Journal after5's Journal: Weekend Update 2
Hi, I'm back. Figured I'll give you guys the debriefing of my weekend spent in the wonderful city of Edinburgh, Scotland.
That's pronounced ed-in-burr-uh, by the way.
Friday afternoon we arrived in Edinburgh after a pleasant 7 hour train ride on Virgin Trains (I swear, Virgin must be in EVERY industry. Planes, trains, finance, soft drinks, music, mobile phones, cars, wines, publishing, and...BRIDAL WEAR! Yes, there is a store in London called Virgin Brides. I did snap a picture.)
Anyway, enough about the multinational corporations that seek nothing short of world domination. I want to talk about the jewel of Scotland.
Edinburgh sits roughly on the border of Scotland and England, smack in the center really. The landscape was carved by volcanoes and glaciers. Edinburgh castle sits on a large remnant of volcanic rock and rises high above the rest of the city. The Fifth of Forth is nearby which flows into the North Sea. Spectacular view.
Anyway, Friday afternoon we took a bus tour of the city so that we could scope out all the sights for us to focus on. We ended up just walking around afterwards (saving castle exploration and museums for the full saturday) and ended up in the Edinburgh Botanical Gardens. We were there for perhaps two hours and I could easily have spent many more. (The park closed on us and we were ushered out) They had a spectacular rock garden and a waterfall area with all sorts of little picturesque spots. And you could climb on whatever you wanted and just basically roam about. I took many pictures (putting the self-timer on my camera to some good use) and have many good shots from that day.
Speaking of the day, it was the warmest day of this year, sun shining, birds singing, and still cold. Nevertheless you'd think the scots had an 80deg heat wave, women in spaghetti straps and skirts and guys in tank tops, and then me, with my trenchcoat. It was quite amusing. It rained pretty much steadily for the rest of the time we were there. Good scottish weather.
American culture is also quite prominent, and by culture I mean Starbucks. There must have been a city law that says for every 5 pubs there is one Starbucks. Which roughly translates to 1 starbucks per city block. There is another company that seeks nothing short of world domination, and their name is Starbucks!
Edinburgh castle was a treat. We spent about five hours touring the grounds, the castle, and then the various museums located on the grounds. The Scottish war museum was quite good, I especially liked the part about khaki aprons that were worn to camoflauge the soldier's kilts.
One neat thing about the castle, is the 1-o-clock gun. They fire it every day (except sunday, good friday, and christmas day) at one in the afternoon so that the citizens and sailors in the river can set their time pieces. (their clock was incorrect, by the way, they were off by 37 seconds). Now, most cities would do this by firing 12 shots at high noon. It was explained to us by our Australian tour guide (yeah, an aussie), that one pm was chosen because one cannon did the job just as well as twelve, and one shell is cheaper. So they made it fire at one pm. Naturally we had to watch a 25lb gun fire a round off, it was loads of fun.
(Yes, it was a blast.)
More walking and hiking completed our tour of the city. We left Sunday morning for our 8.30 train back home. We ended up back at Worcester around 4pm. It was a long ride.
On the plus side, the way up we went through the middle of the country, while on the return trip we went along the eastern coast. So we saw quite a bit of the English countryside...and Leeds, dirty dirty Leeds. (A car was nicely ablaze as we went into the station, the Brits just casually walking by as if nothing unusual going on. Like i said, dirty dirty Leeds)
Leeds United (their football/soccer team, is also dirty)
And Sheffield, which some of you might remember from "The Full Monty." The city looks exactly like it did in the movie, overcast, grey, many areas abandoned, etc.
A city I'm definitely interested in going back to visit is Newcastle. They had the most amazing collection of bridges. Yes, bridges. Be they iron arches, roman style, or weird looking suspension bridges. This weird obsession is courtesy of Heidi, who has a fascination with neat looking bridges. Unfortunately my camera wasn't cooperating and my pictures all stink. So I have to go back one day and look at the 7 Bridges of Newcastle upon Tyne. Or however these weird people refer to it.
Overall I had a lot of fun, I'm definitely going to have to return, the place is just gorgeous.
Not sure where this next weekend will take me, but 18 - 21 Jul I'm headed off to Ireland with some guys. I'll definitely have some fun tales from that adventure.
Now if you excuse me, I have a test to study for (Ethics). Have a great day.
A bit jealous perhaps... (Score:1)
French Standard? (Score:1)
-Wes
ps I'm not crazy.