Massive Post Part 1

Okay. This is probably going to be a very long update.

Day 3, 28/8/09 – New Lanark and Stirling

New Lanark was pretty amazing. It’s this World Heritage site with all these beautiful restored mills and houses. Oh! Before I talk about that, on the way up, we stopped by this cute little farm house, and there was a cat outside! He was a little pretentious, which reminded me of Tara, but he just looked so idyllic in front of the farm! Anywho, back to New Lanark (the “r” isn’t really pronounced by the way, so it’s kind of like “lan-ock”). While a gorgeous town all on its own, it is also known for its waterfalls on the River Clyde. We hiked up to them (only like a 20 min hike to the Corra Linn and another 20 min up to Bonnington Linn). Corra Linn is MASSIVE. The pictures really won’t do them any justice. The Bonnington Linn… well, let’s just say that we completely missed it on the way up, and had to search for it on the map before we could back-track and find it. There was a really cute, really narrow iron bridge up there, so if anything the walk was worth it for that. My mom was still terrified of Glasgow, so we headed up to Stirling for the night.

Day 4, 29/8/09 – Stirling

We went to Stirling Castle today, which was pretty, but I just didn’t fall in love with it – as seen by how few pictures I took of it. We also went to Argyll’s Lodging, a gorgeous restoration of a 17^th century nobleman’s house – the Duke of Argyll in particular. Apparently, he was a really rich and important dude. We then went to the Church of the Holy Rude (Rude or Rood meaning cross, but I still found the name amusing). I think I’m just on a not-into-religion kick right now, because I was more annoyed at the fact that it was still a functioning church than impressed with the architecture. Alas and oh well. I also think my annoyance came from the fact that my mother got all pseudo-religious and bought this little keyring of an angel stained glass window, saying it was our “guardian angel.” Whatever. As my sister pointed out, I don’t think the angel would be very helpful when my mother is shouting “Jesus Christ!” at every car that passes us. I had a huge fight with my mom concerning various things. But that’s enough of that.

Day 5, 30/8/09 – Inverlochy, Loch Lochy, Loch Ness, and Inverness

We stopped at this ruined castle at Inverlochy – called Inverlochy Castle, amazing, right? It seemed so sad, beyond the fact that it was in ruins. It seemed lonely, and some idiots had vandalized it. That’s right, some *BLEEPERS* vandalized an 800 year old castle. The history of the castle is kind of sad, too. The Comyn family built it in 1280, but after they tried and failed to oppose Robert the Bruce around 1308 it was pretty much abandoned until Historic Scotland started caring for it. It is right at the point where Loch Linnhe meets Loch Lochy (and isn’t that the cutest name ever?). After that we went to the Bridge of Oich which was made in 1854. It was very innovative because it wasn’t made out of stone but rather cables and of an interesting design that, if the bridge was cut down the middle, it would theoretically still stand, as each side can support itself. We then went to Urquhart (URK-cart) Castle, which is right on Loch Ness. It was nice, but only really worth it for the stunning views of Loch Ness (no monster, though).

Day 6, 31/8/09 – Inverness, Elgin

The first thing we did was go to Cawdor Castle, which is where Shakespeare set Hamlet. We were not allowed to take pictures inside, but it really wasn’t anything special until we got outside to the gardens. They had a beautiful structured garden, and then a “wild garden” which was essentially wild woods with walking trails. Some of the trees had wound together so that they looked like Celtic knots. I took a lot of pictures of flowers as an inspiration for the tattoo I’m going to get – I really changed up the design. I might take a picture and post my rudimentary sketch. It’s supposed to be my dad’s initials with wildflowers spilling over parts of the letters. We then went to Broadie Castle, another place where pictures were not allowed. One of the Broadie’s built a huge library, but apparently he was a complete cad otherwise. There was a gorgeous painting of a knight (I think) with his head tipped back and a translucent spirit, possibly an angel, comforting/protecting him, curling over his head. I think I have to email them to find out what that picture is… There were supposed to be baby swans in a nearby lake, but we only saw a big male swan. I still took pictures. After that we went to see Sueno’s Stone, a Pictish stone with a rather pretty cross carved into one side, with intricate knot-work (a “Celtic cross”). The other side depicted an unknown battle. We traveled to Elgin (“gin” rhymes with “win” or “been”, it isn’t like the drink) and lucked into a really nice hotel with a huge bathroom.

Day 7, 1/9/09 – Elgin, Aberdeen, Stonehaven

We started the day trying to get the car mirror fixed. Thrifty (our rental company) wanted us to turn the car in, but my mom decided it would be better to go to the VW dealership/service shop. It turns out that our car was such a new model, they didn’t have our size mirror in stock. Thrifty had said that there was a Thrifty location in Aberdeen, so since we were headed there anyway, we just continued on. Well, first we stopped at Elgin Cathedral. It was pretty, with a “unique octagonal meeting house” that had cool windows – each side had its own design. We went to Tesco for lunch and ate at a park where we found more swans, two males and four females this time. Lizzy fed them so I was able to get lots of pictures of them crowding around her. At one point one of the females got out of the water, but she promptly returned when she thought Lizzy was going to feed them again. We then attempted to go to Aberdeen, but my mom went the wrong way and we ended up in Buckie, a town on the north coast between Elgin and Aberdeen. It was a happy mistake, however, as we got to see a Shetland pony, pet a Shetland horse, and absolutely adore this country cat that was walking down the road! Seriously, this cat was so sweet. It had fleas and I think ticks, but seemed well fed otherwise. It let me hold it for a minute, which was pretty much the highlight of my day, if not week. We got back on the right track and got to visit the Maiden Stone. It is a Pictish stone that supposedly was originally a girl who made a bet with the devil. She of course lost, but as she was trying to run from the devil she cried out to god and he saved her by turning her into this stone. The big chunk missing is where the devil touched her shoulder as she was being transformed. It was kind of shocking that the stone was just out in the open, with absolutely no protection from the elements, but Lizzy says this is normal for Europe. We continued on into Aberdeen, but everywhere was booked because of this Big Oil Conference going on in town, so we traveled south to Stonehaven, a small but popular fishing village, for the night.