Edinburgh & St. Andrews, Scotland

I just can't get over how green it is here, especially for being so cold. The landscapes we saw on our train to Edinburgh were really beautiful. We passed fields filled with crops (it kind of looked like lettuce or something like that), fields filled with sheep (some of them have a spot of colored spray paint on them but I haven't figured out what it means yet), small forested areas, and rocky beaches.

On Saturday we got on a 9 o'clock train from Leeds and arrived in Edinburgh at about 12:30. We grabbed a quick lunch at Subway (they didn't have ranch! I guess that's ok, its tasted funny at all the other Subways here) and then headed to our hotel. We stayed an apartment style hotel and it had a better kitchen and washer/dryer than the place we live in Leeds! Here are some pictures of the hotel. (I know this one is pretty ordinary but I'll probably still put pictures of all the places we stay. Some hotels in Europe are pretty interesting!)

I love the backsplash!

The bed was not as comfortable as it looked. I could feel every spring in the mattress.

You can barely see a part of the toilet in the corner. You had to sit on it sideways because it was so close to the wall lol.

We finally headed into town at about 2 o'clock. We decided to go to Edinburgh castle first. I should have anticipated that it would be the only thing we'd see on Saturday for two reasons; It was already 2 and most places (shops and tourist sites) close at 5 o'clock, and I love castles and could have spent at least 2 more hours there hehe. Looking up at this castle as we approached we realized we had quite a climb ahead of us.

It's situated at the top of really big hill, some might call it a mountain :). According to our tour guide its location alone was one of its first line of defenses.

The front of the castle as we were walking up.

You can barely see it in the background but that's the gate at the entrance of the castle. The tour guide told us its not the original but there would have been three more just like it. He said that it would have been difficult for the attacking armies to break through four of those gates. While they were trying to do that, people guarding the castle would be on the ledge above sending down rocks, arrows, and boiling hot oil. If they didn't have any oil they would boil human waste and pour that on the men below. Can you imagine looking up and seeing that about to fall on you? Ew. Also, if you look closely at the building you can see the different types of stones they used when building upwards throughout the centuries.

Cannons. You'd think these would be helpful in defending the castle.

But they're actually naval cannons lol. Our tour guide told us they were added much later and the person who was tasked with finding them didn't do a very good job.

This isn't a naval cannon though.

This giant cannon was used for knocking down castle walls. Apparently it wasn't quite accurate enough for anything else. Here's Daniel with his head in the cannon.

Thanks for the idea Chelsea!

St. Margaret's Chapel is the oldest building at the castle and in Edinburgh. Before Scotland was part of the United Kingdom the Scottish and the English battled for the possession of the castle a couple of times. When the English took it over they decided they didn't need it but didn't want the Scots to use it so they destroyed everything except the chapel. They thought it would be a bad idea to destroy a religious building and the king at the time was already on rocky ground with the Catholic Church.

 The outside of the building. It's very small.

The altar inside. They still hold weddings here. There was actually a wedding leaving the chapel just when we were coming up to it.

In the middle of the castle is a square with four buildings surrounding it. The Scottish National War Memorial, Royal Palace, Great Hall, and the Queen Anne Building (the prison) form the outside of the square.

The Scottish National War Memorial was really beautiful inside but out of respect for the fallen soldiers no pictures are allowed. All the names of Scottish soldiers who died in wars are listed by division.

This is a side view of the Royal Palace. In here are the Crown Jewels of Scotland and the Royal Apartments. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside. The apartments weren't furnished at all and none of the royals use it as a residence anymore. I found a picture of the crown jewels online.

Apparently they were lost for a long time due to to turmoil in the kingdom. They found a large chest and had a big gathering watch as they opened it. Luckily they were in there!

The Great Hall was originally built in the medieval style but they converted it to barracks for awhile. It was changed back into a dining hall in the 1800s but it was redecorated in a Victorian style.

The ceiling was very pretty and ornate but Daniel didn't take a picture :/ They had swords and armor around the walls.

The small square above the swords was a window to a small room. The king could go in there and spy on the men when they were in the Great Hall.

The Queen Anne Building served many different functions throughout the years but underneath it was the prison.

This is where they slept. There are hammocks and wooden platforms as beds.

This is why I love castles. This area was roped off but I wanted to go down there so bad! We passed some other areas that were roped off too. Hopefully I won't get into any trouble on this trip. :)

This cannon does work and they fire it every day (except Sunday) at 1 o'clock. There is a waterway on the edge of Edinburgh (you'll see it in a few later pictures) and in the old times they needed a way to know what time it was. They originally had a flag that would be raised before one and then lowered at exactly 1 o'clock. However, sometimes the weather would be so bad no one would be able to see the flag. They decided to use a signal with sound instead of sight and they still fire the cannon today. We missed it by about an hour.

From the castle you could see amazing views of the city.

You can see the waterway in the background.

I love all the spires. Every city we passed through that weekend had an old church with a tower.

Here's a view of the castle at night.

We had originally planned on taking a tour of St. Andrew's on Sunday but we were the only two people signed up so it was cancelled. Luckily, St. Andrew's is a public course. The Old Course (where golf got its start) is closed for play on Sundays so we were able to go and walk around. Unfortunately, St. Andrew's is about 2 hours north of Edinburgh and the trains that go there were closed due to maintenance. They had replacement buses but they took a lot longer. We weren't able to get up there until about noon. The departure times were either too early and we wouldn't have any time at St. Andrew's or too late and we wouldn't be able to see anything else in Edinburgh. Before we even came to Europe I knew there were two things Daniel really wanted to see; D-Day Beaches and St. Andrew's. In the end, I'm glad we still went because it was really beautiful.

Here's us standing on the famous bridge (Swilcan Bridge) on the 18th hole.

The 17th hole is also really famous.

Part of a hotel juts out onto the course and players have to either go around it or go over it.

The fairways, greens, and bunkers on this course are crazy. I've played golf three times and I've been very meticulous at keeping score. My first score was 209, my second was 180 something, and my third was 167. (I'm getting better!) If I played on this course I would probably make a 400 hehe.

 Lots of small hills and bunkers. The walls of the bunkers are 90 degree angles. I can't imagine hitting a shot from any of them.

 Crazy green!

 Really deep bunker!

Really big bunker!

The town in the background. There was also a beach off to the left. The whole area was really pretty.

The buses to St. Andrew's weren't that bad but we had quite an experience getting back! We had to take a small city bus to a train station in a neighboring city first. Normally we would have just taken a train back from there but, of course, they were closed. There was supposed to be a bus coming at 3:20 that would take us back to Edinburgh and get in at about 4:45. Starting at about 3 lots of buses started rolling in but they were all for Dundee, a city further north of St. Andrew's (the wrong direction). We kept thinking a bus for Edinburgh would finally come but it didn't. None of the bus drivers seemed to know what was going on either. Finally, at 3:45, a bus going to Inverkeithing (between St. Andrew's and Edinburgh) came and we decided to go ahead and get on. According to several people around us the trains were running in Inverkeithing. An hour and half later we go to the train station to find out we had to wait 45 more minutes for the next train to Edinburgh. We got into Edinburgh at about 6. Daniel got off a stop early to get our bag from the hotel and barely made it back to the main train station for us to take a 6:30 train back to Leeds with a train change in York. We finally got home at 9:30. All in all we spent almost the whole afternoon and evening on buses and trains. Even though it was all kind of a pain, I still think that getting around in Europe is much easier than in the states.

I originally thought I would be able to explore Leeds in just a couple of days and make just one blog post, but I think I'll take a little more time and make multiple posts. We're hoping to go to London next weekend. Daniel gets one of his half days this Friday. Also, I'm planning on attempting some baking soon so look for some posts about that. I'm sure they'll be pretty entertaining. I've had some funny baking mishaps at home where I'm familiar with everything so I can't imagine what will happen here. :)

I'd love to hear about how everyone is doing back home. Feel free to email or write comments and help me keep up!