One Year Ago Yesterday and Today--May 4th and 5th

Exactly one year ago yesterday....

We did a lot of shopping on the Royal Mile. We got lots of souvenirs.

We were in the Camera Obscura.

Super fun place. :) Loads of optical illusions, a mirror maze, and other weird things. I like optical illusions. And mirror mazes. I love mirror mazes.

Mirror mazes.......so, so fun!

And there was this weird thing that took a picture of you, and could change how you look. For example.

                                                                                AMY before...and after.

We went to the roof....

And got pictures....Aren't we adorable?








There was this room that we went into that gave the impression of one person being much, much bigger than the other one.

I dominate you. Mwahahahah!

I may be small, but my heart is large... metaphorically speaking!

And the table that creeped me out slightly....

Forget it...I'm not eating that!














    And the incredibly cool mirror that doubled you and made you....disappear!!!

I found that place to be quite entertaining. :)



Exactly one year ago today-- May fifth.


Jim took Maria, Kit, Amy, and I to Glencoe. I have to admit. I am a huge fan of the landscape there. I love the ruggedness of it all. :)

I can't do the story of Glencoe justice. So, go HERE to read about it. Let's just say I finally got why my sister Maria had such an aversion to the Campbell tartan. DO NOT WEAR THAT TARTAN! It is evil. =)

That was the only drizzly day that we had while we were in Scotland. It's unusual to have two weeks of sunny days there.

Gosh. It's so pretty! More pictures! 

We stopped in at the gift shop and got postcards.

And looked through this telescope:

We stopped here on the way home. It was beautiful.

I'm writing a story about it.











     We got stuck in traffic for ages on the way home. We're fairly sure there was an accident. But it was a long wait. :)

God bless! :)

One Year Ago Today: May 3rd.

         Exactly on year ago today we were standing on Culloden Moor.

     Culloden is where the final battle of the Jacobite Rebellion took place. The Scots (who were brilliant at guerrilla warfare) decided to meet the English head on. The latter were armed with cannons, rifles, and many, many more men. The Scots had claymores and that's about it. And they got slaughtered.

     Culloden Moor is probably the most solemn place I've ever been to. It's almost unnaturally silent there, and the very atmosphere of the place demands respect. And it deserves respect! It is basically...a mass grave. We walked around the moor, and saw the places where the Scots lines stood, where the English lines stood, and where the two met in battle.

The Scots ran over this....

Entire clans were wiped out....

This cottage has been there since before the Battle Of Culloden, and that was in 1746. The wee place withstood a cannonball. Architecture back then was something else, eh?

This plaque was by the cottage.....

















Something about this made my chest hurt:

             "Cold the winds on the moor blows.
                  Warm the enemy's fire's glow.
                        Like the Harvest of Culloden,
                             pain, and fear, and death grow."
                                   (From the "Harvest of Culloden")


                                                           God Bless...

One Year Ago Today--May 2nd.

Exactly one year ago today.....

I was here:

                                   INCHCOLM ISLAND!

Absolutely, definitely, indubitably, this one of my two favorite days in Scotland. (The day at Stirling Castle being the other one...)

We left early and drove to Queensferry....












....where we waited for a while for the ferry to come. We hung out at a gift shop, bought a few things, and went for lunch. Amy attempted to write a postcard, but the table was a little wobbly, and I just couldn't resist jiggling it while she tried to write. Mwahahaha. We got chips (For Americans, we call them french fries...really yummy french fries.) to tide us over, and took a few pictures:

We left to catch the ferry and were chased by the restaurant owner, who was waving our (very expensive) camera at us and informing us that "We just left it sitting." Ahem. We did that a lot. True story.


We made it to the ferry and took more pictures:

We found this picture to be hilarious, and anyone who has watched Star Trek, particularly the Original Series, will get why. I mean.... dilithium crystals? And a main impulse engine?
USSS ENTERPRISE!?

And then....(*drumrolllllllllll*) We arrived.

     Inchcolm is a small island is just off the coast of Scotland, where, at one time, an Augustinian Abbey stood, until the 1500’s when it was destroyed and abandoned during Scottish Reformation. It was also used as a line of defense during the first and second World Wars, and bunkers from WWII are still standing to be explored.

I love, love, love exploring ruins. They are awesome. And it's really nice not to have those horrible signs that say, "No entry" or "Employees only beyond this point." (is it just me, or do those signs invariably make me want to surreptitiously look both ways and leap?)

                                                     Grin.

view from a window. :)

The Abbey had loads of little crevices in which to hide.

And tiny little rooms......

THEY WERE SO HAPPY TO BE THERE!!!!

Evil stairs that just kept twisting... And kept getting smaller, so that by the top, they were probably about two feet wide. Tops.

we haz a giggle.

We were higher than the seagulls at one point.

We went up to the anti-aircraft unit which was used during WWII.....

Shhhhh. We iz exploring.....

The haunted tunnel. It was much, much darker in real life. It got so dark in the middle of it that I couldn't see my feet.

We figured out how to set the timer on the camera and got a group shot.... I was standing in nettles. I hurted.










We caught the ferry back and managed to sneak in a visit to Linlithgow Castle....

     ......where King James and Mary Queen of Scots were born...

We got there right before closing time, so we had to literally run through it to see it all. I think we did a pretty good job.

This fireplace awed me.

I therefore proceeded to parade through it several times. =)

                 I went inside the wall, and I found it most delightful.

I couldn't resist putting this picture up. The flag looks so awesome.

What you can't see in this picture is the enormous chasm which was between the camera and us.











We like stairs.

A nice security guard let Amy unlock the giant door with the very heavy giant key. She was quite pleased.

I miss Scotland.








RANDOM FACT: I have a terrible fear of heights, but the only time I got vertigo when I was way up high was when I was climbing the twisty stairs that didn't seem to end. It was distressingly high up.


Until tomorrow then, pepes! Cheers.