The Amazing Rosslyn Chapel

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John Knox House in Edinburgh

I didn’t wake up this morning until 8am; it was gloomy, dark and kind of drizzly. We decided to just have breakfast at the hotel to save time and it was toast and yogurt for me. We walked down High Street and poked around in the shops until the John Knox house opened. This is the oldest house in Edinburgh. John Knox was a Protestant Reformer in the 16th century. The house itself was built in 1470 and is owned currently by the Church of Scotland. The house features a fine wooden gallery and a hand painted ceiling. The house isn’t large and it only took about 15 minutes to tour.
John Knox House

Rosslyn Chapel

We then went back to the hotel and packed up. We walked down to get the car leaving the bulk of the luggage in the hotel lobby; we made the drive back to the hotel no problem (I was worried about the one way streets). After loading up the car, we headed off to Rosslyn Chapel which is south of Edinburgh in the village of Roslin.

Rosslyn Chapel (of the DaVinci Code movie fame) was founded in 1446. We toured the inside of the chapel with an audio guide and a map. There was a service going on while we were there, so it was awkward to look around and really enjoy the beautiful and unique chapel. The entire chapel is covered by a free standing steel structure which was erected in 1997 to help dry out the stones. There’s a walkway you can go up on to look more closely at the outside of the chapel. I took a walk around the staging and mom waited on the ground.
Undiscovered Scotland's Rosslyn Chapel page

Back to Glasgow

It was still raining lightly so we headed back to the car and off to Glasgow where will stay at the Airport Holiday Inn before flying home tomorrow morning. We got stuck in bumper to bumper traffic for miles and miles on the M8. It took about an hour and a half to get from Edinburgh to Glasgow which is about 50 miles.

Finally we got to the Holiday Inn at Glasgow Airport and literally the hotel is about 20 feet away (across the street) from the terminal building. The weird thing is they have no luggage carts at the hotel! The receptionist said to look outside for an airport cart. We did and there weren’t any. So we made 2 trips up to the room with all our stuff, first all the large suitcases and then all the various nonsense and shopping bags that were all over the car.

We had been going to eat lunch at the hotel and then return the car since it was already after 3pm. We went into the hotel bar area (that’s the only place that serves food at this time of day) and the bartender said to take a seat and she would be right over. We were the only ones there. We sat and waited. First 2 guys came in and she waited on them, then more and more people in their group came in. So I went over to ask her if we could order at least some soda and tea and she said she was just waiting on them first and she’d be over when she could! What! By now there were about 10 of them so I reminded here we had been there before them and she just rolled her eyes at me.

Okay that was enough for me. We stopped and spoke to the restaurant manager on the way out and just got a blank stare when I told him how the bar server had treated us. However another young server who was nearby told us we should just go over to the airport terminal and eat at Frankie and Benny’s. It was a good recommendation!

We left and finished emptying the car and returned it to Europcar about 100 meters down the street from the hotel. We walked across the street to the terminal building and found the restaurant. We split a pizza and really spicy onion rings; they tasted awesome! We looked around the terminal for a book for me to read on the plane tomorrow, but couldn’t really find anything light and fluffy to read. So I settled for a science fiction book by Terry Pratchett that looks funny.

We came back to the room and reorganized and repacked as much as possible! Yikes - I don’t know how I’m going to fit my dirty laundry in my suitcase!!! We watched the British version of America Idol called the X Factor. Oh my - It was just as 'bad' (by that I mean the wide variety of talent or lack there of!!) as American Idol!

We went down to have dinner in the hotel restaurant about 8:30- which was another fiasco! We both ordered the 8oz beef fillet and I ordered medium and mom got medium well. Well I’m pretty sure the people in the next booth over got my steak! Those people came in just after us and I heard the person who brought their food say one was a fillet. Sooooo - 45 minutes later our food finally came out. This was after we kept asking where our food was. Mom’s was medium to medium well which was fine, but mine was beyond well done and the texture of shoe leather! I think my steak stayed on the grill while they cooked another one after they gave one of ours to the wrong table. Anyway it would have been good if it was cooked properly and was edible. They took 20% off the entire bill, but I think they shouldn’t have charged us at all!

I showered right after dinner and put the stupid arm brace on. We have to be at the Aer Lingus counter around 8am tomorrow to get seat assignments.

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Photos

John Knox house2
John Knox House

Rosslyn Chapel
Details of the Chapel - there was a service going on inside and scaffolding covering most of the exterior

Crazy Statue
Enroute from Edinburgh to Glasgow

Bank Hotel
Near our hotel in Edinburgh

Siteseeing bus
Siteseeing bus similar to the one we took in Edinburgh!

John Knox house1
View down the street to the John Know House