Scotland Story: Christmas Morn

We, of course, wanted to be in church on Christmas morning! We walked down the streets to St. Giles Cathedral. We had seen this chap several times. He just stood on the street corner proudly in his kilt, as people passed by.

St. Giles was beautiful that morning. The hymns, pipe organ, stained glass, and rituals all pointed to Christ.

Afterwards, we made our way down to Carrubber's Christian Center. This is a protestant church built on land purchased by Dwight L. Moody. It is still clearly proclaiming the gospel and feeds the homeless on Sunday mornings. We experienced precious warm fellowship there, meeting several folks, including a local politician, pastors, families. They were so happy we joined them. On their own, my kids noted a big difference in this place. Yes, the Lord is alive and well in their hearts. It was obvious.

How could D.L. Moody have known that his investment then would be so fruitful for so long? He bought prime land on the Royal Mile.

We walked past St. Giles again. Such a beautiful place.

And then as we took a back road to go find a place to each lunch, I noticed this plaque and was so happy to have noticed it.

Scotland Story: Twas the Night Before Christmas

It was Christmas Eve, and we were enjoying our trip so much. After our quick Christmas market dinner, we spotted this hundreds year old sleigh.

Keep Calm and Eat Fish and Chips. Yum. (I was teased enough, so it seemed fitting to take my picture by the sign.)

This is perhaps the most unusual picture I took. The ancient/modern, dark/light.

The next morn would be Christmas! 

Scotland Story: Downtown Edinburgh

Downtown Edinburgh was beautiful! We walked the streets (and walked and walked and walked) and enjoyed the buildings and buses. I vastly prefer Inveraray and the countryside, but for at least one CampbellClanKid, the city was her highlight.

As we approached Christmas, CC mapped out some neat religious activities for us to do. He found which churches would be having services, what time, how we could walk there. This parish church was having a Christmas carol sing-a-long, so we came in.

We really were happy about it, ha ha! Just maybe a bit tired from walking.

Afterwards, they had tea and treats for a small fundraising fee. We filled our bellies and got warm before hitting the streets once again.

Cutest Christmas kid ever!

And for supper, we headed back to the Christmas market and tried the cup of fried potatoes/onions/sausage/cheese. Yes, it was good.

Scotland Story: Edinburgh Castle Inside

The inside of the castle was amazing. It was such a contrast to the castles sprinkled throughout the country that we had seen. This beautiful and original (!) hammerbeam roof found in the Great Hall (a place for state meetings) dates back to King James IV in the 16th century. Its design is the bottom of a ship, flipped upside down. I loved it!

This guy will always find the suits of armor.

It was really lovely to see it decorated for Christmas.

There was building after building, display after display. It was truly so much to take in. But this was one of my favorite parts. The old jail is there. I was amazed to hear it held Americans during the War for Independence! This is an original door, now behind glass.

And this was my absolute favorite! An American prisoner of war from 1776 carved the stars and bars into this door.

Here's an enlightened diagram.

I guess I haven't grumped too much on this blog about being cold. I'm blogging from my nice warm home in April (though it did snow today!). But we were COLD that day. A storm blew in, but that was our day to see it, so we persevered! And the castle was fabulous!

Scotland Story: Edinburgh Castle Outside

One thing CC certainly wanted us to see during our "city" time in Scotland was the Edinburgh Castle. Beautiful from the outside and within, it sits upon a rock high hill overlooking the city.

When we arrived in Edinburgh, CC parked the car at the hotel lot and said, "It stays." So everywhere we went, we walked. Many days that was many kilometers. But the walks were beautiful. We did get some rain and even some sudden blizzard like conditions one day, but on this day it was beautiful and crispy cold.

One fun thing we discovered is the cannon that is shot off every day at 1PM. This was so that the ship captains could set their time properly. Why 1 o'clock and not 12? Why, to save the gunpowder, of course. The Scots are frugal.

We hopped on a free tour by a lovely young Scottish gal. She was very informative and kind.

This beautiful building below was the Scottish National War Memorial and could only be photographed from the outside. It was formally opened in 1927 and honors the Scottish war heroes of both world wars plus more recent conflicts. It was so well done, and we felt it was extremely honoring. We even found where the animals who helped in the wars were honored. I am glad to have seen it.

Our Scottish guide offered to take a picture for us. She said she was once stuck in the South of the USA because of a cancelled flight. She experienced Southern hospitality and never forgot it.

Scotland Story: Stirling Castle

CC planned our drive to Edinburgh to take us to Stirling Castle on the way. The very kind chap at our first castle visit, Campbell Castle, helped us purchase a castle pass that would enable us to see several famous spots at a discount. The only catch was that it had to be within a certain time frame. When he realized we would not fit into it, he said, "Oh, just tear it off tomorrow, then you will fit in to the discount." This was so characteristic of the Scottish people. I don't think we encountered a single grumpy person in the entire country!

We drove through quite a storm that day, but pulled in ready to see a well preserved and famous castle, home to the Stewart dynasty. It sat on top of a hill surrounded by three steep sides, making in a natural defensive location. It was a combination of architecture from the 14th-18th century.

We went into the Great Hall, originally built in the late 1400's.

This hammerbeam roof was restored in 1999 to look just like the original. The wood craft was so amazing. I kept thinking of the original construction of these buildings without all the modern technology.

We enjoyed spotting gargoyles. It's so much more fun to see real ones than the ones in art and history books.

The castle was beautiful and full of "things" as opposed to the ruins we had been exploring. Still, this Campbell Clan has more fun on the ruins, to be honest. Big Ben wanted to pose next to this authentic armor.

The paintings and tapestries were beautiful.

In a couple of spots, there were costumed characters working on traditional crafts.

We finished up our tour. Our free guide was a funny and quirky, long white ponytailed guy. I wish I'd gotten his picture. He was thrilled to know we are from Memphis, the home of Elvis Presley. He looked a bit like an old time rocker himself. Additionally, he was impressed when asking the group questions, that at least one member (CC) knew the answers. We saw where Mary, Queen of Scots, was crowned at 6 days old after the untimely death of her father. The stories of her beheading, her last words, the details all became so fascinating when seeing all of this.

One last stop before we pulled out was to visit the small building called the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders Museum. It had paintings, medals, uniforms, documents that were so interesting. It was organized primarily by wars. So, we could walk through ancient battles, and it led us all the way to the modern wars in Afghanistan. One of Big Ben's favorite parts was to peek down into a simulated underground bunker from WWII to see a mannequin with his weaponry, helmet, and a pack of cigarettes. There were many heroes in Scotland, and we found the Campbell name listed over and over in lives given for their country and freedom.

Here's Big Ben posing with one of the ancient Highlander Campbell tartan uniforms. I think he'd look rather smart in it! I think if I were chasing bad guys with a bayonet, I'd want to run in a skirt too!