The Sword in the Stone

 No, you didn't miss this day's post, and no, I didn't forget to post.  Thursday happened to be my least amount of steps put in this week (info courtesy of my fitbit watch), and that slight slow-down caused me to crash.  That was the best I've slept this week (I'm one that tends to do best in familiar environments when it comes to sleeping)! Anyway, on to Thursday's adventures!

Today we left Aberdeen and meandered south along the coast to the Scone Palace, located in Perth (it's pronounced Skoon Palace in Pearth).  When we arrived, we were told there would be no photography inside the palace, as it is still personal residence and we didn't want to invade the family's privacy (as if walking through their house wasn't invasion haha).  If you go to a search engine, however, and type in Scone Palace Perth, you'll find many pictures of the displays inside.  They have one of the largest, if not the largest, collections of white statues that are pure ivory (it was a couple centuries ago, folks, different times indeed). The detail on each little statuette is so detailed and intricate, and I was standing a ways away from them (no touchy the antiques!). The fourth (I think) Earl of Mansfield (the owner of the estate), was so generous and kind hearted.  He never turned away a Scotsman in need.  One story of his generosity has actually been turned into a movie - Belle: this is a movie about a young girl he helped raise because a relative came to him and asked for his assistance in raising his illegitimate child. Her name is Dido (just keep in mind that its Hollywood - cinematic liberties have been taken with the story-line somewhat. The Earl of Mansfield (I forget which one...oops) had the largest collection of China settings in the country.  He had so many that if you came to stay, you wouldn't eat off the same place setting twice, no matter how long your stay lasted! That's an awful lot of dishes! Another cool bit of info from the tour there was that the floor in the main hallway dates back to the 1500's; the original floor is still in great repair.  You can't dance on that floor though - not because it's unsturdy, but because they have a display of paper machet pottery in there and just walking across the floor makes them sway!  One the grounds of this palace, they have King Arthur's sword in the stone.  Chris and I had a try at our luck at pulling the sword out.

I wasn't successful, but Chris was!  It was an accident, and the caretaker that was watching us, laughed and said that it was just a prop, and it didn't count.  We put the sword back.  Rude! 😂 Oh well, it's probably for the best, I don't think I could stand life as a Courtier.

After the palace tour, we headed to St. Andrews.  We had to navigate around lots of crowds there because they were getting things set up for the British Open as well as graduation day for St. Andrews University (I think grad was today, in fact).  We didn't wander too much into the town, but they had a fun aquarium that we decided to go to.  Some of those fish were as big as Chris! 

Those piranha are looking at my hand very suspiciously...

After that, we headed to Edinburgh.  We had a small drive through the city (it's crazy busy here, goodness, it's a little intimidating, to say the least), and then made it to our hotel.  We had a small amount of time to drop our stuff off in our room and get ready for a night out with our tour group - The Ceremony of the Haggis!  We watched a fun performance with bagpipes, fiddles, flutes, dancers, and singing.  It was such a fun, interactive show, and we learned how the Haggis is made and their prayer of thanks for it!  If you're not sure what Haggis is...don't google it!  It's like eating a hot dog or bratwurst...just don't think about what your eating.  It's stuffing-like texture and sausage-like flavor is very interesting.  Not my favorite thing I've tried while here, but not the worst either LOL

Such a fun evening and I would recommend this show to anyone!!