Wednesday: my trip to Edinburgh Castle.

It's Friday as I'm writing this, and my memories of Wednesday are already getting jumbled. I'm glad I'm keeping track of my receipts. On Wednesday, the weather was starting to look a little iffy. I had seen a forecast that rain would be coming in on Thursday, so I made sure I got out and did something. So after my free continental breakfast and some chatting with other lodgers, followed by a refreshing shower, and paying to extend my hotel stay by another day, I headed out about lunchtime up the road (by bus). I got off about halfway down and ate lunch at Elaine's Cuppa Cake, a nice little café. I had a full English breakfast, which as great. Scrambled eggs, a sausage, some English bacon (fried ham, remember), a cooked tomato (didn't eat it), some beans (of the pork and beans variety), black pudding (which is made with blood and some kind of meat, in a circular patty, a little crispy...I'm not a fan of it). I also treated myself to a hot chocolate and a small coconut truffle. While I was there, about nine college students came in and pulled some tables together. It was interesting listening to them chatter, it sounded like a mix of English and Scottish students. After there, I went to the Royal Mile and went straight up to Edinburgh Castle, and I do mean up. Along the way, I saw a statue to Adam Smith (Scottish philosopher and founder of modern economics) and the City Chambers of Edinburgh. I'm not sure what it's for, but the website indicates I could get married or have an event there. There is a statue of Alexander and Bucephalus (a horse) "presented to the city by The Subscribers 1884" and just next to the street is a coffin-sized and -shaped monument. On one side it says, "1914-1918" and "1939-1945", and on the other side, "Their name liveth for evermore". It has to be a World War I/II tribute.

Just next to that, on the street, was a street performer playing "Ave Maria" on a saw with a bow (accompaniment by recording). Another thing I saw was a little eerie, it was a guy dressed up in blue robes and a blue face, looking like he was floating above the ground. Outside the High Court of Justiciary is a statue of David Hume, a Scottish philosopher of the 1700s.

Edinburgh Castle itself is built on a huge outcropping formed by a now-extinct volcano, highly defensible. It is at least 2000 years old. I caught up with a guided group and thought I overheard that it was breached at one point and the invading army burned everything except for St. Margaret's Chapel. But, there was something that happened as a result, I can't remember. There were a series of wars where ownership of the castle changed several times.

At one point, I made a short video of the view from the castle, overlooking the Firth of Forth (a firth is an estuary, an inlet of water. As I was panning over, an older couple in maybe their 60s crossed in front of but below me. The woman acted like she wasn't sure if she should move or duck, and I said, "You're fine." She said, "You're tellin' me I'm short?" We all laughed and I said, "You're fine the way you are!" and she said, "Aw, you're so sweet." :D

That video is next to a battery of six cannons, which aren't supposed to be there. They're naval cannons; they would blow a whale in half, but they wouldn't do anything a mile away to any ships coming in. Queen Victoria had visited the castle and decided, for looks, that there needed to be cannons there, and that's how they got there.

There is a one o'clock gun at the castle that is fired off, oddly enough, at one o'clock every day. It's a tradition that dates back to the mid 1800s. Back then, various cities had time guns that would be fired off or time balls that would be dropped, at a certain time, which allowed the ships to set their chronometers (clocks). It was very important for ships, so that they could navigate when out of view of land. And why was it fired at one o'clock and not noon? The answer is simply: if you fire it at noon, you need to fire it twelve times. Fire it at 1 pm, you only need one cannonball. Of course, sound travels slowly, so maps of cities were made that reflected the delay, so you knew that if you were in the harbor and you heard the gun, it was actually 1 pm and 10 seconds, for example.

The pavement inside the castle is made up of two different paving stones: broad rectangular bricks, and smaller stones. I think I heard that the smaller stones were easier for horses to walk on, so they form tracks around while carts would be pulled along the bigger stones.

There is the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards Regimental Museum, but I didn't go in. I think I also missed the prisoners of war museum/exhibition. Over the centuries, thousands of prisoners of many nationalities, even American, had been kept there. The pavement we were walking on had been laid by French prisoners. The castle also contains the Home Headquarters of The Royal Scots, on active duty and bunked there. The Scottish National War Memorial is also contained inside the castle (included free with castle admission), but unfortunately does not allow photography. There were many sculptures and carvings inside, along with books, listing the names of soldiers that had died in various wars, of various branches, and even of special services such as medics. It was built in 1927 as a memorial for Scots who died during World War I but has been updated to include World War II and campaigns since 1945. On at least one inscription, I had seen the Latin "NEMO ME IMPUNE LACESSIT", which I had also seen around town and maybe in London too. I found out it means essentially, "You will not attack me with impunity", or "No one can harm me unpunished." and is the motto of the Order of the Thistle and of the Scottish Regiments. Also, I don't know the significance, but outside the memorial is a carved horse holding a shield with the Scottish flag, and a lion holding a shield with the British flag.

In the same area as the war memorial are the Royal Palace (where the queen stays when she's in Scotland), the Honours of Scotland (the Scottish Crown Jewels, which are a sword, crown, and sceptre), and the Great Hall, which was originally a banquet hall in the 16th century but Cromwell converted to a barracks in 1650 and currently has a lot of swords and other weaponry on display.

Also nearby is the Queen Anne building, built as barracks around 1710 after the Jacobite Uprising. After there, I saw Saint Margaret's Chapel, built by King David I in the 1100s and dedicated to his mother. It was the only thing in the castle that previously had not been burned. it's very small, only room for maybe a dozen people standing. It's rectangular, and at one end is a little shrine area where I assume you would kneel and pray. Outside is a huge cannon called Mons Meg, given to King James II in 1457 and used in war against the English. It was capable of firing stone cannonballs two miles away. It was last fired in 1681. It had gone a very long time without being fired, and the ruler at the time, I forget who, decided on a whim that it should be fired as part of a particular celebration. But, in the time since it had last been fired, gunpowder had become much more powerful, so the force literally blew the end of the cannon apart. So now, it just sits. I think "mons" means "gun", and "Meg" is of course a nickname for Margaret.

And interestingly, there is a small dog cemetery for regimental mascots and officers' dogs, dating back to the 1800s. The last thing I saw on my walk through the castle was the Argyle Tower, where the 9th earl of Argyle supposedly was confined before his execution. It was constructed over the portcullis gate, which I believe is the first of seven gates you have to go through to reach the center of the castle. Inside is an exhibition of a scale model of all of Edinburgh Castle. You take the Lang (long) Stairs down to the bottom in order to leave.

After I left the castle, walking back past the High Court of Justiciary I saw a bagpiper standing in the doorway in a kilt and sporran (the manbag that hangs at your waist. Man, bagpipes are really loud up close. Oh, and I saw...A SCOTTISH TERRIER!

This is already a long post, but I have to mention a couple that stayed in my hotel, Malcolm and Katy from Birmingham (England). They're on holiday, but I can't remember where their next stop is. A few evenings in a row, we sat and chatted in the hotel lounge about a lot of things: accents, differences in English and American words and phrases, their autistic son and how well he's done for himself, what autistics are like (very gifted with patterns and repeated behavior, but having difficulty with perceiving jokes and sarcasm and dealing with relationships). There have been a number of interesting people from several countries that I've met at the hotel. In a way, it's a good thing the Internet connection in my room was so bad, as it got me down into the common room where I could be social.