the continued bit

Here's the thing about Stirling Castle. It ain't the same castle that William Wallace would have seen. I forget where the movie Braveheart left off in the life of William Wallace but (spoiler!) he was eventually executed for all that hearty bravery stuff. And boy, when they did him in they did it good. He was executed, then drawn and quartered then his body parts were sent off to different parts of the kingdom as a lesson to be learned to those who wish to defy the king. Anyway, so did not heed the warning and Robert the Bruce took up the cause, rousted the English out of Stirling Castle and then had it torn down so that the English couldn't ever take it over again. I'm sure the tour guide told who built the castle that's there now but remember, I had climbed 246 steps at another monument earlier in the day and I'm sure my eyes kinda glazed over at about that point in the history lesson. The highlights of this castle I do remember is that the Great Hall has a facade the is as close as they can get to what the entire castle would have looked like at the time ie, it's kind of yellow. All castles were covered over with a kind of plaster and were actually white. The exterior treatment was meant to announce the King/Queens presence but after castles sort of went out of fashion nobody kept up the appearance. The current chapel at Stirling was built to replace the little one that had a slanty floor. It was built really fast to accomodate the baptism of the royal baby. Several other outer defenses were remodeled over the years and bits of the old parts are still visible. There's an army of weavers reproducing a set of 7 tapestries depicting a unicorn hunt. Three of the tapestries are done and are hanging in the chapel. The set will be complete in 2012 or so. There is a really cool view of the Wallace Monument from the Castle.

Then I took the train back to Loch Lomond.

The next day (yesterday, I think) was fantastic weather wise. The weather hasn't been really bad but not a lot of sun until yesterday. I caught the early train to Edinburgh changing at Glasgow (I hadn't planned to spend any time in Glasgow and even if I had I'm sure it might have been like the old "Bert n' I" story about the guy who goes to visit a big city from his small town and when he gets back he's asked how did he like the city and he replies "There was so much going on at the train station, I nevergot out of the depot!") The hostel is just a few blocks from the depot but I was too early to check-in but they did let me store my pack there for the time being. I found my favorite hop-on/hop-off bus and did a tour of the city to scope out my visits. Lots to do here! After a late lunch/early dinner, I started on the list looking for the lower priced items. I signed up for the Mary King's Close tour but had some time to kill before it started to I took in a little 3D movie "The Loch Ness Experience" because I'm not gonna get up to Inverness. I shoulda waited until I could get up to Inverness! The film was made in 1976, my 3d glasses were defective so the hokey things they tried in the film (throwing things at the camera) just looked like weird spastic movements by the on screen narrator) and the stereo headphones weren't stereo. It was good for a giggle but that's about it. The tour was pretty good though. A gal in period costume acting as the daughter of Mary King took us through what is now sort of the underground Edinburgh but used to be street level. Some corny jokes, cheap scares and a history lesson thrown in, too. I learned stuff and didn't even glaze over once.

Today, I took a bus ride out to Roslin Chapel. It used to be an out of the way gem of a tourist find but then Dan Brown wrote a wee novel and set the ending at the chapel so now they have the same number of tourists in one month that they used to have for the year. It wasn't too busy when I was there and that's one place I'd like to do some more reading on when I get back. Mr. Brown took liberties, of course, with the history but even taking out all the stuff he got wrong there's lots of stories about the place. And I'm running out of time but I gotta say--there's a lettterbox at Roslin Chapel and I found it!!

See ya next time probable from London.