One Year Ago Today-- April 30th

Exactly one year ago today…..

     We were examining Rosslyn Chapel. Oh, it was GORGEOUS, it was!
     It’s still in working order. And it used to be a Catholic church, but the Protestants stole it from us. Rude!

     When I’m rich and famous, I’m going to have a private chapel as beautiful as Rosslyn. I have a weakness for stained glass windows.  We had another issue with the camera and laptop deleting some of our pictures. So we have hardly any of Rosslyn Chapel. Sniff.

                                             STATUES

            The only picture of Rosslyn Chapel we have with people in it.

     We went to a used bookstore. It had so many old books in it, it was crazy. There didn't seem to be a system, but there were so many books that they were stacked up on top of each other on the shelves, in piles and towers on the floor, scattered behind the front counter....everywhere. Like if you took a book out from somewhere, several more were liable to fall down and make noise.
     It was dusty.
     It was awesome. =)

     My sister Amy found a scary red book titled "SATAN" which she brought over to Jim, and said politely, "This might interest you..." He wasn't amused. lol.

 


 We stopped for lunch and sat right by that window.

                                              DUCKS!


     We stopped for petrol and Amy and I took a moment to use the ladies' room, and on our way out, these two guys were heading into the men's room...the younger one was about forty on a good day... and they cat called us. Really, really loudly. It echoed around the gas station. And I was so red as we walked out. LOL. :)

RANDOM FACT: Someone in Scotland died all his sheep's coats pink because he thought the countryside was boring. True story. I saw the sheep.

One Year Ago Yesterday and Today: April 28th and 29th

Exactly one year ago yesterday....

     I was standing in Mary Queen of Scots' bedroom. In the Palace of Holyrood House. In Scotland.

     Again, there was the whole issue with "THIS STUFF IS OLD, FOLKS! IF YOU TAKE PICTURES, WE WILL ESCORT YOU OUTSIDE AND KILL YOU!!!" Okay, they weren't that radical, but they got the message through. =) So we couldn't take pictures. Which means we didn't get any of the inside of the Palace. Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahahahaaaaaaaaaa!!! :'( This was a big thing in most of the really cool places. Sniff. We took a lot of pictures of the outside. X-)

 I could get used to a view like this. Yep. I'm used to it. Guys, I wanna palace!

  Ain't it purty? :)










 Holyrood Palace is still in use: The Queen stays there when she visits Scotland. Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooh.
Eeep! This is the gate that only she is allowed to use.

                                        I have gate envy.

     Holyrood Abbey is in ruins. It used to be a Catholic church. And it still has insane amounts of majesty. I wish I could have seen in before it was destroyed. :-/

Shhhhhhhhhhh. We are being statues.

     RANDOM FACT: When I'm rich and famous, I want to have a backyard just like the Palace Gardens. They were the most impressive gardens ever. Flowers everywhere....thick, thick grass which smelled fantastic....bushes and trees which grew in a way that they made special, scecret looking little alcoves that seemed to be the perfect spot to read a book. I repeat: I want a garden like that. You get me one, I love you for life. (and even after... :)

This is where I wanted to read a book. It looks so peaceful! :)

See Holyrood Abbey in the back?













     When we were done there, we started home to the flat. (It was perfectly, centrally located, we could walk to almost anywhere in Edinburgh. Ish.) We stopped at Clarinda's Tea Shop for tea and scones...

     And later that evening, our friend, Jim, picked us up and we went out to dinner. :)


Exactly on year ago today: April 29th






Two words: Stirling Castle.







     I preferred Stirling Castle to Edinburgh Castle...it was more compact and built for battle. Yeah. Totally my kind of castle. :) Unfortunately, somewhere between being transferred to the laptop which my sister had brought and flying home, all the really good pictures got lost. They vanished. And I was sad. I am still sad. It was sad. But since Stirling was small, it didn't take long to look through.

     We explored the dungeons... I'm glad I never got imprisoned in a castle. Their dungeons are cold. But I had some serious love for the awesome lock.

 



 We had a look at the weavers:

Each of these tapestries were enormous. There were actually six different ones....and they all had to be done by hand. Each tapestry took two years to finish. All in all, it was a twelve year project.

I. Do. Not. Have. That. Much. Patience. **shakes head.**

They had scary waxworks in the castle kitchens:








Surreal...........................











We looked through the gift shop... And you know those coin machines, where you put the penny in and it squishes it into a long thin thingy with a different picture on it? Those were everywhere in Scotland. We sort of got addicted to them. If there was one: We used it. :)

   We went out to the battlements and viewed the view.....

That big tall tower on the hill? That's the Wallace Monument. I'll get to that in later posts. ;)

MORE CANOOOOONNNNNNNNNNNS!

   We got ice cream cones with chocolate sticks in them and got some really, really good pictures.... But the pictures...vanished. And I am sad. :-(

    We went to a town called Luss, which Jim, described as a "doll house" town. I found that description most appropriate.

Cute, yeah?

                                    We took a walk: 

And then! We went to the CELTIC STADIUM!!!! The Celtics are a Catholic football (aka soccer) team. IT was cool. 

We got a group picture in front of it. But we lost it. lol.... This day was one of my favorites while we were in Scotland. It was so fun. I was not a good sport about losing so many pictures. It was really depressing. 

RANDOM FACT: In general, I prefer the looks of British guys over American guys. I like the British look. There were a lot of REALLY HOT guys in Scotland. I had fun sightseeing. LOL :) 

God bless. Until tomorrow!

One Year Ago Today--28th

Exactly one year ago today....

Ahem. I forgot about the post. And when I remembered, I was at a different house and had forgotten to bring my journal. SO I am going to do two posts tomorrow. Alright?

Sniff. It's a bit awkward. :-}

One Year Ago Today--April 27th

Exactly one year ago today...

     Mahri, Kat, Amy, and I went and explored Edinburgh Castle. Why can't California have castles? I want one!

          Okay. It was awesome. Think about it. I was inside that. 

From left, Me, Amy, and Kat.

       Kat, Amy, and I all brought notebooks with us so we record the experience in our own words. No, they were not diaries, they were journals, and I will be most displeased if you refer to them as diaries. Periodically, when we had a moment, we would park ourselves down and scribble away in them. Maria found this to be very amusing and took a picture of it. Yeah....that us. Isn't we adorable? lol...

Pretty, yeah?

It was really frustrating, because a lot of the especially cool stuff was so old that we weren't allowed to take pictures of it. Like the War Memorial. That was a really solemn place that left me feeling very quiet... It was beautiful.

Or these, the Honors.  (Honours if you're using the British spelling...I think :)

There were some seriously awesome wax works....

We got pictures of cannons... I LOVE CANNONS! Like, it's kind of worrying how much I love cannons. They're cool. It's insane how happy they made me.

CANNONNNNNNS!!!!!

    We impressed a security guard by knowing who John Paul Jones was. (he was the founder of the American Navy for all you ignoramuses out there...he was also Scottish.) And then we asked said security guard to get a picture of us. He obliged.

We explored the museum inside the castle....

This was what was left of a door in the dungeons. An American prisoner had apparently been kept there during the American Revolution, because he drew a picture of a boat with an American flag on it. I even circled it for you, see?

I felt a lot like Riley from National Treasure when I looked at this. "Is it a....billion dollar pipe?"

We took a picture in a prison cell. Don't ask.

We inspected the barracks from the POW's during WWII, and pretended to eat the fake food set out at the table. =)

We headed into St. Margaret's Chapel.

This was St. Margaret's missal:

Amy really loved all the red telephone booths. So on our way home, we made her stop and pose.














We got fish-n-chips from Giuliano's and took it to the flat to enjoy. I love authentic fish-n-chips!

Random Fact: In Scotland, instead of saying goodbye, people say "cheers".