Friday, July 22, 2005
And this is the Stone of Destiny, or "Stone of Scone," which (if it is actually the stone they claim it is) has sat under the arse of every Scottish royal during her or his coronation. It was returned from Westminster Abbey to Edinburgh Castle in 1996. About time.
This is Holyrood House, the royal family's residence in Edinburgh. It's modest for a castle, and it has a nice tea shop =) It's where Mary, Queen of Scots' hubby was murdered.
And here is some of that wedding china. A bit tacky, but so is a lot of the royal stuff. If I were a royal I think I would be sick to death of official royal china.
This is the "close," we toured, a part of the old city that had a new street and several new buildings built on top of it. It was kind of creepy, as you can see. It smelled. Go to www.realmarykingsclose.com to learn more.
This is a lovely picture of Edinburgh Castle taken by someone who was wise enough to take a picture of it. Unlike us. Thank you kind stranger.
This is a view of Edinburgh from the castle, which sits high up on a rocky fortress.
Aren't you just BUSTING to know more?!
Anyway, so Edinburgh is awesome. It's exactly the right size (1 million people) so it has lots of good stuff, but it's so much less insane than London.
We saw
1.) a guy posing as Braveheart (or Mel Gibson as William Wallace, if you want to be picky) outside of Edinburgh Castle, which my dad thought was hilarious, and I thought was vaguely amusing but also lame. (Is it just our generation that refuses to enjoy stupid shit like a guy dressed up as Braveheart without rolling our eyes?) It was really funny when the Japanese tourists posed for a picture with him, though. Very odd.
2.) a dude in a kilt wailing on the old bagpipes with a guy playing an African-style drum.
3.) some very, VERY drunk Scottish bastards hanging out in a graveyard who told those of us on the ghost tour that we would be "haunting forever as ghosts" and "always be haunted ghosts." We nodded politely.
4.) many postcards of men with with their kilts blown up by the wind, revealing pale (and sometimes pretty good) pale Scottish arses.
5.) many Italians speaking English with bizzare Scottish-Italian accents and serving "jacket" potatoes with ingredients like mozzarella and roasted peppers instead of the typical (and hideous) Scottish and English fillings like baked beans or tuna and corn.
6.) a pub called Jenny Ha's.
7.) the new Scottish Parliament building, which is so bizzare looking, no one will ever, ever take the Scottish Parliament seriously. Oh wait......
8.) an underground room where animals were slaughtered during the sixteenth century. The ground is still red, and it smells like blood.
9.) a cemetary where a couple of "Burkers" (body snatchers) unearthed and removed the ring finger of a young woman who was still alive in her coffin. Apparently the cutting action woke her up, and she climbed out of her grave and went home.
10.) a set of collectable china celebrating the wedding of Prince Charles to Camilla Parker-Bowles
11.) the room where Mary, Queen of Scots' second husband was attacked and murdered.
Up next: The Isle of Arran.
Anyway, so Edinburgh is awesome. It's exactly the right size (1 million people) so it has lots of good stuff, but it's so much less insane than London.
We saw
1.) a guy posing as Braveheart (or Mel Gibson as William Wallace, if you want to be picky) outside of Edinburgh Castle, which my dad thought was hilarious, and I thought was vaguely amusing but also lame. (Is it just our generation that refuses to enjoy stupid shit like a guy dressed up as Braveheart without rolling our eyes?) It was really funny when the Japanese tourists posed for a picture with him, though. Very odd.
2.) a dude in a kilt wailing on the old bagpipes with a guy playing an African-style drum.
3.) some very, VERY drunk Scottish bastards hanging out in a graveyard who told those of us on the ghost tour that we would be "haunting forever as ghosts" and "always be haunted ghosts." We nodded politely.
4.) many postcards of men with with their kilts blown up by the wind, revealing pale (and sometimes pretty good) pale Scottish arses.
5.) many Italians speaking English with bizzare Scottish-Italian accents and serving "jacket" potatoes with ingredients like mozzarella and roasted peppers instead of the typical (and hideous) Scottish and English fillings like baked beans or tuna and corn.
6.) a pub called Jenny Ha's.
7.) the new Scottish Parliament building, which is so bizzare looking, no one will ever, ever take the Scottish Parliament seriously. Oh wait......
8.) an underground room where animals were slaughtered during the sixteenth century. The ground is still red, and it smells like blood.
9.) a cemetary where a couple of "Burkers" (body snatchers) unearthed and removed the ring finger of a young woman who was still alive in her coffin. Apparently the cutting action woke her up, and she climbed out of her grave and went home.
10.) a set of collectable china celebrating the wedding of Prince Charles to Camilla Parker-Bowles
11.) the room where Mary, Queen of Scots' second husband was attacked and murdered.
Up next: The Isle of Arran.
Thursday, July 21, 2005
So. I went to Scotland and England. The whole thing started with a trip to a horrible place that I like to call Newark, New Jersey. Our flight was delayed by 5 hours from K.C. , so we missed our connecting flight to London from Newark. We got the honor of elbowing and clawing for a space on a shuttle to the Newark Hampton Inn. After many hours of heart attack level stress involving much cursing and rude gestures at evil airline employees (there's nothing like a sweet, soothing New Jersey accent to lighten a mood) we got on a flight to London, where we promptly missed our connecting flight to Edinburgh and had to spend the night in London.
When we finally arrived in Edinburgh, it was great. (Don't ask for pictures, though--we hardly took any pictures for the first few days because we apparently thought someone else was going to do it for us. )
We visited Edinburgh Castle, toured a "close" (a cramped area of the old city now underground), went on a ghost walk where we heard a true story of a mad aristocrat who killed a houseboy and roasted him on a spit (It's true, I swear!), and drank lots of really good Italian coffee. Thank God the Italians made it to Scotland (although an Italian-Scottish accent is insane.)
OK, more later. I have to get back to working on an engineering report.
When we finally arrived in Edinburgh, it was great. (Don't ask for pictures, though--we hardly took any pictures for the first few days because we apparently thought someone else was going to do it for us. )
We visited Edinburgh Castle, toured a "close" (a cramped area of the old city now underground), went on a ghost walk where we heard a true story of a mad aristocrat who killed a houseboy and roasted him on a spit (It's true, I swear!), and drank lots of really good Italian coffee. Thank God the Italians made it to Scotland (although an Italian-Scottish accent is insane.)
OK, more later. I have to get back to working on an engineering report.
This is one of Megan's favorite signs from St. Andrews. It looks like it belongs in a Harry Potter movie. I wonder what they do to you if you walk on the grass.
And here is my dad standing in front of the North Sea in St. Andrews. I don't know what it is, but he just looks crazy in this picture.
Here we are in front of our very nice B&B in Bath. (Notice how Megan is as pale as a native Scot.)
Here is the obligatory London Eye & Big Ben picture from the top of a double decker tour bus.
This is one of my personal favorites: it's the scaffold where Anne Boleyn, Katherine Howard, Lady Jane Grey, and a few other posh people got their heads removed from their pale English necks. The timbered building in the background was built by Henry VIII for Anne, but she never got to use it, as she was a headless (and still pale) corpse.
This is the Isle of Arran. It's so beautiful.
This is another picture of Bath. In case you are a Jane Austen fan (you should be, by the way) you should rent "Persuasion." (The one with Amanda Root in it.) It's got lots of great scenes with Bath in it.
These are the Roman baths in the aptly named Bath. It's very touristy, but we liked it.
This is Mr. Darcy's estate from the A&E "Pride and Prejudice" movie Bridget Jones was so in love with. We drove 2 hours in the rain just to see it.
Here we are in front of a truly quaint, crap hotel (sorry--it's true) on the beautiful Isle of Arran off mainland Scotland.
Thursday, July 07, 2005
I was going to do a write up of my trip to Scotland and England today (since it has been a month since I've been home) but I don't feel like it now. When we were in Scotland Bob Geldof made his big announcement about the Live 8 concerts, and when we were in London I kept thinking how lucky we were to not have to deal with the insanity of being so close to Hyde Park while a massive concert was going on--now I'm just happy we missed all of this terrorist attack insanity.
The bizzare thing is that Meg and I have been watching the second season of 24 over the past several days b/c she had surgery on her feet and was stuck on the couch with ice packs on her ankles. When I woke up this morning it was like the show had carried over horribly into real life. I hate that feeling, because it seems like you can't sling a dead cat these days without hitting a book or movie about global terrorist conspiracies and Orwellian nightmare scenarios.
Why is it that no one can imagine a world in the future that doesn't look all that bad? Sometimes I just feel like moving out to North Dakota and learning how to dig my own latrines and knit my own parkas so I can hole up in a sod hut and read paperbacks until I finally freeze to death.
And other times negligent bloggers like me just write something cheery and even more trivial about what they have been doing and then go on their merry way and leave the serious thinking to the Frontline people and maybe Bill Moyers.
In conclusion--don't watch too much TV. And I will write about my trip next week, and add pictures if I can figure it out. As if you've been wringing your hands in anticipation =)
The bizzare thing is that Meg and I have been watching the second season of 24 over the past several days b/c she had surgery on her feet and was stuck on the couch with ice packs on her ankles. When I woke up this morning it was like the show had carried over horribly into real life. I hate that feeling, because it seems like you can't sling a dead cat these days without hitting a book or movie about global terrorist conspiracies and Orwellian nightmare scenarios.
Why is it that no one can imagine a world in the future that doesn't look all that bad? Sometimes I just feel like moving out to North Dakota and learning how to dig my own latrines and knit my own parkas so I can hole up in a sod hut and read paperbacks until I finally freeze to death.
And other times negligent bloggers like me just write something cheery and even more trivial about what they have been doing and then go on their merry way and leave the serious thinking to the Frontline people and maybe Bill Moyers.
In conclusion--don't watch too much TV. And I will write about my trip next week, and add pictures if I can figure it out. As if you've been wringing your hands in anticipation =)
