Day 5 - Alness- 13 May 2009

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We started the morning with a tour of Glamis Castle. It was amazing inside but, of course, no photography allowed inside. That really irritates me.

Everywhere we went was beautiful. One postcard image after another. We headed to Aberfeldy for some White Water Rafting down the river Tay by Splash White Water Rafting.
Connor's ready to go.
One last shot before we go.




Dr. Woods and Nichole were thrown out of the raft. The water was freezing.
Nichole was caught in the rapids and all I could see was her feet tumbling.


I was lucky enough to grab her and pull her back in. That part was scary.


After checking into our Adventurers Escape Hostel in Weem, we had dinner and headed to take a late night tour of the haunted Castle Menzies.The tour was from 10 pm until midnight. I have to admit that I'm a skeptic. The tour guide actually gave us the tour twice. At the beginning of the tour he gave us a floor plan for the castle and told us to circle any room that we sense anything out of the ordinary. After the tour, we revisited those spots. There was only one room that I had to circle because as I took pictures in this room, a round orb appeared in a couple of my pictures. I tried to take the pictures again and again from the same place but couldn't reproduce the orbs.

Here is the gang on the tour.

The first orb appeared in this picture. It's just a little above the center of the picture. It looks like my camera lens is dirty but that's not it. It appeared in a couple of pictures in different places. It was strange.
Can you see it in this picture? It's almost at the top of the picture above the right side of the fireplace. I'm still a skeptic.

Day 4 - Edinburgh- 12 May 2009

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Oh, how tempting!!!!

This morning we toured the Royal Yaught Britannia, the home away from home to Her Majesty The Queen and the Royal Family.

Alexander III, King of Scotland, died in a fall from his horse in the dark while riding to visit the queen at Kinghorn in Fife on 19 March 1286, having spent the evening at Edinburgh Castle overseeing a meeting with royal advisors. He was advised by them not to make the journey over to Fife because of weather conditions, but travelled anyway. Alexander became separated from his guides and it is assumed that in the dark his horse lost its footing. The 44-year old king was found dead on the shore the following morning with a broken neck. Some texts have said that he fell off a cliff. Although there is no cliff at the site where his body was found there is a very steep rocky embankment - which would have been fatal in the dark. After Alexander's death, his strong realm was plunged into a period of darkness that would eventually lead to war with England.

Shown here is the location where his body was found.

Here is a view looking up the embankment where he fell to his death.

Beautiful scenery while driving to St. Andrews.

St Andrews is known widely as the "home of golf". We had to stop and take a couple of pictures for the album.



On the beach across from St. Andrews Golf Resort.



The remains of St. Andrews Cathedral.

Alexandra, Nichole, and Mama C.J.



This is the amazing Cambo castle we stayed at in St. Andrews.

Of course, there is a pub just around every corner. Having no vehicle to get there, we decided we would have a little walk into town. It took a little while but we finally made it.

Everyone we met in the pubs were eager to talk to us. The rest of the gang was in the back waiting on me to order food but I was up front talking to Andrew (on the left) and Dennis (on the right).

We had a few already. Nichole, Me, Mama C.J., Alexandra, and Bartender Mick. The one thing we didn't really consider was having no flashlight and having to walk back through the backroads back to the castle. It was a very fun walk back.

Day 3- Edinburgh- 11 May 2009

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More of Edinburgh. I love this town. Everyone is super nice.

We toured Edinburgh Castle. It was amazing.

Fired everyday, except Sundays, at One O'Clock, the First gun was fired in 1861 to provide an audible time signal for ships in the Port of Leith. Why One O'Clock and not Noon? They had to fire it off eleven less times a day.

Here are some pictures from Saint Margaret's Chapel in Edinburgh Castle.




A cannon aims at Sir Walter Scott's Memorial.

Leaving Edinburgh Castle. A statue of Robert the Bruce is on the left and one of William Wallace on the right.





This is the birth place of Alexander Graham Bell. You know, the guy that invented the telephone.

We toured the Georgian House but, once again, photography was not allowed. Doh!!! Everyone in our group finished touring the house and only Dani and I were left. We decided to see Edinburgh for ourselves and got a hot dog from a hot dog stand that was amazing. My stomach is growling as we speak. After our hot dog we went to the Sir Walter Scott's Memorial.

We had to climb it, of course.
That's me with old Edinburgh in the background.
Views from the top




Dr. Woods, Cindy, and Alexander. Obviously, it was chilly.

Later that night, we took the Auld Reekie Ghost Tour of the Haunted Underground of Edinburgh. Here is our guide, whatsername. It was very entertaining. After the tour, more walking in Edinburgh.


The World's End Pub

"The World's End" sounds the sort of whimsical name a national pub chain might have come up with. The truth is very different. At the Battle of Flodden, near Coldstream, in 1513 King James IV and most of the Scottish nobility of the day were killed by the English (see our Historical Timeline). Scotland lay defenceless and the citizens of Edinburgh rapidly built a stone wall around the city to protect it, the Flodden Wall.

Parts of the wall can still be seen, and its course ran along the west side of St Mary's Street underneath where the World's End is now built (the pub reuses the foundations of the wall). The main gate on this side of the city was on High Street here, and its outline is marked in the street by brass coloured cobbles.

The wall proved pretty useless when Henry VIII's forces invaded in 1544, but it did very clearly mark the outer limit of what was considered to be Edinburgh at the time. This, then, was the point at which the world ended and Edinburgh began. Hence "The World's End".

Everyone in Scotland drinks, I think. Do you know how they say goodbye on the phone over here? They say Cheers!!! After a few more drinks, it's time for bed.