built in the 1850s.

It's been the bestnight of the trip so far. We decided to stay another day and do some laundry and book down line in Glasgow and a small coastal town called Oban -- we figure on being in Glasgow through the weekend then heading out to Oban -- and not sure from there at this point. But we'll always know we have some friends to comeback to in Edinburgh.

From the coin-operated Internet terminal in the hotel lobby..

Gary and Tony