Scotland continued

Scotland! Right, still have to write about that. As I said, Edinburgh was tremendously cool. The Old Town was full of amazing castle-ish white stone buildings, good free(!) museums, blossoming crocuses and daffodils braving the late snow, and best of all, a castle on the hill. I have a bit of an obsession for castles. It's nowhere near as pronounced as Rem's church fetish, but that's at least partly due to the fact that churches are much more common (and cheaper to get into!).

Thursday afternoon and Friday Rem and I wandered around the Old Town while Anne was at work and amused ourselves with the Writer's Museum, the Museum of Scotland, the National Art Gallery, the Museum of Childhood, the Princes Street gardens and just generally the Old town architecture. I was pretty sick at the time so spent at least as much time observing these museums from whatever bench I could find as I did actively wandering through them.

Saturday we split up so Rem and Anne could go to the Whisky Heritage center while I toured the castle. Unfortuantely, the whisky tour took only an hour and I hadn't considered how much there really is to see in the castle so I was sort of running around trying to take it all in in an hour. I didn't succeed terribly well (and was even half an hour late to meet them) and it's all a bit of a blur. I did come to the conclusion that I wouldn't like to live in a castle and that my favourite trashy romance novels ask for even more of a suspension of disbelief than I had anticipated. The castle was packed full of things to see - the Prisoner of War museum, a war memorial full of stained glass that they wouldn't let me photograph, a military prison museum, a really old chapel (the oldest in Edinburgh or Scotland, I can't remember - I didn't find it, sadly), Mary, queen of Scot's quarters when she gave birth to James, and the warfare museum. My main impression of the place was that is was imposing, windy, stony and cold. And I want to see more castles!

Oh yes, and I got to see the Crown jewels of Scotland - along with a briskly moving crowd of Japanese tourists. Interestingly enough, during WWII, Germany was sufficient threat that the jewels were actually buried in the castle in a very damp and dank sort of cave in the castle for safekeeping. Only 4 people were informed and given a map of their location. The Prime Minister of England and two other UK government officials (which ones, I have forgotten already), and the Governor General of Canada! Apparently they figured that if the other three were captured, the Gov Gen would still be safe and sound over the pond. My brain is empty and I'm going to go to bed but I know I'm not doing the castle justice. See here for some more info, 'kay?


Post-script: It occurred to me this week that I currently have the most lucrative job I've ever possessed. Ironically, I was prepared for it before any of my recent (and expensive) post-secondary education. Yes, I am referring to my job as a cleaning lady. I have two clients who pay me roughly $16-17/hour (depending on the exchange rate), plus reimbursement for travel costs. And remember, this is sans deductions so I do indeed net $16-17/hour! And all this for some vacuuming and scrubbing. Thanks mom.