scotland – Fondest Travel Memories

VOV: Scrabster, Scotland

Saturday, July 30, 2022

The menu tonight was okay. We both had the beef with black olives. I do not usually choose the beef option, but I was glad I did tonight. It was very tender.

We listened to the first set of the Ocean Bar band and then went to the main stage for tonight’s show – “Silent Magician”. He did his whole magic act with only mime and sound effects. I thought it was a cute show. Chuck was not impressed and left early.

One last set of the Ocean Bar band and the evening was done.

In 2019, when we visited this port, we took a HAL tour to a distillery and to John O’Groats, the northern-most part of Scotland. Today we had no specific plans.

There is very little around the port to see. We took the free shuttle to the nearby town of Thurso. We could have walked the 2 to 3 miles, but the weather was ever-changing, so I was not ready to be caught in pouring rain.

Thurso was a lovely little town. We strolled around the town and over to the shore. Kids were playing in the surf. Brrr.

We admired the cute houses and talked to a resident planting her flowers.

We went to the museum. Quite a collection of Viking artifacts.

We walked the path along the river. People were friendly and one guy let us play with his cute dog.

We spent a couple of hours there and then got back in line for the return shuttle. There had been two shuttles running but one of them must have gone on a lunch break because it took a long time for the shuttle to get back from the ship. We should have walked. However, it was a nice day in town.

Once we got back to the ship, it was low tide, so the gangplank was very steep. They had to let people off the ship one at a time so they could go slowly down the ramp. Then we were allowed to go up and it was like climbing a hill.

We got back for a late lunch and then a lazy afternoon watching the scenery from the balcony. Had to be cold out there paddle boarding. I have to keep reminding myself that it is Summer here.

FLOWERS from THURSO

Travel Trivia

Scrabster/Thurso, Scotland

Situated within walking distance from the port of Scrabster, Thurso is the northernmost town on the British mainland, and the second largest town in the Scottish Highlands.

Scotland Scrabster’s/Thurso’s history stretches back to at least the era of Norse Orcadian rule in Caithness, which ended in 1266.

In 1649, the Irish, led by Donald Macalister Mullach, attacked Thurso and were chased off by the residents, headed by Sir James Sinclair. One of the locals, a servant of Sinclair was said to have killed Mullach by “cutting a button from his master’s coat and firing it from a musket”.

Such is the character of the waves here in Scrabster that surfing is a popular pastime among the locals. Competitions held at Thurso East, one of the beaches in the region, have attracted some of the best surfers in the world.

Saturday, June 8 – Glad I was not a Herring Girl

Today was a tender port which means that we could not pull up to the dock but had to anchor away from the port and ride in the lifeboats over to the dock. At tender ports, I typically either take a ship tour or we don’t have anything scheduled that requires us to be at the dock at a certain time. When you schedule an independent tour at a tender port, the chances of being delayed are increased because you never know what your tender number is going to be or if there is going to be a problem with the tender boats.

As 4 star mariners, we were given a letter that said we could go to a certain room and would be escorted to our tender whenever we wanted to go ashore. However, since we are on a Holland America tour – we are to go to the Showroom like yesterday. Today we had to be there at 8:15 for a 9:00 tour (to allow for the tender ride over). Today’s tour is Lews Castle Grounds on Foot which was a walking tour of the town of Stornoway, the Lews Castle, and its grounds.

Stornoway is actually on the Isle of Lewis which is the largest island on Scotland’s Outer Hebrides archipelago. Archeologists have found evidence of inhabitants of over 6,000 years. The Isle of Lewis was ceded by the Kingdom of Norway to Scotland in 1266.

I was worried about the weather because it was predicted a chance of rain and I was not looking forward to a 3.5 hour walk in a rain like we had in Inverness; however, it stayed cloudy and windy but no rain.

We had a group of 13 and we met our guide Ian at the dock. He was a 71-year-old retired schoolteacher who gave walking tours once or twice a week. He began his walk at a brisk pace, and I worried about some of the ones in our tour but we all kept up pretty good. The tour description did say that we would be going over some rough terrain and uphill.

At the dock, there were memorials to the maritime accident of the His Majesty’s Yacht Iolaire (Scottish Gaelic for “Eagle”). Ian explained that Iolaire was carrying sailors who had fought in the First World War back home. On January 1, 1919 at night, as the ship approached the port of Stornoway, a few yards offshore and a mile away from the safety of Stornoway Harbour, she hit the infamous rocks “The Beasts of Holm” and sank. Those on board would have been able to see the lights of Stornoway. The death toll was officially put at 205, of whom 181 men were representing almost an entire generation of young men from the Islands. He said the population has never really recovered.

So, on that happy note, we started on our walk. We first stopped at one of the statues dedicated to the “Herring Girls”. In 1914 a combined 20% of the Isle of Lewis’ population were involved in the herring industry. The ‘Herring Girls’, followed the herring fleet around the coast each year. The women worked in teams. There were three women in a team – two of them gutted the herrings, while the third – packed the herrings. The gutters were very adept and it only took one stroke of their knives to gut the herring. The girls worked very long hours – often 12 hours a day, always outside, and had to deal with the inevitable cuts on their hands and arms which were also being dunked in the salty water of the fish barrels. Ouch. By the Second World War, the herring industry had been overfished and the “Herring Girls” were no longer needed.

So now I am pretty depressed about Stornoway. It was a pretty port with numerous pleasure and fishing boats and even a New York billionaire’s yacht that he keeps docked there for his visits but the history is just sad. We stopped at a dockside fish stall that was displaying fish caught that day. I recognized the salmon but most I had no clue. Frankly, it didn’t look all that clean and I couldn’t see the refrigeration. Maybe there was a lot of ice beneath.

We next stopped at the Harris Tweed office. I had heard of Harris Tweed but I didn’t know it was such a big deal. Harris Tweed is a tweed cloth that is handwoven by islanders at their homes in the Outer Hebrides, finished in the Outer Hebrides, and made from pure virgin wool dyed and spun in the Outer Hebrides. This definition, quality standards and protection of the Harris Tweed name are protected by the government action – the Harris Tweed Act 1993. Don’t even think about calling yourself Harris Tweed if you are not.

There were several in our group that were anxious to purchase something made with Harris Tweed. Ian said if we wanted a traditional Scottish kilt and all its accessories, it would set us back about 1000 pounds (around $1300). Chuck and I passed on the Harris Tweed. Never did find out what others bought.

We walked on to the Lews Castle. It is a Victorian era castle built in the years 1844–51 as a country house for Sir James Matheson who had bought the whole island a few years previously with his fortune from the Chinese Opium trade. Yes, now he would be considered a major drug dealer. Back then, he was a successful entrepreneur.

In 1918, the Lewis Estate, including the castle, was bought by industrialist Lord Leverhulme from the Matheson family. He gave the castle to the people of Stornoway parish in 1923. I’m pretty sure he realized that it was a big albatross.

During the Second World War the Castle was taken over as accommodation for air and ground crew of 700 Naval Air Squadron.

After the war, the Castle was used for accommodation for students of Lews Castle College in the 1950s. After the accommodation closed, the building was left disused for several decades. The Castle College is still operating on the property and has about 2000 students studying everything from Information Technology to Gaelic History and Culture.

The building is now owned by the local council and was awarded £4.6 million by the Heritage Lottery Fund to enable it to be converted into a museum on the bottom and apartments for rent to tourists on the top. We were given time to tour the small museum and get a snack at the café. Many of the rooms are still being renovated and they have started hosting cultural events.

After looking at the museum, we started walking the paths on the grounds to the highest point on the property where we could have a nice view of the town and harbor. The paths had a lot of pretty flowers and plants. Nice and shady and most of the path was paved. At the top, we could even get a glimpse of the Scottish mainland in the distance.

Now we started our walk back. Once we got back to the town center, a number of the group decided to break off and go shopping (got to get that Tweed) or eating at one of the restaurants. It was nearing 1:00 and Chuck and I decided just to go back to the ship. Ian was going home to play with his grandchildren. I liked him.

We had a late lunch in the Lido, spent some time on the Sea View deck, and had a nap before getting ready for the evening. Tonight, we ate again in the main dining room. I had the shrimp and pasta and Chuck had the pork. We had a table of six – mix of Canadians, an Australian woman, and us.

Tonight’s performance was an encore performance of the singer Jo Little and the Chapman Twins. Since I hadn’t seen either one of them earlier, we went to the 9:00 show. They were good but I was glad that each had 20 minutes. I don’t think I could have sat through each of them for 45 minutes.

Got back to the room to find a letter about our upcoming Ireland ports. Because our arrivals and departures are somewhat dependent on the tides, our times have been adjusted and Foynes has been changed to a tender port. I am not happy about the new tender port because I have an independent tour that day. Luckily, I am not the one who organized this tour so I don’t have to worry about contacting the tour operator. I’ll just have to talk with him so we can decide what to do about tender tickets. I do need to contact the tour operator of the Belfast tour and let them know about the change in time. We are leaving 30 minutes earlier than planned. I hope it will still be OK with the tour as I am really looking forward to going to the Giant’s Causeway. I am beginning to hate getting letters in the mailbox.

Tomorrow is a welcome sea day. No alarm clock. No set schedule except for the luncheon that returning guests get to attend. We have also been invited to the award ceremony to see the recipients of the medals for their number of sea days. We have a bronze medal for 100 sea days. Will be a while, if ever, before we get a silver one for 300 sea days. I hope to get caught up on editing pictures. If I was a better photographer, I wouldn’t have to do so much cropping, shadowing, etc. Should go to the gym but that will probably be a hard no.

Tonight’s towel animal is a frog.

Stornoway trivia –

Stornoway black pudding is a gourmet black pudding, and was granted PGI (protected geographical indicator) status in 2013 by the European Commission to prevent inferior puddings produced elsewhere being marketed as “Stornoway” or “Stornoway Style”. – (black pudding is a type of blood sausage made from pork blood, with pork fat or beef suet, and a cereal, usually oatmeal, oats or barley and the use of certain herbs such as pennyroyal.) I wouldn’t eat it on a bet – gourmet or not.

The Lewis chessmen or Uig chessmen, named after the bay where they were found, are a group of distinctive 12th-century chess pieces, along with other game pieces, most of which are carved from walrus ivory. Discovered in 1831 on Lewis in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland, they may constitute some of the few complete, surviving medieval chess sets, although it is not clear if a set as originally made can be assembled from the pieces. When found, the hoard contained 93 artifacts: 78 chess pieces, 14 tablemen and one belt buckle. Today, 82 pieces are owned and usually exhibited by the British Museum in London, and the remaining 11 are at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh.

Some of the Lewis chessmen on loan from Edinburgh museum

Friday, June 7 – Time for a “Wee Dram”

The ship rocked and rolled last night as we made our way through the North Sea. I was happy that I slept through most of it. As poor as the weather was yesterday, it was a beautiful day today – sunny, breezy, and in the mid-50’s. Our tour today was a Holland America tour called “End of the Road: The Old Pulteney Distillery and John O’Groats.” I was up at 6:00 and breakfast was delivered at 7:00. Our tour was to meet in the Showroom at 8:45 with a departure at 9:00. The process went smoothly and we were on the coach bus a little after 9:00.

We docked at the port of Scrabster which is a harbor, ferry and fishing port and industrial business center near the town of Thurso in the far north of Scotland. Technically, we were still in the Highlands but the land much flatter than yesterday. As we drove toward the town of Wick, we could see large plots of land with thousands of sheep on them. The farmers have to mark their flock with a color as the sheep tend to wander away into other herds. Looks like a blotch of spray paint on them.

James was our driver and Donald was our tour guide. We had a representative from Holland America along to be sure we didn’t have any issues on the tour. It wouldn’t be Scotland if we could not see how Scotch Whisky is made. We were not allowed to take pictures in the facility but they did have a nice visitor center for pictures. We were divided into 2 groups and Chuck and I were in the group that would tour first and then have a “wee dram” to taste. The other group would taste first and then tour. Given the narrow steps and high places we walked, I was glad we were in the first group.

The distillery was established in 1826 in the name of Sir William Pulteney (who died in 1805). The distillery was the most northerly on the Scottish mainland and was quite inaccessible, except by sea, when established. Barley was brought in by sea, and the whisky was shipped out the same way. Characteristics of the whisky are attributed to exposure to sea air during maturation.

The distillery closed in 1930 due to declining trade after the local parish enforced prohibition laws but re-opened in 1951 when the vote was rescinded after the law was abolished. It is now owned by Inver House Distillers.

We saw the process from the grains used to make the whisky to the barrels where they age the whisky. The smells and heat from some of the areas could make you light-headed. I thought it was interesting that they get some of their used barrels from Kentucky distilleries. They don’t make a lot of whisky but the ones they make have won national and international awards. Its 21-year-old single malt was named World Whisky of the Year in 2012. I didn’t even know there was such a competition.

I did not care for their regular whisky but they had a sweeter version that I liked better. Erin was our tour guide through the plant. Her husband works there as an assistant manager. They have a small production staff but it functions with 3 shifts. One of their perks for working there is a bottle of whisky per month. And I thought having vision insurance was a nice perk. They tend not to lose employees – the one with the least number of years had 17 and the one with the most had 35.

We were told that in Scotland “whisky” does not have an “e” while in Ireland it does have an “e”. This difference in the spelling comes from the translations of the word from the Scottish and Irish Gaelic forms (they even pronounce Gaelic differently – Scotland – “Gal-ick”; – Ireland – “Gale-ick”). Whiskey with the extra ‘e’ is also used when referring to American whiskies. This ‘e’ was taken to the United States by the Irish immigrants in the 1700s and has been used ever since.

Erin was a talker and there were lots of questions so the tour lasted longer than our allotted time. We got back on the bus and our next stop was “John o’Groats.”

John o’ Groats is a village in the far north of Scotland. John o’ Groats lies on Great Britain’s northeastern tip and is popular with tourists as one end of the longest distance between two inhabited British points on the mainland, with Land’s End in Cornwall lying 876 miles to the southwest. Our tour guide said many people hike, bike, run, etc. the entire trail. Our guide did tell us that it is not really the most northerly point on the island of Britain as that distinction belongs to nearby Dunnet Head but Dunnet Head is not inhabited.

We got our picture by the obligatory signpost and enjoyed the unusual sculptures in the area. The big white building in the background of some of the pictures is The Inn at John o’Groats which was described as the reincarnation of the iconic former John O’Groats Hotel, originally built in 1875. Also watched the Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea meet in the Pentland Firth – lots of wave action.

We ate lunch at Sea View hotel there. It was described as a light lunch which I think of as soup or salad and a sandwich. What we got was a big plate of roast beef, mashed potatoes, and vegetables. I was dismayed because we had scheduled our Pinnacle Grill meal for tonight and I wanted to be really hungry for it. I ate about half of it. We were seated across from a very nice Dutch couple who both worked for the Dutch government in Rotterdam. They only had an hour drive to the port (jealous). I was seated next to Miss Emily, a very nice lady who is Chuck’s three card poker buddy on this trip. Her husband was not feeling well so he did not come on the tour.

We made a quick stop at a small Church of Scotland so we could see where the Queen Mother, Queen Elizabeth (Charles’s Grandmother) attended church when she was visiting Castle Mey, her home when in Scotland. The graveyard also held plots for pirates. They normally were not given a church burial.

Our next stop was the town of Thurso. It was a nice small village and we were given time to walk around and shop. We wanted to check out a store called Tesco which had been described to us as the European Wal-mart. The one we went in was more like a Wal-mart Neighborhood Market as it had mostly food. All the prices were in Pounds but Chuck said that the prices seemed good. It was a crowded store so I guess people like it. I understand that in the larger towns and cities that the Tesco’s are bigger with more of a variety of items.

On our way back to the ship, Donald gave us a list of Scottish/Gaelic Expressions that we practiced. Some that I particularly liked –

“Stooshie” – a big disagreement

“Guddle” – a disorganized mess

“Scunnered” – fed up with something

“Slainte Mhath” – good health

“Pure, dead, brilliant” – awesome

We got back to the ship around 4:00 and changed clothes to be ready for our Pinnacle Dinner at 6:30. We went to the Ocean’s Bar first and as we were getting ready to sailaway, we hear bagpipes. I went outside on the deck and watched a bagpipe band and dancers perform for us. They were all children and teens. It was sweet but I felt bad for them as it was cold and windy.

At 6:30, we went to the restaurant. I had the Shrimp Cocktail and the special “filet mignon and lobster ravioli.” I was disappointed that they were not offering the king crab legs. They were not on the menu so I am wondering if they have been discontinued because they got too pricey. My steak and lobster ravioli (two) were good. The Pinnacle is now charging extra for lobster tail. Chuck had the crab cakes and the rib eye. He was disappointed in his steak this time as it was fattier than the rib eye we had last time. He said he should have stayed with the cedar planked halibut. We shared the mushrooms and skipped dessert. The service at the Pinnacle is always very good.

The show tonight was the Chapman Twins – two singers from England. I was too tired and too full to go to the 9:00 show and Chuck wanted to go to the Casino so we skipped it.

Got back to the room to find a letter regarding our visit to Ireland. The ship has to collect the passports of all non-European guests and they will present the passports to the local immigration officials when we arrive. We are scheduled to bring our passports to Guest Services tomorrow from 5:00 – 5:20. I sure hate giving up the passports. Glad I have a paper copy.

Tomorrow is another early day. Tonight’s towel animal is a turkey.

Scrabster Trivia –

Surfing is a popular pastime among the locals. Competitions held at Thurso East, one of the beaches in the region, have attracted some of the best surfers in the world.

The town of Wick holds the claim to fame of once being the busiest herring port in Europe in the 19th century.

Thursday, June 6 – You Take The High Road; I’ll Take the Low Road – We’ll Get Wet Together

Arriving at Invergordon port at 9:00 so I slept in until 6:00. We needed to be off the ship as soon as they cleared as we had a long tour with WOW Scotland tour company today. Already raining and the sky didn’t look like it would clear anytime soon. Today’s tour was going to concentrate on the Scottish Highlands. I like MC Beaton’s Hamish MacBeth books so I was looking forward to seeing sites that had been described in the book.

I had already contacted the Company about the change in pier and in the change of time. We had been scheduled from 8:00 to 6:00 but had to change to 9:00 to 7:00 and pier because of another ship arrival/departure. They had already received that information but better to be safe. The larger ship – the Balmoral – was already docked.

It was raining buckets and the shuttle busses had not come yet. Some people had been let off the ship and were standing under the rain shelter waiting for the first shuttle. They held the rest of us back. If the weather had been good, we could have walked the pier even though it was long but with the rain, we would have been pretty miserable.

Shuttles finally started running and we got the next one. We met Rob, the tour company representative, at the end of the pier and he got us checked in and directed to the 30 seater bus. There were 24 of us on this tour. Rob was also our driver and narrator for the day. He was dressed the traditional kilt.

Our first stop was the town of Beauly. As it was still raining pretty hard, we had a choice of touring the graveyard of the Priory Church of the Blessed Virgin and John the Baptist, founded in 1230. Some did choose to go, Chuck and I did not. Instead, we went to a local bakery. I got a chocolate éclair and hot chocolate. The hot chocolate was not what I was expecting. It was a dark chocolate taste – not as sweet as what I am used to having. I did enjoy it. Chuck got coffee and a chocolate éclair. I think we made a good choice. Others saw where we were headed and followed.

Our next stop was the city of Inverness. It is the Capital of the Highlands and it sits at the mouth of the River Ness which flows from Loch Ness. We had several options here. We could have walked across the river footbridge to the Inverness Castle. But, it is a working government building so you cannot go in just to look around. We could have strolled up and down the river walkway, or we could have gone shopping. As it was still raining, we decided to stay close and tour the Cathedral Church of St. Andrew. It is a Scottish Episcopal church finished in 1869. However, they ran out of money before they could build the big twin spires that was part of the original design so they have flat columns. It was very ornate inside. We contributed to the church funds by purchasing a sandwich and hot tea from their small café.

We drove up and down the hills of the moor and he pointed out the peat bogs, the types of trees (a lot of pine), the heather, and the flowering yellow bushes called Gorse. We saw a number of sheep, some cows, including the hairy Highland cows (although they were too far away for a picture), and even some alpacas.

Our next stop was at the bank of the Loch Ness. We met Steve, the Nessie Hunter. He was a successful stockbroker in London who gave it all up to search for Nessie for the last 27 years. He lives in an old converted camper and sells Nessie models (and takes donations). He has a website. He is either a genius or a kook. I think the jury is still out. We looked for Nessie but all we saw were ducks. It was a very peaceful setting so personally I am glad the scene wasn’t disrupted by a man-eating sea monster. However, I would have liked to have gotten a Nessie Christmas ornament.

We left Loch Ness and drove through some more interesting countryside and came to the Culloden Battlefield. Vast stretches of boggy flat land. During our tour of the Edinburgh Castle, we had heard about the Jacobite (supporters of the deposed James II and his descendants in their claim to the British throne after the Revolution of 1688) uprising and Bonnie Prince Charlie who wanted his Scottish family (the Stuarts) returned to the British throne. Now we were at the site of the final confrontation between the Jacobites and the British Army.

So you have some Scottish clansmen, who were mostly farmers, going to fight the British government forces. Didn’t turn out so well for the clansmen. The British waited for the Scotsmen to charge with their swords and bayonets and watched them getting bogged down in the soggy peat. The army then picked them off like birds. It is said the “battle” lasted about an hour and the Jacobites lost around 2000 men while the British lost about 300. The ones who made it back home were stripped of their land and had to leave. It is said that Prince Charlie escaped to France and died of a stroke at 61. The Stuarts never made it to the throne. Too bad they didn’t have a dragon to help in their Game of Thrones.

We also got to see a stone house with the thatch roof that would have housed one family and their few animals. Had to heat with smoking peat and the thatch soaked in and released the smoke to the outside. I still think it must have been hard to breathe in there.

It was really raining by this time and even with my rain gear, I was feeling damp and getting cold. I was ready to go back to the ship but we had one more stop to make.

Last stop was to the Clava Cairns. No one really knows how these circular stone burial structures and various standing stones came to exist but they date back from the Bronze Age and the circular structure openings align with the winter solstice so that the inside of the Cairn lights up from the sun on that day – some think so that the souls can find their passage way. Or maybe the whole site was built by aliens. It’s a mystery.

The traffic was pretty heavy getting back to the port. I’m glad I was not doing the driving because between the traffic, the round-abouts, and being on the left side of the road, I would have caused a major pile-up. But Rob got us back in plenty of time before the ship departed. I am sorry it rained on us most of the day but Rob did a great job and I am glad we chose WOW Scotland.

We were ready for some hot coffee and to get out of our damp clothes. Got changed and cleaned up in time to go to the Ocean’s Bar. Before we left port, a bagpipe and drum band came to play and some young women did some Scottish dances for us at the port. I felt bad for them as it was still so cold and windy even though the rain had stopped. We cheered them on from the decks.

We were delayed leaving by the same ship that made us change ports and time. We were supposed to follow it out but they had a medical emergency and were waiting for an ambulance to take someone to the hospital. Hope the person(s) was okay.

Dinner was a steak salad for me and roast chicken for Chuck. We sat at a table for four with a nice couple. She was from Australia and he was from England. They split their time between the two places since they have opposite summers. Not a bad way to avoid winters.

The show tonight was called Silver Screen and featured songs from various movies. Again, the Prinsendam singers and dancers did a good job but I still preferred their first show.

Laundry was back so I got that put away. Tonight’s towel animal is an elephant. Tomorrow we will arrive in Scrabster. I’m afraid to look at the weather report.

Inverness Trivia

Mary Queen of Scots ordered the hanging of the Governor of Inverness Castle because the Governor did not permit the Queen to enter the Burgh.

Loch Ness is the second largest loch in Scotland with depths reaching over 750 feet. It holds more fresh water than all the lochs and lakes in England and Wales combined. It is 23 miles long, about a mile wide and never freezes.

St. Andrew’s Cathedral Church – No spires

All kneeling cushions had some sort of design

Gorse in the foreground. Loch Ness in the background.

Flags Mark Spots where British Army lined up and shot the Jacobites mired up in the peat bogs.

Home Sweet Home for Your Family and Your Farm Animals

One of the Burial Cairns with the Entrance Facing the Winter Solstice Light

Wednesday, June 5 – Castle in the Sky

We set our clocks back one hour last night so at least I got an extra hour of sleep. Was up at 5:00 so I could be dressed and ready by the time room service breakfast arrived. The announcement came at 7:45 that Immigration was ready to start reviewing passports. Once you had your passport reviewed, you were free to leave the ship. Our group number was called at 8:10. The line moved pretty quickly. Two bored people at the table glanced at the passports, glanced up at us, and told us to have a nice day. Didn’t even get a passport stamp. Very anticlimactic. Wonder if we’ll have to do the same thing for Ireland.

As the port of Rosyth is a working port, we had to wait for a bus to take us to the Inverkeithing train station. There were several people waiting for the bus so I felt better that we would be able to know what to do when we got there. Turns out we were all new to the process so we would all fail or succeed together. Got to the train station at about 8:40, walked in and bought 2 round-trip tickets to Edinburgh. Had to cross over the small bridge and wait at the platform. The train was on time but it was crowded as it was full of commuters going to work in Edinburgh. I was able to sit next to a very nice man from Inverness who told me just to ask at one of the Information Desks about which exit to use to be closest to the Castle. He was happy to hear that I was from Georgia as he said that his bucket list included playing golf at The Masters course in Augusta. Go figure. We arrived at the Waverly Station at 9:30 and found an information desk. She pointed us in the right direction.

Outside, it was drizzly and cool so I was glad we had our rain gear. We could see the Castle in the distance but it was shrouded in fog and clouds so it looked eerie. Even though we could see it, I turned on the phone GPS so we could have step by step directions up to the Castle. And it was an uphill climb so I didn’t want to make more steps than necessary. We arrived at the Castle gates at 9:45. The signage was confusing as it wasn’t clear about getting tickets. I knew I had to scan our paperwork for the tickets to print but I wasn’t sure about where they would collect the tickets. After a couple of missteps, we finally passed by William Wallace and Robert the Bruce guarding the gates and were inside the Castle walls.

We decided to wait 10 minutes for the next guided tour of the Castle instead of waiting in line for the audio headsets. Our guide was a very nice woman and she took us all around the inside perimeter of the Castle explaining the history of the Castle and how many times it had been under siege between Scotland and England. The Castle sits on Castle Rock which is an extinct volcano. She said the volcano last erupted 340 million years ago so I felt pretty safe (although how do they know for sure?) The fog never lifted so we could not see the town clearly at all but it definitely gave it a sense of olden days.

We were able to go inside the Great Hall, St. Margaret’s Chapel, the National War Museum, and the Royal Palace. We were not allowed to take pictures in the National War Museum or the Royal Palace. I wish I could have as the crown jewels and the Stone of Destiny (large sandstone rock that is used in coronations) were really amazing to see. We were also not allowed to go into New Barracks as it still houses an active military which still officially runs the Castle. Every day at 1:00, they fire the cannon. We looked at Mons Meg, a cannon that could fire 300 lb cannon balls and the dog cemetery where the military dogs are buried.

It was very crowded at the Castle but the lines went quickly while we were inside. When we finished up about 1:00, I bought a crown Christmas ornament at the gift store. I was glad we came early as we did because crowds were still coming in at 1:00. We started walking down the Royal Mile through the Old Town. We went into a couple of stores, looked at the different Closes (narrow alleys) and passed by St. Giles Cathedral with the national animal of Scotland – the Unicorn. We stopped at a pub for a beer and a hamburger. We could have walked all the way to the end of the Royal Mile to the Hollyrood Castle but decided to take the Scotland Steps (each step is a different color marble) at the halfway point and go back to Waverly. Saw a couple from the ship that had taken the same train that morning and they were also headed back so we followed them to the platform. The train going back was not as full as the one that morning. Once we were back at the station, the bus was waiting to take us back to the ship. All in all – a very smooth process all day.

We left Royth at 6:00 and were going back down the Firth of Forth (estuary of several Scottish rivers including the River Forth) under the three bridges. We barely cleared the bridges much like going under the Sunshine bridge in Tampa. I would have stayed out longer taking pictures but the wind was really cold and it had started to rain again.

After some time spent in the Ocean’s Bar, we went to dinner. I had the coconut shrimp salad and Chuck had the pork tenderloin. I was beat so I went to the room to read but Chuck went to hear the comedian/singer – Jo Little and then spend some time in the Casino. The laundry was back so I got it put up. I tried to read several chapters but didn’t make it past one.

Tonight’s towel animal is a lobster. Tomorrow is Invergordon.

Edinburgh Trivia

Edinburgh was the first city in the world to have its own fire service in 1703.

About 13 million tourists visit Edinburgh every year.

Scotland has the highest proportion of redheads in the world. Around 13 per cent of the population has red hair.

The title of Duke of Edinburgh was first created for Prince Frederick, son of George I, in 1726.

Edinburgh replaced Scone as the capital of Scotland in 1437.

Edinburgh has 112 parks and more trees per head of population than any other city in the UK.