Another Day of Rest

Friday - our last full day at the resort.  We had a restful lie in this morning, a duck-feeding session and some miniature golf this morning. Keith got quite a bit of work done on our pictures and I got our newly laundered clothes repacked. This afternoon we picked up a few supplies in Penrith and stopped for an early dinner at The Little Chef.  Isaiah ate so much food but behaved himself very well.  It was a relatively uneventful day but the perfect way to spend our final few hours in the Village.

Haggis Day

We wanted to start out early today and we actually made it on the road by 7:45am.  Thankfully, the route to Edinburgh was straight forward and I had little navigating to do until we were actually in the city.  Isaiah had a strange sleep last night and I was up quite often with him and didn't get much sleep so I was able to do some catch up on the way.

Our first view of Edinburgh Castle was majestic.  It is set up high on a cliff with shear walls and is visible from all directions.  We found parking at the bottom of the cliff and started the long march upwards.  We got our tickets and made it just in time for the beginning of a guided tour.  Our tour guide was an older man, kilted, and had a great Scottish accent.  He told us about each of the buildings in the castle: Saint Margaret's Chapel, The Royal Apartments (where Mary Queen of Scots lived, and gave birth to her son James), The Banquet Hall and so on.  We saw the 6 canons Queen Victoria ordered be stationed on the outer wall and the field gun they fire every day at 1 o'clock.  He explained that they fire the gun at 1 so that all of the ship captains and everyone in the castle can synchronize their time pieces. "Why not 12 noon?" he asked us.  The rest of the world uses 12 noon but not the Scots.  He explained that if they were to use noon, they would have to use 12 rounds of ammunition - and the Scots don't like to be wasteful - so 1 o'clock it is. 

We also got to see Scotland's crown jewels.  In 1993, Queen Elizabeth opened an exhibition that relates Scotland's rich history of kings and queens.  In 1996, Her Majesty ordered that the Stone of Scone, or the Stone of Destiny be brought back to Scotland.  For centuries it had been part of the throne for the Coronation ceremony in Westminster Abbey.  Apparently, this block of sandstone was used in the crowning of the first Scottish King.  However, this Scottish relic must be returned to the throne in Westminster for the coronation of any King or Queen of the United Kingdom.  It was a very neat piece of history we learned.

After we browsed the gift shop we spend the afternoon on the Royal Mile.  We ate some lunch at an Italian restaurant called Bella Italia.  I know, I know - Italian food in Scotland - Shame on us.  But we did each try some haggis in the first shop we went in.  We both though it tasted pretty good but weren't sure we wanted any more.

At the end of the Royal Mile is the Holyrood Palace.  We didn't actually know about this place before we stumbled upon it, but it is in fact, the Queen's Royal Palace in Scotland.  We perused the gift shop and thought about taking the tour, but it was a bit expensive.  Instead we walked round the outside and took some pictures and leafed through the guide book. 

After some pictures near the Parliament building and a meandering walk back to the Mile we stopped for some steamed milk at Starbucks and went back to the car.  We both found Scotland and the Scots, for that matter, wilder than England.  They are fiercely proud of their history and heritage - and for good reason.  Edinburgh reminded me of Ottawa as far as cities go.  I imagine London to be more like Toronto: skyscrapers, concrete, lots of cars and people and fashion. 

We got back home shortly after 9pm.  Isaiah was a monkey since he had been either in the stroller or car seat 95% of the day.  After some play time and a bath, he went to sleep around 10:45. Keith and I followed shortly after - it had been a big day - a very good, exciting, and big day.

Laundry Day

Today we're spending close to home base.  There was some discussion early this morning about whether we could do most of our laundry in the bathtub or if we had to pay the money and do it in the washing machine.  We decided to compromise. The really dirty clothes that would require scrubbing went into the washer and the others are now soaking in the bathtub.  Keith just agitated them with the vacuum cleaner-wand.  He's so very resourceful.

We spent part of the day feeding the ducks.  There are at least 20 ducklings here and about 10 adult ducks.  I love ducks.  These ones are particularly friendly and many will come close enough to eat out of your hand.  Isaiah also loves ducks.  He likes to race the ducks for the bread we throw for them.  He likes to try to pick up the duckings too. He's nearly succeeded a few times.  It is very cute to watch. 

Most of our laundry was done by dinner time and was either in the dryers across the way or hanging on our patio furniture.  We decided to take advantage of the leisure facilities.  My mom bought Isaiah some board shorts for our trip so we got all swim-suited up and headed for the pool.  I've taken Izer swimming once before so he wasn't too weirded out by the experience.  It was fantastic to watch he and Keith play together in the kiddie pool. 

It felt so good to have a quiet day at home and to get the laundry done.  Isaiah was so glad to have a day away from his stroller and car seat and just to play.  The downtime also helped us get ready for our big trip to Scotland tomorrow.

Relics from Another Age

We had a bit of a later start this morning, but we got to Carlisle around 11:30.  We came to see the Castle and Cathedral and then move on to Birdoswald Roman Fort and Hadrien's Wall.  Carlisle is way up near the Scottish border and was a key defensive position against invasions.  It also served as a holding place for Mary Queen of Scots in the 1500's after her husband was murdered and she, being forced to abdicate her throne, sought asylum in England under the reign of her cousin Queen Elizabeth.  Lizzy didn't quite know what to do with Mary since she was Catholic and had James, her son as her heir.  Queen Elizabeth did not have an heir and there were still many Catholic sympathizers in England, so Mary was a considerable threat to her crown.  As a result, she imprisioned Mary in Carlisle Castle for a time, and then moved her and her court of servants to a number of castles through the country as a means of deterring any plotting to rescue her, until she was finally moved to the Tower of London for almost 20 years before Elizabeth finally had her executed.

Another interesting part of the history of the Castle was when the Scottish heir, Bonny Prince Charlie lead a revolt trying to reclaim the English and Scottish throne for his father James III, who was forced out by William of Orange.  Prince Charlie retreated back into Scotland and a garrison of his troops were forced into the dungeons at the castle and held there with no food or water.  As the stones began to weep water, the soldiers would press their tongues against them for moisture.  These "licking stones" were clearly visible, and very disturbing.

After we finished at the Castle and I bought a great book on Castles and Keith bought a trebuchet pencil sharpener we walked over to the Cathedral.  It was neat to see the little church community on Abbey St.  They had a little restaurant and shop alongside the beautiful cathedral.  It was a busy place, which was great to see since a few of the churches we've visited have been desolate places, beautiful, but almost dead.

After a couple of wrong turns, we were on our way to the Roman Fort.  Along the way we stopped in at Lanercroft Priory.  This was a beautiful ruin of a Priory but the Chapel was still in use.  At Birdoswald we listened to a brief history about the fort and the wall and then walked over the ruin and explored the outer walls where sheep grazed.  It was a bit odd to see sheep wandering around in the middle of this relic from the first century AD.  Hadrien's wall is only about waist high and one to three feet thick now, but it used to tower at 15 feet high and 3 or more feet thick.  It also used to be nearly impenetrable due to the towers and milecastles, forts and patrols.

Getting so much accomplished in one day, we felt quite pleased with ourselves.  It was a good thing Keith knew his way home because I couldn't keep my eyes open.  He said I looked cute with my little head bobbing up and down.