Thursday, October 18, 2007

Back to Edinburgh






I think we are now into Tuesday of ye old Scotland Vacation. Today we ventured back into Edinburgh-- Since we had already seen the Castle it was now time to walk the Royal Mile and see Holyrod Palace. We decided since the city was such a tough driving experience we would give public transportation a whirl. We drove the hour to the Forth Bridge and parked at the park and ride lot. The bus in was another hour but gave us both time to take in the views going into the city.

We got off the bus with the expectation that we might need a taxi or another"city" bus, but once in town decided to walk. We made our way to the Royal Mile zig-zaging through side streets. And made the decision to go uphill toward the castle first. The Royal Mile mainly consists of shopping, with a sprinkling of tourist attractions and Churches. We probably could have skipped it if we knew that in advance. But it was entertaining to window shop and duck into a few places. I had read about a whiskey tour and we decided to take the tour. It was very educational, we were intrigued by the old methods still used and the new technology that has been incorporated. Lesson of the day for me: If you buy a 15 year old bottle of Scotch and hold onto it for another 20 years.... its still just a 15 yr old bottle of Scotch... so drink up.
Mike was interested in buying a good, hard to find bottle of Scotch to share with Tim and Robin when he got home and had the good folks at the distillery pick him out something special. I personally didn't like the taste of any of it and was happy to pass up on anymore taste testing.

Coming back down the Royal Mile I could hear bagpipes... and was drawn to the front of St. Giles Church (Which I learned was part of "the church of Scotland" and not a Catholic Church even though it certainly looked like one). The old church was as beautiful on the inside as it was on the outside but sadly I refused to pay the $2.00 fee for picture taking and only have the memories in my head. It was huge, stone and ornate inside with many little alcoves each having some sort of remembrance to someone who forged their way through scottish history. Lots of carvings in Marble and stone and of course alot of stained glass. This site has some very lovely photos of the inside if you are interested Click here We continued on our way checking out the sites and found a great little cafe to grab a bite to eat. We totally loved the hard crusty bread they use in Europe to make sandwiches with and got one every chance we had.





Our time flew by in Edinburgh and before we knew it we had to find our way back to the bus. We had big dinner plans for the evening at our castle . A Scottish Night. It was billed as a authentic scottish meal (with haggis) and music, poems and dancing.



We got home with just enough time to eat and walk to the great hall for dinner at 8pm. The evening started abit slow. There were only 2 servers for about 15 tables. And in between each of the five courses our host would tell alittle scottish joke or play alittle music. When the haggis was brought out a big production was made of it. Seems you either like haggis or you don't.




For an explaination of haggis:


For those of a stronger disposition, the haggis is very probably a dish that goes back for as long as there have been sheep in Scotland. This has never been a wealthy country, and the rural areas in particular have always had to struggle hard to make the best use of the limited resources available. When you kill a sheep it is possible to preserve or store the meaty parts relatively easily. But parts like the lungs, heart and liver tend to go off pretty quickly.
At some point someone had the bright idea of mincing these elements of the sheep; mixing the mince with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt; stuffing the result into its stomach; and boiling it for a number of hours. This is the haggis: and you were warned! When ready it is traditionally served with "neeps and tatties": mashed turnips and potatoes.







I actually liked the haggis...but in the small dose that I had it in. When dinner was finally over the entertainment came on full force. We had a young lady who was a highland dancer show us a few steps. We heard a few traditional songs and then it was more dancing-- this time they asked us to all join in to learn. Mike and I resisted at first. But were coaxed out to the middle of the room. Instead of addressing us all by our names our host referred to each of us by our state/or country name: for us it was alot of heckling for VA to come dance. Because we took our time getting out there we were lucky that a nice scottish couple (who knew all the steps) split Mike and I up.. I went with the husband and he went with the wife-- and for the next hour we learned about 4 scottish dances.. laughing and out of breath we were happy to sit down when we thought it was over.... but as we tried to say our goodbyes our host said ONE MORE DANCE-- the Virginia Reel... how could we leave without taking part in our "state dance?" hahaha Mike and I realized we hadn't done the Va Reel since about 4th grade!! but we did our best to pretend we knew what we were doing-- The best part is we got to meet some people we would be taking a tour with the next day- gave us all something to talk about in the long van ride!

1 comment:

kok said...

Haggis ! you are an adventurous woman! looks like you had a great time. scotland was a place my mother in law always wanted to visit but never got the chance.