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!