Day 10-Road Trip to Edinburgh

NOTE: This is a long one.

ANOTHER NOTE: I've tried for several minutes to upload the photos fro this entry, but Travelblog is apparently having some kind of problems in that area. I'll try again next time to upload them, even if they don't go with that particular post, or edit this one to add them in. Apologies for the inconvenience.

I almost beat the sun up by rising at 4:30 this morning, but it's first, faint rays were already reaching across the early morning sky. I listened as the birds chirped and I could just barely make out the sheep grazing in the shadowy field next to the estate. I know the sheep lie down and sleep; I've seen them all gathered in one area of the field at dusk, lying on the ground. Now I wonder if they get up and down all night grazing off and on or if they simply are going to be awake before me no matter how early I get up each day, lol.

The sky is overcast an hour later as the light of the rising sun is diffused but bright enough to bring full visibility to the early morning world. Fortunately, the temperature seems moderate from inside the stone walls of the castle cottage and I'm hoping we have a safe, enjoyable drive over to the eastern side of the country to visit Edinburgh. Our plan is to leave in about 30 minutes at 6am and with a planned stop along the way we hope to avoid the morning traffic jam the besets this big city as it does most others around the world.

We actually departed the cottage ahead of schedule at 5:45am, so that by the time we had filled the tank at the petrol station it was 6am as we began the drive. The country roads of Scotland are narrow, winding and dip and up and down like a rollercoaster, but that is not so bad as it makes you drive slowly and carefully and allows you to enjoy the beauty of the countryside.

We stopped in the small town of Callander at 8am to have breakfast and discovered none of the restaurants, cafes or even many of the businesses were open yet. We ended up finding a bakery that served filled sandwiches with eggs, sausage, bacon, etc and ordered those to eat while we stood at their counter. That took an hour, which was longer than we had intended but Callander is the only town or village of any size on our route between Oban and Edinburgh.

I must admit, I had no small amount of trepidation about driving into such a large city as Edinburgh, considering the steering wheel of the car and the side of the road you drive on are opposite of that in the states and what I have been in the habit of driving fro 35 years. Fortunately I had a week's practice and experience of driving around the country getting used to the differences, but still I was a little concerned about how I do in a large bustling city with heavy traffic.

We moved from the small country roads to the M9 motorway (the equivalent of our Interstates in America) and moved with the flow of traffic into Edinburgh. We had excellent directions from a gentleman in the Tourist Information Centre in Oban and my father-in-law's exemplary navigational skills and maps which assured that, if I could pilot us safely and surely, we would arrive at our planned destination in one piece and ready to tour the city.

Around 10am, we entered the portion of the city (The Old City) we intended to spend the day in and found a parking place that was about a mile away. We walked a short distance together and then split up to go our separate ways; myself to tour the what I was interested in and Cindy, her mom and dad to tour the Edinburgh Castle and parts of The Royal Mile.

It was 11am by the time I had walked across town and stepped inside the Scottish National Portrait Gallery carrying my camera and laptop inside my backpack. Unfortunately, but understandably and as is the case with all galleries, no photography is permitted inside. I concentrated on the "Eminent Victorians", "From Independence to Union" and "The Age of Burns and Scott" exhibitions, bypassing or walking quickly through "The Twentieth Century" and "Mural Balcony" sections and the special "Caricatures" exhibition. By being selective in my viewing I was able to leave the Gallery after only an hour. An interesting fact that I discovered during my viewing was that specific family or clan patterns on tartans did not become established until the end of the 18th century.

I left and walked about 3/4 of a mile to the National Galleries of Scotland, which sits right next to the Royal Scottish Academy. Though my stomach was reminding me that it was time for lunch, I could not resist spending about 2 hours drifting through the various floors, wings and exhibitions. I know some people find it strange, but I find it infinitely refreshing, soothing and enlightening to enjoy works of art, especially those of masters such as Botticelli, Titian, Degas, Monet, Rembrandt, Gainsborough, Van Dyck and others. During this visit, I fell in love with the style of a Dutch painter, Godfried Schalcken, and a painting I had never seen that showed a boy blowing on a firebrand in order to light a candle. The technique and lighting were absolutely mesmerizing to me and I stood there for what seemed like ages just soaking in the atmosphere of the scene and examining the brushstrokes and techniques used to achieve the almost photo realistic lighting effects. They also had an excellent touring exhibition titled "Venus Rising", a collection of different versions and visions of Venus, Goddess of Love with the centerpiece being the original "Venus Anadyomene (Venus Rising from the Sea)" by Titian.

By now I was starving, so I intended to walk about another 1/2 mile over to the Royal Museum and Museum of Scotland, hoping to find a place to eat lunch along the way. Leaving, I got this picture of workmen assembling an outdoor statue display next to the National Galleries. After I took the picture they smiled and waved, seemingly amused that I found their work worthy of a photograph.

Walking to the Museum, I stumbled upon another place I wanted to visit, The Writer's Museum. This small, out of the way museum is located in Lady Stair's House, which was built in 1622 inside a charming courtyard and houses historical accounts, portraits and memorabilia belonging to three of Scotland's most famous writers, Sir Walter Scott, Robert Burns and Robert Louis Stevenson. I ended up spending another 45 minutes touring through this wonderful display on three separate floors.

On my way to the museum I passed "The Elephant House" a small cafe where it is rumored that author J.K. Rowling sat and wrote part of her first "Harry Potter" novel, sipping tea and watching children from the nearby school walk by, supposedly the basis for Hogwart's Academy.

Across the street from "The Elephant House" was a little place with a take away food business on the street level and a cozy cafe below called "The Honey Pot". While the food on the menu posted outside looked good, it was the promise of free Wi-fi that drew me downstairs. Before long I had my laptop up and connected, posting some more to this blog and enjoying a chicken breast sandwich with lettuce and tomato, a salad and tortilla chips while sipping a Coke. I also got to read and answer some e-mail and catch up on local news back home.

After that I took a whirlwind walk through the Scottish Heritage section of the Royal Museum and Museum of Scotland and then walked back across town to our designated meeting spot to rendezvous with Cindy and her parents. I'll pick up their portion of their touring from here.

They spent most of their time where they started, the Edinburgh castle and The Royal Mile. As you can see from the pictures Cindy took, they were able to see some wonderful history of Scotland and get some spectacular views of the city of Edinburgh from the castle which sits above it. They learned about Saint Margaret and Greyfriar's Bobby, as well as getting to view the Scottish Crown, Sword and Scepter and the legendary Stone of Destiny. CIndy took a lot of great pictures and I'm going to try and include as many as I can. They lunched at Greyfriar's pub around 1:30 and then visited several shops along Candlemaker Row (through there are no candlemakers there) and then met back up with me to head home.

We pulled out of our parking space at 6pm and thanks to my trusty navigator who was surrounded by maps, star charts, his GPS and a sexton, we found our way out of Edinburgh to the M9, then back to the country roads heading home. We stopped again in Callander around 7pm for an hour's dinner at a delightful pub named The Claymore Pub on the main street, then continued back to our cottage, finally arriving at 10:15pm. We were all tired and my feet and legs felt like I had almost walked them off, so we retired to bed almost immediately and slept soundly through the night.

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