IHS in Scotland

Due to the short night, this will only be a text post.

First, a note on weather.  Other than a few droplets, we had pretty good weather in Ireland.  Not too cold, partly or mostly cloudy, but with moments of sunshine.  Our first impression of Wales was WIND!  It was rainy at Beaumaris, but otherwise we have had lovely weather.  Good Friday dawned exactly so.  It was lovely.  Sunny and warmer than it had been.

We boarded the coach and stopped briefly at a rest stop where students got Krispy Kreme before heading to the Lake District.  This beautiful part of England is famous for its natural beauty.  We drove through Windemere, past stone walls and sheep and hillsides prettier than anything we had seen yet.  Windemere Lake is the largest in the district (and indeed in all of England), so we stopped briefly.  Then it was on a bit further to Rydal Mount and the home of William Wordsworth, the poet who helped launch the Romantic Age.  Seeing his home, we could understand why!  The gardens in particular were spectacular.  The fresh air was lovely, too.  A few miles further was the town of Grasmere, and here we stopped for lunch.  We cannot tell you how pretty this was.  You'll have to wait for pictures!  People come from all over to hike this area.

Then it was on through the moorlands to Scotland!  We stopped briefly in Gretna Green, famous for shotgun weddings in the 1800s.  Don't worry, these were strictly forbidden on the trip!  Then we drove across Scotland's lowlands, though we did spot some highland cattle.  Jaci particularly liked those!  During the drive we held our limerick competition.  We arrived in Edinburgh early in the evening, which was a huge advantage because it gave us a bit more time to see the city.  Unfortunately, there was one catch--the weather!  It was quite cold and VERY windy.  However, we were undaunted as we explored Princes Avenue and Rose Street during magic hour, the last hour of daylight.  Some of us even made it down to a cemetery (I have no idea why these fascinate, but this one was wonderfully spooky!) and to the Knight's Watch tower, where the knights kept watch over the graveyard to prevent body snatching (apparently this was a thing--they were taken for science experiments by the university)!  Then it was dinner time.  Many in the group were brave enough to order haggis, and almost everyone tried it.  Some of us really liked it, and some of us really hated it!

Then it was back to our hotel, which wasn't far (and served food for those who didn't finish their haggis!).  We had an early breakfast this morning, then headed into Edinburgh.  We dropped our suitcases at a hotel next to the train station, then picked up our local guide, Alan MacDonald.  He arrived in full kilt in clan colors.  Our bus tour took us around the New City including the Georgian house, where we saw the alighting stones, the torch snuffers, the boot scrapers, and such of the era.

Edinburgh, also called the Athens of the North, is a UNESCO World Heritage of Literature site, and we saw homes and statues associated with various authors including Robert Burns (lyrics of Auld Lang Syne), Robert Louis Stevenson (Treasure Island, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde), Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Sherlock Holmes), and Sir Walter Scott (Ivanhoe, Lady of the Lake, Rob Roy).  There is also a huge monument to Scott on Princes Street.  There was a monument to the Duke of Wellington and his horse Copenhagen (Battle of Waterloo/defeat of Napoleon) and to William Pitt (for whom Pittsburgh is named).  Then it was on to the Holyrood Palace.  The story is that in the 1100s King David (of Scotland) was run into by a stag and would have died, but a cross appeared between the antlers of the animal and saved him.  In that spot he founded Holyrood Abbey, which later fell into ruin.  However, near there the castle was built, and when the royal family comes to Edinburgh, they stay at Holyrood.  This is the start of the Royal Mile, the old city shopping mile.  There are numerous sites along here, and we took a short detour to see Grayfriar's Bobby, the statue of a dog who lived on his master's grave and only left it each evening to get his dinner at the pub his master had frequented with him--for 14 years!

We continued on past The Elephant House coffee shop.  It was here that JK Rowling wrote a good deal of the Harry Potter series and, more significantly to our IHS curriculum, it is frequented by Alexander McCall Smith, author of our class novel The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency.  This got quite an exclamation from our crowd as the freshmen are reading it at the moment and several of them have their copies with them!  We carried on to Deacon Brodie's pub.  Deacon Brodie worked as a cabinet maker and city councilman, but he secretly made impressions and then copies of everyone's keys from his day job so he could go back and rob them.  This served partially as an inspiration for Stevenson's Jekyll and Hyde.

From there we left Gary, our bus driver, and headed up the hill to Edinburgh Castle, which sits on a crag.  We passed through the seven gates, past Robert the Bruce and William Wallace, and into the castle where Mary, Queen of Scots, gave birth to James.  King James later united Scotland and England and had the Bible translated into English (today's KJV, or King James Bible).  After saying goodbye to Alan we explored on our own.  We saw the dog cemetery, the memorial to soldiers of the World Wars, the Crown Jewels, Mons Meg (the big cannon), St. Margaret's chapel (built 1130), the prison for POWs (including from our own Revolutionary War), and fantastic views of the city, both old and new.  The city sits on the Firth of Forth.  It was quite crowded, though, being a holiday.

Then we wound our way back down the Royal Mile in small groups, exploring the things we had seen on our bus tour and meeting up for lunch in the New City (which, again, is over 200 years old).  Unfortunately by this time it was raining, but that didn't discourage the group as we made our way back to the luggage, then loaded it on a train.  Our 4:30 departure set us on our way to London!

The trip was super fun as students made friends with the Frenchman running the bistro car.  He even gave them a math challenge (Trevor won) and free water (yay, hydration).  Between the dinner we had brought on board, singing oldies like American Pie, talking about dancing and travel, learning cursive and exchanging autographs, and planning our time in London, we had a blast!  We weren't too bothered by our delay due to track repair.  We arrived in King's Cross station at 10:30 and grabbed our bags quickly, taking pictures of the station of Harry Potter fame.  We boarded a coach where John, our Albanian driver, had waited patiently for us despite the delay.  He was funny!  Then it was on to our hotel on the south side of London, which was a bit of a drive from Kings Cross.  It took us across the Thames and past the London Eye, Houses of Parliament, and Big Ben, giving us our first impression of this awesome city.

We sorted out our hotel rooms, set our clocks forward, and hopped into bed for a very short night.  Now it's off to breakfast and then the London Eye!