Scotland!!!

Hi Guys!!!! As many of you know, I've just spent 4 days in Scotland, and I had a great time! Anyway, here are some happy snaps of my trip!! :-)



First things first, I stayed here in St Andrews! (And drove up in the SAAB -refer to earlier blog *S*) It's actually a huge house that is now split in to apartments, but they were massive!



The War-battered and Fire devasted remains of St Andrews Castle. It was built around the 9th Century, and inhabited by monks, as St Andrews at the time was the religious capital of Medieval Scotland.



Bit of a long story behind this, but so as not to bore you, basically, in the 16th century, soldiers dug a tunnel underneath the castle in hopes to make the wall collapse and take command. However, their plan was thwarted by a 'counter-tunnel' being built underneath by the defending soldiers to intercept them! It was really awkward to walk through, I had to really crouch and walk on a slant, and try not to fall over and smash my camera! lol...



The Bottle Dungeon.... Wide enough to just squeeze in 4 standing people. Many a prisoner died in this Claustrophobic 'wishing well'.



Ok, this doesn't look like much, but I'm actually standing where George Wishart, a powerful Protestant Preacher, was condemned for heresy, and burned at the stake! Wishart's friends captured his betrayer, Cardinal Beaton, killed and hung him from the cliff face, and together created the first Protestant Church in Scotland! I love little history stories like that! (Sorry if I'm boring you!)



Really cool stone pier - thats another thing I loved about Scotland - all the Stone walls everywhere!! Must have taken Years to build them!



St Andrews Cathedral - again destroyed by fires over the years, now only a fraction of it remains.



Edinburgh! (Pronounced 'Edinbra'). As soon as I got off the train from St Andrews, I was greated by a Scotsman playing bagpipes in his full Kilt gear!



Edinburgh Castle :-) Actually, this is probably the only decent snap I got of it - this time round anyway! I liked St Andrews castle better though I think. Edinburgh Castle seems 'too' touristy. I had to wait a half hour standing in line just to buy my entry ticket! It's where the crown jewels of Scotland are held - which I got to see *S*



This is a little 'Dog Cemetry' inside Edinburgh Castle, for all the soldiers dogs that lost their lives.




A view from the castle over-looking Edinburgh City.



The 'One O'clock Gun', fired over the City from the castle to give everyone an idea of the time basically!



Well, after an hour of trying to edit this picture (I snapped it in 3 shots to get the whole thing), it's now turned out a little small sorry! Anyway, this hill is called Arthur's Seat, and over looks the city.



Me, dangling my feet off the top of the cliff face, having a jolly ol' time in my conquest of Arthur's Seat!!



Well done me! I think I would have successfully walked off that Burger King meal earlier! Actually, my walk around Edinburgh was massive! I walked up and down the 'Royal Mile' street a few times, and around the city all day, then Arthur's Seat. I was buggered by the end of the day!



Another view from Arthur's Seat, this time over-looking The castle, cathedral, and city :-)



Little Artistic snap from inside the train of 'Fourth Bridge', on the river Forth, between North and South Queensferry. Another bit of history: the name Queensferry came from when Queen Margaret used to catch the Ferry over the river before there was a bridge *S*



Waiting for the bus back to St Andrews, I caught the RAF fighter planes, her majesty's finest in action - doing take-off practise :-)



On the drive home (in the SAAB!), came across a lot of Coal Power houses. Reminded me of The Simpsons hehe.... (without the nuclear element!).

So that was my little adventure in a nutshell to Scotland (well, maybe not in a nutshell being that I'm allergic to nuts hehe...). I head back to Edinburgh in August to meet up with the Haggis Adventure Group to tour the rest of Scotland for 8 days! Stay tuned!

Heath :-)