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!!

Lowest of Lows and Highest of Highs

 Today we visited the Culloden Moors.  As picturesque as the area is, its very sobering to think of that battle.  It was more of a slaughter that kept raging long after the 40 minute battle was over with.  I say that because for years and years afterward, if anyone was found to be speaking Gaelic, they would be arrested or put to death on the spot. The house pictured was from that time frame and is at the beginning of the trail leading to the battlefield - its so small! Also, the display of weapons were things that were found on the battlefield - the shields even had chunks out of the edges from the swords and dents in it from the bullets. 

An extra sobering piece of information we learned as we passed by those last plaques (the square ones) was that the dead from the Scots side of the battle were buried in mass graves.  One clan alone had a grave that was 12 feet wide and at least that many feet wide.  

As we left there and made our way up to the highest village in the Highlands - Tomintoul - we saw these "hairy coos" along side the road.  Our driver was nice enough to stop and let us grab a photo of them.  Yes, I totally fan-girled over these cows 😂 I mean, in my defense, I've only ever seen miniature hybrid versions of them. haha We then were able to see the area where Balmoral Castle is - this is where Queen Elizabeth vacations.  We were also told that Prince Charles and "that woman" have a hunting cabin on the premises (they still don't have a great opinion of Camilla around here, can you tell?!). The area is so beautiful and breathtaking.

 

We stopped at a cute little diner in Tomintoul and had lunch before heading out of the Highlands to the Northern shoreline.  The North Sea is so vast and almost intimidating (I'm a land-locked-girl, guys, don't judge lol). We made our way to Dunnottar Castle and Stonehaven village. The water is so clear along the shoreline by the castle, and the stairs to get to the castle will do you in 😂 I got my steps in on those staircases alone! Inside the castle, they have the real crown jewels on display...in a photograph LOL  Also - that castle is haunted!  I've toured a haunted castle and lived to tell the tale!!

At the village of Stonehaven, they opened a museum just for us to look around in and, well, I got in trouble...oops!  It was part of the display but I had to have a little fun 😜

After that, we went to dinner as a whole group and then Chris and I caught the Scotland version of Uber and went to the beach.  We hunted for seashells, watched the ships come in to harbor, and we walked in the North Sea!  Such a cool experience!

By the way, these last 3 pictures were taken at 10:15 PM.  It doesn't really get dark here, we're so far North.

Tomorrow, we head to Edinburgh, with a few other stops along the way.  I can't wait to see what other great adventures we can have!

High Road, Low Road - Low Tide...No Ferry

 This morning we met up with our tour guide and were given some unfortunate news (for most people anyway).  The tide was too low so they cancelled our ferry ride.  While I was sad because I had been interested to see what that would look like, I wasn't so sad about not having to worry about sea-sickness (which I'm completely prone to).  In its stead, we got to tour Scotland's most photographed castle: Eilean Donan Castle! So, off we went on our journey up to the Highlands from Glasgow.  Most of the way up looked like this:

Pretty dismal, right?! Except it wasn't.  It was rather enchanting to see the mountains peeking through the mist - the pictures just don't capture that part well at all.  Our guide told us that she's been doing this tour-guide-gig for 25+ years and it never gets old, driving through the Highlands. Her favorite part is seeing the heather in full bloom, the spectacular vision of purple hillsides for miles around you.  That doesn't happen until August though, so we were kinda bummed that we wouldn't be able to see that one in person this trip.  Then we rounded another bend and the sun peeked through the mist just enough that we saw an entire hillside of purple.  It was jaw-dropping!  When we asked her about it Marge said it was probably Rhododendrums. Regardless of what it was, the vision was a wonderful blessing for us to behold!

Along the way, and just before the "purple beauties" sight, we made a "comfort stop" and there was this bagpiper serenading us while we *ahem* did our business. LOL This was also our last glimpse of Loch Lomond. (I can't get the video to load, but maybe when I get home to my own computer I can work some magic there haha)

After we were mesmerized by the purple hillsides, we headed even further up the canyon roads and, let me tell you - THOSE ROADS ARE SO NARROW!  They are seriously treacherous - it made me so glad we weren't the ones driving!!  Tour buses are especially scary when they meet another bus or large truck.  Each large vehicle must slam on their brakes to keep from hitting each other.  Then one of them must back up to wider spot in the road to make room to pass and the other one must pass with extreme caution (sometimes adjusting 2-3 times to just squeak by and not scrape paint off the sides of both vehicles). Not much phases our tour guide but in one of those instances, she yelled out "Jesus, Mary, and Joseph and the wee donkey!".  I'm not sure why that made me laugh, but it cracked me up!  Maybe it was the "wee donkey" part?

Next, we drove toward Isle of Skye - if we couldn't ferry past it, we decided to drive right on to the Isle and have a look-see before heading to the castle tour. Along the way, we saw the train station where the first Harry Potter movie was filmed (even though in the book, the platform is in London).  They had the local school children play the extras on the platform and in a couple of the train scenes.  How fun is that?! We drove over this amazing bridge to the Isle of Skye in the village of Kyleakin, had a quick stop to say we'd been there and grab a picture, and then we were off to the castle!

Eilean Donan Castle was smaller than Stirling Castle, but still so full of history and fun around every corner!  They don't allow photography inside the castle to help preserve some of the really old relics within its walls, and also to protect some of the family heirloom treasures displayed there from theft (I think). I did sneak this picture on our way out the door (the attendant said it was ok, I promise, no rules were broken nor were any precious historical artifacts hurt).

Those last two were actually outside the castle, still on the grounds.  We went exploring some on the shoreline and grabbed a few more amazing shots:

We then made our way to - *drumroll* - LOCH NESS!!!  We didn't see Nessie, unfortunately, but we did see the castle ruins which she likes to frequent though!

 

We stopped for the night in Inverness (Inver means "mouth of"), so this town is located at the mouth of Loch Ness and it opens up to the sea!  We walked down to the pier and walked along the shoreline.  Since it's low tide, we found some fun rocks and shells.  We made our way back toward town and managed to get in to a "reservations only" restaurant (only because they'd just had a cancellation)!  How fancy!  What better way to spend my anniversary dinner than in an upscale and posh restaurant that only takes reservations?! They must have known we were coming 😂

Also, here in the Highlands is the only place here in Scotland where they have a Gaelic-only-speaking college (I think it was on the Isle of Skye.  As such, about 50% of the population knows that beautiful language.  All the signs have info in both English and Gaelic. 

Overall, it was such a wonderful and magical day for me, being able to spend my anniversary with my sweetheart in one of my bucket-list places I've only ever dreamed of visiting.  Like I posted the other day - Dreams really do come true ❤