Scotland Day Eight

Yes, we are experiencing tour fatigue. I'm sitting in our hotel in Edinburgh (that's e'-din-bur'uh for you non-Scots), and it's only 9:20 PM. Compared to other evenings, we're turning in extremely early tonight. If it had not been raining all day, it would be brightly sunny out, as sunset is around 10:30. As it is, it's MacBeth-like dreary outside, and we're happy to be inside a nice hotel, warm and dry.

This morning, we arose and had the usual extreme Scottish breakfast. They don't offer haggis every meal, like they did in the islands, but I'm about haggis'd out. Before getting on the bus, Denise and I walked to the St. Andrews Episcopal Church nearby and took pictures. The people over here are serious about their churches, as each one is a wonderful of architecture and history.

Leaving Inverness, we headed south through the Cairngorms National Park. After about an hour, we stopped at a sheep farm near Etteridge, I think. There, we saw an exhibition of the skills of border collies in working sheep. These dogs are amazing. I will try to post a video on Facebook, depending on the speed of the Internet connection. It seemed that they were reading the shepherd's mind, and each individual dog moved like a professional soccer player. The sheep ran almost as if they were marionettes. In addition, the dogs were friendly and affectionate to these strangers who had just gotten off the bus at their farm. Oh, and the shepherd told us about the dogs, and he said "There's only one kind of dog--a border collie. All the rest are cats."

The dogs start their training at 21 days after birth. He brought out five puppies, and handed them out to the group members. I held one for a while, and the little guy warmed my heart. He was a bit stinky, of course. Anyhow, the shepherd showed us how one of the pups, all around 14 days old, would follow his voice and whistling, so a lot of what they do is very instinctual.

The shepherd then sheared one of the sheep, allowing some of the group to have a hand at the shears. He does not use electric shears, as they are more likely to nick the sheep's skin, and he likes to leave a little bit of a coat because it's cold even in summer, here. He said the fastest he had ever sheared a sheep was in one minute. I took my turn, and it really is fascinating how the shears can lift the hair up so that when you close the shears, you can be certain that no skin is between the blades. After he did the shearing, he let the sheep go, and its lamb bleated very soulfully, as it didn't recognize its own mother without her wool. Within about 15 minutes, they had reconciled just fine, but we all became convinced that sheep really are just a dumb as everyone says they are.

After re-boarding the bus, we went south to Edinburgh, skipping a planned stop in Perth and arriving at our hotel around 3 PM. We dropped our luggage and went directly downtown for a quick bus tour of the sights, and then we entered Edinburgh Castle. The oldest part of the castle is St. Margaret's Chapel in the highest part of the grounds. It's a tiny chapel that might seat 15 people if they all sat shoulder-to-shoulder. The chapel was built in the 12th century.

The castle has been taken by invaders several times, but the chapel survived because it was a house of worship. Even though its occupants used it for a while to store gunpowder. There is evidence that Edinburgh, most likely the castle site, was occupied in the 600's by Picts, then named Din Eidyn. In 638, the Angles captured the area, and renamed it Edinburgh. I have been fascinated over and over by the detail and accuracy of the history of this formidable land. Many of the ancient events are recorded not only to the year, but to the exact date, sometimes with the hour the event occurred.

We walked around in the castle proper, and saw the Scottish crown jewels, which are the second oldest in Europe. We also saw the Stone of Scone, also known as the Stone of Destiny. It has been used at the coronation of Scottish kings since the 1200's, and was in London until 1996, when it was returned to Edinburgh. King Edward I, famously the king who defeated William Wallace and ordered his execution, brought the stone to England to humiliate the Scots, and the stone had been there ever since. Since the modern kings are king of Scots and of England, the stone has been used in coronations of English kings all that time.

Our time in the castle was marred only by continual drizzling rain. It's also very windy up there on top of that extinct volcano, so we were just a bit miserable. We took the bus again, to Abbottsford Pub, where we had dinner all together. There was a set menu, but we were able to substitute fish and chips for the main course. My appetizer was "packets of haggis, with onion chutney." Let me tell you something! You might not like the idea of haggis (various meats cooked in a sheep's stomach), when that stuff is baked in small pastries and served with a chili sauce and onion chutney, it is wonderful. The fish and chips were just really good traditional fare, and dessert was "sticky toffee with vanilla ice cream." It was even better than it sounds. Much better.

Tomorrow, we're going to church where Ben did his internship for his seminary degree, and then we'll have free time all afternoon. Should be a ball.