Scotland (July 2nd - 6th, 2007)

If I can catch up on all of my travels from Europe in the next little while it will be amazing.
Here's a post about my trip to Scotland.



Edinburgh
I thought Edinburgh was quite a beautiful city. I was starting to get the feeling that many of the places that I visited in the UK were similar, and obviously there wouldn't be anything completely out of the ordinary that would shock me.
Unfortunately the weather while I was there wasn't the best, lots of grey skies and wet days, but I still enjoyed myself.


One of the first things that I saw when I arrived to the city was this man here dressed up in full garb. I don't know if it's accurate or not, but the effect is nice and I had to smile (and take a picture - obviously I wasn't the only one). He was the doorman to this fancy schmancy hotel.



This is Greyfriars Bobby. A dog who's claim to fame was guarding his owner's grave until his own death many many years later. Somehow it's a big deal.

There were a couple highlights of the trip. I thought that Mary Kings Close was one of the best museums that I'd visited. It was a very interactive visit where you're in the bowel of the close imagining and feeling what it would have been like to be there. They set up the visit like it's a tour of the area hosted by a former resident. I would highly recommend this as a place to visit if you're there.
The Palace of Holyroodhouse is the Scottish residence for the Queen. She happened to be there while I was visiting and hosted a big tea party. It was fun to see how dressed up everyone was, wearing their fancy hats that you stereotypically think of British people wearing for events. Not surprisingly, some men were wearing kilts and stuff. What a neat experience that would be. The security was obviously really tight for the event, with some fancy cars pulling up to the palace.
The city was nice to walk around, it have a great atmosphere to it, with architecture that makes me think of the UK (I miss watching all of those BBC shows that I started getting used to).
The obvious tourist stop in town is Edinburgh Castle which was nice to walk around. The castle itself didn't blow me away (compared to other castles that I've visited) but I was impressed with the calibre of the tour guides.



This was a cute little area where they had a cemetary for the dogs of soldiers.




This guy was hired to follow a newlywed couple taking their wedding pictures at the castle. I would assume that he played at the service as well, but it was kind of funny watching him pose in the background with the happy couple. Standing on the opposite side of the Bentley, etc etc. His get up reminded me of my year's at Queen's.

I also enjoyed visiting the Royal Yacht Britannia. It was beautiful and I could just imagine spending time on there touring around the world and spending time with family and friends on there. The bedrooms were cozy, but the dining and entertaining rooms were huge! They were setting up the dining room for a special function that night (reading the placecards, it was some kind of corporate event), which I guess would be cool, but it would be cooler if the boat was moving. This was also a tourist stop that I would highly recommend. It seemed a little weird to me that it was attached to a shopping mall though.























The two things from the National Museums Scotland that stick out in my mind are Dolly and the chess pieces that were the inspiration for the pieces in the first (?!?) Harry Potter movie. Most of the pieces are at the British Museum in London, so I made a mental note to find them there as well.


I had to refrain from laughing when some visitors beside me made comments about thinking that she was still alive and stuff. People are funny.



I can't believe I have to wait until next year to see the next Harry Potter movie. I'll have forgotten what the plotline is by then.













It was fun to go into the tartan shops. I liked the kilt that I wore when I went to private school. I wonder if that was a made up tartan or not. I guess I didn't see it in the shop, or else I would have remembered it. It was nice to learn a little bit more about the types of tartans and how one clan can have different versions of their tartan depending on the occasion.



This was the Scottish Parliament building. It was obviously a new design and I probably enjoyed seeing the different gifts presented to the Parliament from other countries. Lots of beautiful stuff on display.



Oh yeah, so they have these baked potatoes there with crazy toppings. Huge potatoes and goooooood stuff to put on top. I refuse to eat mashed potatoes, but baked potatoes are still in my good book and it was a quick and simple meal. Anyway, I thought that I would go all authentic and stuff and try one with haggis. That stuff is gross.

One of the best parts about Edinburgh is all of the green space. I like walking, and there was this big hill that you could walk around/up. It gave me a perfect view of the city below and if I wasn't so self conscious, I probably would have just sat on the side of the path watching the world go by. It's pretty relaxing watching bird fly, for some reason.


Here's the view from the top, looking down at Holyroodhouse.









Here's looking another direction at the Parliament.




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Glasgow
A nice little train ride took me to Glasgow for a short stay.
The first thing I did when I got there was figure out how to leave. My pre-trip research led me to believe that I would be able to get all of the touristy things in the city accomplished quite quickly, and so I thought I might take the opportunity to take a bus tour out of the city, so I ended up going to Loch Ness and the Highlands.
It was a fun day, driving through the Highlands and realizing that there's so much more of the country to see. Although I only had a chance to stay in each city for a couple days, I didn't feel like I missed out on too much. Obviously, I didn't get a chance to really venture out and see much outside of the city, but I that's to be saved for a another visit. The majority of my travels in the three years I spent in Europe were to major cities in Europe that were close to airports. Hopefully in the future, I'll have more time in each location to take the bus/train further out and even rent a car or something to really venture into some of the more interesting areas of the country.
It's such a beautiful area, and I would like to go on a hiking trip through there. Still, you do what you can, and I'm glad that I at least got to see more of the area from inside of a bus than nothing at all.
Loch Ness and Urquhart Castle were very touristy, but that's part of the fun. I like running around ruins and it's very picturesque beside the lake. We took a boat across the lake, and no one spotted Nessie. And I filled my belly with fish and chips. Yum.




Do you see her? Yeah, apparently it's a her.





Back in Glasgow, there were a couple things on my list. My favorite stop was The Lighthouse. This gallery focused on Design and Architecture which I've come to realize that I really appreciate. You could also climb to the top of the building and get a great panoramic view of the city below. Something about that view reminded me of Mary Poppins. That gallery was interactive as well, as one installation was a chance for you to make a piece of art using plasticine. You could
either leave your creation to be part of the exhibit or take it home with you as a souvenir. They even supplied a box for safe transport. As I was continuing my travels to London, I figured leaving my creation in the gallery would probably be more practical, although I would have liked to take it home with me. It really would have been a great souvenir of my travels. I took these two pictures before I put my
piece with the rest of them. Mine was good though. Really good.
I like these kinds of museums because you get ideas. I wonder how hard it would be to create a piece like the one on the wall. I have so many grand plans of what I want to do with my place, but I never seem to get around to it. I have this amazing idea for a photo wall, but I'm having problems narrowing down the photos that I want to display. Too many goodies to choose from.




I went into one of the Willow Tea Rooms, only because it was free (I didn't know if the museums with his stuff would cost money) and I thought it would be kinda neat to see some
Charles Rennie Mackintosh designs. I didn't end up dining there, but this reminds me that I want to go for high tea sometime.














The transport museum was really neat as well. I liked seeing the old trolley cars.

My favorite installation in the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum was the floating heads. The expressions on the faces makes it a perfect background picture on my laptop. Two years later, I still use it as my background picture, so that's gotta say something.












This was the first time that I've ever seen art being restored. I think it's nice when they let the public see things like this. Reading about the process is one thing, but seeing it happen right in front of your eyes makes the connections so much clearer.
Glasgow also had a Primark. And that was lovely.