Days 1 & 2: Flights, Arriving in Scotland, and Edinburgh

Wow. I really don’t know how to start! My internal clock is extremely confused. :o) It’s now about 10:30 pm, meaning that at home it would be about 5:30. I got a good solid two hours of sleep on the flight from Chicago to London, but that was about it. The sun went down as we were flying over the east coast of southern Canada and when I woke up about two hours later, we were over the edge of Ireland and the sun was rising. Whoa.

All our flights and connections and travel went very smoothly, including the connection from London to Edinburgh where we thought we were only going to have an hour. We ended up having about an hour and forty minutes which was extremely helpful. And I learned that UK airport security is T-I-G-H-T.

When we finally landed in Scotland, we met our guide, Mr. John Lionet (who is really cool!) and headed out on our coach for downtown Edinburgh. We arrived and went straight down the hill to tour the royal palace – Holyrood – so called because “rood” is an old Scottish word for “cross.” Her majesty the queen of Scotland still resides at the palace in the summer. Across from the palace is the Scottish parliament, where John explained some of the differences between the British and Scottish governments. Then we went on a personal-listening-device guided tour of the castle. For extra credit on my journal, I have to do a scavenger hunt, and the first thing on the list is to give an informal tour of Holyrood from memory, so here it goes. I would give you pictures to accompany this tour, but we weren’t permitted to take pictures inside the palace. So there are a couple, but you’ll mostly have to make do with my words. :)

We walked through the gates and got our tickets, and then the first area we entered was called the forecourt. It was a square courtyard of sorts with grass and surrounded by the internal walls the palace. There was a “fountain” in the middle, although I was confused because I usually associate fountains with water.

Then we went up a grand staircase. The architecture, layout, and overall splendour (sorry, I couldn’t help it) of the palace increases as you get closer and closer to the king’s bedchamber. There are several columns throughout based on ancient Greek architecture (Corinthian, Doric, Ionic), and across from the staircase is a great portrait of the queen painted in 1967 I believe. The first room we enter is the dining room, where the queen sits in the middle of the table (that seats from twenty to thirty guests) and looks out over the forecourt. The table is set with silver and surrounded by portraits of several people including Bonnie Prince Charlie.

The next room was the throne room where we saw a huge portrait of a Charles... either I or II... I can’t remember which at the moment. But he was painted in an interesting fashion because there was armor either discarded or ready to be put on in a corner behind him, but the king himself was wearing a simple black outfit that a scholar might have worn, and wore only the neck piece of armor. Apparently this represented chivalry.

The next room was the evening drawing room, complete with a portrait of the Queen Mother, and the next room was the morning drawing room, equally as lavish as its evening counterpart. Apparently many important affairs of state have taken place in this room even recently. Next was the ante chamber, and then the king’s bedchamber, which was more splendid than anything we had seen thus far. There was a mural on the ceiling of Hercules, painted with the illusion that the person was actually looking into the sky and seeing Olympus – it was meant to flatter the king.

We then passed through the king’s closet (only slightly smaller than the bedchamber itself), and went into the Great Gallery which was carpeted with a lush, deep red carpet and the walls were covered with more portraits than I think it would’ve been possible for me to count. This was the room where knights have been honored – Sir Sean Connery was knighted in the room. Many of the portraits looked similar, and that was apparently because the painter was commissioned to do so. It was to further establish the Stuarts’ right to rule Scotland.

We then passed into the Queen’s lobby, where we found the deep green velvet robe and official insignia (star and crest) of the Order of the Thistle all contained in glass. The Order of the Thistle is the most prestigious Order in all of Scotland. There was a picture of the Queen dressed in the robe, hat, and insignia, etc. This room was the first of the “Queen’s apartments.”

Next was the Queen’s antechamber and it was the oldest part of the palace, and right away we went into the Queen’s bedchamber where the famous Darnley bed, recently restored, is contained behind glass. On the wall was a picture of Mary Queen of Scots.

We then went upstairs to Mary’s own bedroom which was splendid and lush and had its own little supper room attached to it. It was here that she was eating with several people including her Italian secretary Rizzio when Lord Darnley a few other men burst onto the scene, dragged Rizzio into the next room and stabbed him to death (56 times actually) in a fit of jealousy.

Next were the Outer Chambers and they contained a few portraits including a famous one of Mary Queen of Scots, and the Darnley jewel. There was also an alcove where Mary knelt daily to say her prayers.

This room concluded the tour in the palace and we were back to the forecourt, and then passed through to the Holyrood Abbey ruins. I stood in the ruins of the Abbey nave (and took a few pictures).  The Abbey was built in 1128. The story goes that King David... was in the woods and was almost attacked by an enraged stag. Suddenly, however, he saw a crucifix in the stag’s antlers, so he reached up and grabbed it and was saved. So he built the Abbey in honor of his delivery, and that is where the name “Holyrood” came from. Next we walked through the royal gardens, which were lovely, blooming, and fragrant. The sun was even out for us! It made me feel like I was in a Jane Austen novel, going for a walk in the gardens. :)

And that was Holyrood palace! After touring the palace, we went to St. Giles’ cathedral. Here he is in the middle pane of this window. The story goes that he rescued a hind from being shot – he took the arrow in his hand instead, so he is always depicted with an arrow through his hand. There was another stained glass window that was more recent and is a very modern tribute to Robert Burns. Next, back in what is called the Chapel of the Order of the Thistle, there are stalls for the various lords and ladies that have been selected for the order because of their contributions to different causes. Each stall has all the coats of arms of every lord or lady that has sat there, and the vaulted ceiling (you can kind of see) is richly decorated. But I got really excited when he pointed out this coat of arms in one of the stalls. It belonged to a Lord Cullen who was a judge in the Lockerbie trial! The IWU Theatre Guild will present the play “The Women of Lockerbie” this coming April which tells the story of that incident.

After the Cathedral (which is now basically a community center with an eclectic collection of items dedicated to different historical figures), we went to lunch at a pub called The Last Drop. The food was delicious, I had a shot of coffee, and we had Sticky Tacky pudding for dessert (delicious!). Then we did a little bit of browsing and shopping, then climbed back on the bus to head for our hotel (which I was told was only about 55 minutes away). I tried my hardest to keep my eyes open because I wanted shots of the countryside but it was a useless battle. I fell asleep pretty quickly and dozed on and off. Awhile later I remember waking up and seeing signs for south Edinburgh. I thought that was odd because we’d been driving for some time and still weren’t out of Edinburgh. But I feel back asleep and didn’t wake up again until close to when we arrived at the hotel. Come to find out, we had spent about two and a half hours on the coach because the driver had gotten lost. But that was all right – I got a great nap out of it. :) We unloaded, freshened up, had a delicious dinner, and then sat around for awhile having tea and coffee. Then I decided I had better sit down and record this all before I forgot it. That’s all for tonight, but I will have to write some more tomorrow on the death of Rizzio for my scavenger hunt. Tomorrow we’re going to Dryburgh Abbey, and we’ll finish out the day by going to a Scottish Caligh where I’m going to try haggis for the first time! And we might even get a Scottish dance – we’ll have to see. :)

Wow, what a crazy 48 hours. And we’re not even done with Scotland yet!