Where we are and where we are going

We haven't been in touch with some of you lately, so we figured we'd give a outline of what the future holds for us (assuming all goes according to plan!).

But first, a little about what we've been up to lately. This wee photo collection misses out a bunch of stuff, like where we take our Glasgow Fiddle Workshop classes, and museums we've been to, and our fish-and-chip excursions. But we'll try to fill in more about our lives here as we have time.

Here's a little of what we've been up to...

Riding around Glasgow, to and frae, across cool bridges by night and day!

Touristy sights:

This is a carving in a church that was designed by Glasgow-native Charles Renne MacKintosh. Beautiful!

Fall colors! And super-slick-when-wet dead leaves on all the roads and cycle paths! Be aware! (Also, wet granite pavers can be slick. boB had a crash a few nights ago because the pavement was so slick. Ouch!)

On cold nights we have beer-tasting experiences at home. Boddingtons, at £4 per four-pack, is on the left. In the middle is Morrison's "Traditional Best," at £2 for a four-pack. On the right is Morrison's Savers Bitter, at an outrageously screaming deal of £0.89 for a four-pack. Quite a deal, that stuff. And it can be used to strip paint, tan leather, and clean your carbeurator! 

bob is standing infront of Babbity Bowster- one of our favorite spots for traditional music sessions. 

Super friendly atmosphere, welcoming people & fantastic music!

Here is (was!) our favorite coffee shop - we stopped there once a week for a coffee and chat. Except that this week it CLOSED!! That's terrible! The proprietor is/was a hilarious fellow whose dry wit never ceased to entertain, and sometime left boB speechless to reply! Now THAT is quite a feat! But, sadly, they closed! We're crushed...!! 

The coffee shop is (was!) right across the street from one of our other favourite hang-outs ...

The College Of Piping! The Advil Highlanders are going to be a bagpipe band!  Well... Someday. 

We're just playing on practice chanters for now, which is a good thing for our neighbors because it's HARD to make good sounds come out of just the practice chanter! And, someday, when we fire up a full set of Great Highland Bagpipes for the first time, the whole world will hear of the Advil Highlanders ... as they sonically simulate the slaying of a flock of geese by a herd of tone-deaf Tom cats!  

Seriously, though, we're having a great time learning basic techniques and tunes, and we are making great progress. Our tutor is Willie Morrison, South Uist-born and from a long line of pipers. He's an outstanding tutor, takes his work seriously and demands perfection, and is also easy-going and encouraging. When we have to leave Glasgow we'll sincerely miss Willie. 

This is a mural in the practice hall at the College.  The whole mural is about 15 feet long!

This is the garden at the Pollock House, an historic manor near where we live. We could go on for hours about the history of this place... But we have music to play!

Anyway ... Now a wee update on what's coming up next for the Advil Highlanders. This is a roughish outline, and subject to change when the wind blows something better in our direction. 

Next week is the Scot's Fiddle Fest in Edinburgh! We've got train tickets booked and plan on 3 full days of music workshops, lectures, sessions, and concepts. And.... PIES!!!! Lots of pies frae Auld Jock's Pie Shop. If we can fit it in we may also visit a bagpipe maker... Maybe? 

We will remain in Glasgow, taking music classes at the GFW (Glasgow Fiddle Workshop) and the College of Piping until early January, after which we have a wee trip to Ireland planned. We were able to book a flight to Dublin for a mere £40 - for both of us! Who could resist a 17-day Ireland adventure in the dead of winter??! Well, we couldn't!  We realized we could leave Scotland briefly in order not to use up the remainder of our precious 6 month visa.  With this wee Ireland diversion (Ireland is NOT part of the UK), we can extend our stay in the UK for another 2 weeks - allowing us to return to Glasgow for a real Scottish Burn's night celebration on January 25th (the birthday of the late Robert Burns, bard of Scotland) and the incredible 'Celtic Connections' festival occurring in late January. And we were lucky to catch two of the last tickets to the legendary Transatlantic Sessions at the Celtic Connections!! We are beyond excited!

After much research (turns out it is difficult to ferry with bikes internationally), we booked a ferry to the Netherlands for early February. We hope to stay in Amsterdam for two weeks visiting Melinda's Dutch friends and host family. After a terrific year abroad in high school,  she sadly hasn't seen these lovely people for nearly 20 years! It's high time to get reacquainted and show boB around her old stomping grounds in Amsterdam. 

In order to stay in Europe/elsewhere for as long as possible, we need to reduce our cash outflow. We can't really work to make money, but there is an alternative. Check out the website called HelpX.org, and you'll get an idea. Generally, if one volunteers time and effort (aka "work") then one can have free accommodation and possibly some allowance for food.  So we've been searching the interwebs like madmen in hopes of finding the perfect European work-stay opportunity. 

And winter in Ireland isn't so hot, so to speak, even though there is a lot of HelpX opportunity there. 

So ... where better to work in the winter than sunny Southern Spain? Winter in southern Spain? Sounds great! 

After a good bit of digging and emailing, we found a hostel in Seville to take us on for 7 weeks! We'll go there after Amsterdam, and "work" (don't call it that, cuz then the authorities get all up in a bunch about it... It's volunteering!)

We are currently organizing to meet up with boB's folks in April for a vacation in Spain and Morocco. We are even looking for potential work in Morocco afterwards. Lots of opportunities abound on HelpX, and we couldn't help but laugh at this outrageous ad-

We are a Berber family in a village on the edge of the Sahara desert. We have a bivouac with traditional Berber tents situated 8 km from Tamegroute, the village where we live.  We would like to find someone who wants to live in our Sahara Desert Bivouac for a while, take care of it and keep it clean and tidy for tourists. There is a well with water a 5 minutes walk from the bivouac but there is no electricity, only candles. We offer you accommodation in our typical nomad tents, but food isn't provided if no tourists are present. However, we can buy food and organise food transport for you by local people for a symbolic price or you can be independent and take care of your needs on your own, as you prefer. The Sahara Desert Bivouac is sometimes full of tourists, sometimes there is only Ali who takes care of the bivouac or cooks for tourists, but sometimes there is no one there for days. So we are looking for serious people who are flexible with rough conditions in the desert and who don't mind spending some time alone. It isn't easy to live there, and nights are sometimes very cold, so be prepared. Try not to have big expectations. It seems romantic to try to live in the desert but we have to remind that it is also very hard and if you're not well organised, it can be complicated. We are always ready to help you, give you advice or teach you how to live in the desert, however we try to find responsible and independent individuals who are able to take care of themselves and not to put themselves in danger (for example, a spontaneous walk by your own in the middle of the night in the desert isn't good idea at all no matter how much you enjoy silence and shiny stars). I am sure that you will remember this kind of experience for a long time, but it mostly depends on you if it will be pleasant or unpleasant one. People who already have similar experience of living in remote wild areas without water and electricity (desert, mountains, islands...) are more than welcome.  If you think that all this Sahara Desert Bivouac lifestyle is too much for you, we are also looking for a professional photographer and web designer who is able to improve and manage our current web page and create new web pages as needed. In that case you would be sleeping in our house in the village with all meals included. Don't hesitate to contact me for more information and hope to see you soon in our Sahara Desert Bivouac or in our village. You are welcome here anytime!

Tempting now, isn't it? Too bad boB and Melinda are not professional photographers and have no web design skills. 

Anyway, after Morocco, then perhaps to Ireland again. That's the idea at this point, anyway. 

Our ultimate desire is to return to the UK again next summer, once they will let us return again (after July 17, 2016). To make that possible we hope to work ...er, volunteer hard, live affordably, budget wisely, and thereby extend the adventure as long as we are able!

 

Our plans change as we find other grand opportunities and come up with even wilder ideas, and so the adventure continues!

We miss you all and will keep you posted on new developments in plans. Stay well! We hope you are all enjoying a lovely November!

13 to 31 October: Home in Glasgow

Although we miss the adventure of our life on the road, it has indeed been a pleasant adjustment to sedentary life indoors. 

Our small one bedroom apartment is in the posterior portion of the gorgeous Victorian home above. It is located in south Glasgow in a neighborhood called Pollokshields, which is one of the largest Victorian Suburbs in Britain. Glasgow had its heyday in the Victorian era, whereas Edinburgh's was in Georgian times, and this is reflected in the architecture.

Wow! A refrigerator, stove, and dishes! We are in heaven!

There's loads of stuff to do in Glasgow!  

The staircase leading up to the tower at Charles Renne Mackintosh's lighthouse in downtown Glasgow. We forgot to count the steps, but nonetheless the view was superb.

Suddenly we realized just how big Glasgow was!!! Sprawling out in every direction, the city is home to some 590,000 Glaswegians. We are proud to be joining their ranks, at least for a short while!

Ornate stonework over the door frame of The Lighthouse. 

The Scotland School, designed by Charles Renne Mackintosh, is just down the road from our home.

 It was constructed in 1903 and was actively used as a school until the 1980's. The grandmother of our landlord was a teacher here. It has since been turned into a museum that illustrates school life through the centuries. Featured above is the home economics room where young women learned to be home makers in the early 1900's.

Inspired immensely by designs in nature, Charles Renne Mackintosh was known for immaculately designing his buildings' interiors, down to the fireplaces, furniture and fixtures. 

Beautiful and ornate stonework on the exterior of the school building. 

The Mackintosh festival celebrating the life and works of this amazing architect and artist happens to be taking place in Glasgow for the entire month of October. We were lucky to find a tour of the willow tea rooms (another of Mackintosh's creations) complete with high tea for a mere 5 pounds!

The coffee and scones were fantastic! And the decore in the "room de luxe" was bedazzling. The ladies of high society Glasgow would pay a whole penny extra to have tea in this special room in the early 1900's.

We could have stared at the incredible stain glass doors for hours.  

The intricate details were mesmerizing....

And delightful. 

This lovely fountain in Kelvingrove park features Queen Victoria. We bike through Kelvingrove Park nearly every day on our way to piping lessons, or a museum, or the library, or somewhere else exciting!

We were on the pedestrian mall on Buchanan Street when suddenly there was this outrageous sound, a flash of light, and Whammo!!! 

Funnily, it was gone the next time we were on Buchanan Street, two days later. Wonder where it is now?

Walking along Buchanan street, you are bound to hear one street musician or another.... or several!

We made a terrible discovery: a most wonderful violin shop with a cello and viola room. We didn't let ourselves try any of the instruments on the wall for fear of what we may do if we were to fall in love with one of them!

Last view of the purple bikes- we are painting them with gold and gray spray paint to deter theives. We figure of our bikes are ugly they may not be such attractive targets. 

Stay tuned for future updates about life in Glasgow!!!

13 October-31 October:  out and about in Glascow. Visited many of our local sites in Polluckshields, as well as greater Glascow. Made friends at the College of Piping, the Glascow Fiddle Workshop, and several local tradional music sessions at pubs (namely the Islay Inn and Babbity Bowsters). Learned to navigate the city streets on bicycles. Joined a Scottish Country Dance class.  

12 October: Edinburgh to Glasgow

After brekkie at Auld Jock's we hit the road. Well, we hit the cycle route. 

We were taking two cycle routes, first along the Union Canal to Falkirk, and then along the Clyde Canal to Glasgow. 

Easy riding! We had no idea there was a canal that runs practically right to the center of Edinburgh. The pedestrian traffic slowed us down a bit, but we never had to stop for car traffic! Yay!

We had to wind our way under a bunch of overpasses, and sometimes the path was really narrow! It was always a blind turn, and a few times we nearly ran headlong into a cyclist coming the oppposite direction. We got in the habit of ringing our bells before turning under the bridges, and that helped. 

Swans! And lots of ducks, too. We saw some canal boats, and waved at the folks puttering along

the canal at the speed limit of 3 mph. 

The union canal was built between1812 and 1822, and was used for a long time to transport stone from quarries to Edinburgh to support the building boom of the New Town. The barges were horse drawn, and that's why there's a path along the side that can be used for the cycle paths. The canals are still use today by canal-holiday boats, and restaurant boats that serve tea and coffee. 

The canal is nearly thirty miles long and with no locks to raise or lower boats - the entire canal is at the same elevation. That means that when the canal comes to a valley, it's continued on an aqueduct!  

This was the longest aqueduct we crossed, and we were way off the ground!

Here's a view from the aqueduct to a rail bridge. The aqueduct we're on looks very much the same as the rail bridge. Amazining to consider the engineering behind a bridge that's filled with water to carry boats and doesn't leak!

At Linlithgow, about 15 miles west of Edinburgh, we visited the Linlithgow Palace. This place is stately and HUGE!

The Palace was originally started  in the 1200s, but a portion was destroyed in 1424 and was promptly rebuilt. Numerous kings added on to the palace, or had sections of it expanded or rebuilt. There are a few signs of the additions if one looks closely.

Significantly, Mary, Queen of Scots, was born in the palace in 1542, and stayed in the palace frequently during her reign. It is said that her mother, Mary of Guise, haunts the palace. 

The palace was used off-and-on by Scottish royalty until about the 16th century, but was not used much after that. Bonnie Prince Charlie visited the palace on his march south in 1745, and the fountain shown below was said to flow with wine in honor of his visit. 

The palace was burned out in 1746 by the English after defeating the Scots at Culloden, and fell into disrepair. Starting in the early 1900s, the palace was conserved, and is maintained now by Historic Scotland. 

This is the great hall of the palace. At the far end of it you can see Melinda ... She's standing upright in the fireplace of the great hall! That give an idea of the scale of the place. 

Here's a view into the courtyard from the tallest accessible tower - about 130 steps up the spiral staircase! The roof is gone from most of the palace, but it's easy to see where the guards and lookouts would have paced the ramparts looking out over the Glen. 

We left Linlithgow after a snack, and continued along the canal. The weather was perfect. Once again, we lucked out on the weather, and were loving every minute of it. 

At the very end of the Union Canal is the Black Hill tunnel, at 2070 feet long, and that's pretty cool.

 But what we found outside the other end of it was even cooler!

Here's the view along the very end of the Union Canal. We're at quite an elevation above the ground below. Which means that there had to be a way to get the boats from this canal down to the Clyde Canal ...

This is The Falkirk Wheel, the largest water wheel in the world. Instead of using a series of locks to raise and lower boats between the Union and Clyde canals, which would take several hours for a boat to traverse, this contraption does it in about four minutes. The picture above shows it in position to load or discharge boats at both the upper (Union) and lower (Clyde) canals.

A boat is driven into the little "tub" in Wheel, and a water tight gate closes behind it. And then ...

The wheel turns. Here it's about a third of the way down. 

And in this picture it's half-way around. Two boats fit into each of the tubs, so they can move four boats at a time in about four minutes. And, amazingly, the motor that turns the Wheel is about 8 horsepower! 

When the wheel completes cycle. Water tight gates are opened and the boats exit. Now boats are loaded, and the cycle repeats. We have a video, and will post that when we can. 

We left Falkirk late in the afternoon, and were only about half-way to Glasgow at that point. It turns out that riding along the canal paths is slow and takes a lot of effort. It's almost perfectly flat, which means we have to pedal the entire time - there are no rest breaks to coast down hills! Coupled with the stops we made and the slow-going to wind around all those bridges near Edinburgh meant that we were quite late getting to Glasgow. 

We finally arrived at our new home just south of Glasgow, in the Pollokshields neighborhood, at about 8:15 pm. It was a LOOOONG day, and our last day of the cycle tour was the second-longest in miles!

Our land-lady greeted us, gave us a tour of our new apartment, and bade us good night. You might recall that we met her at the Achininver hostel waaaay back in August. We stayed in touch with her after that, and she's letting us the apartment on the back of her house until early January. We're thrilled to be here!

We unpacked a few things... Well, let's be honest: we unpacked the glasses and whisky! We poured a slightly taller-than-normal dram, and toasted our safe arrival and the successful completion of our three-month cycle tour of Scotland's Highlands and Islands. Huzzah!

A few curious facts re our cycle tour:

- Total miles: 2211.62

- Nights camping: 34

- Hostel nights: 16

- Hotel nights: 2

- B&B nights: 1

- Nights in a museum storeroom: 1

- Ferries and Boat rides: 33

- Sunscreen usage: two wee squirts

- Midge repellent usage: two large bottles

- Fish and Chip consumption: we lost track...

- Breweries visited: 2

- Distilleries visited: 18

- Crashes: One (boB's low-speed fall-over in Stirling)

- Cases of dysentery: 1

- Bottles of chain lube: 1-3/4

- Flat tires: ZERO!

Daily Summary:

12 October- Edinburgh to Glasgow via the Union and Forth & Clyde canal cycle routes (1 & 7). Visited Linlithgow Palace, the Falkirk Wheel. Total 65.25 miles.

9 to 11 October: Edinburgh

We left Stirling with great anticipation for what lay ahead in Edinburgh, a city famous for its beautiful architecture and rich cultural and historical offerings. The weather was fine, and we felt great after a relaxing few days in Stirling. 

It was just after a few miles from Stirling that we came across some of the giant warehouses that we had seen from high on the castle hill. 

And there was that peculiar smell....

Whisky warehouses!! We found the treasure! This is where hundreds of thousands of barrels of whisky are aged, shipped here from distilleries all over Scotland! Unfortunately, it's well locked and behind lots and lots of tall fences, topped with nasty barbed wire, and covered from all angles with security cameras. So, we breathed the magnificent fumes for a few miles and kept on our way. 

We were again riding on an old railroad right of way, which is great for easy grades, no traffic. And it's fun to ride under the old bridges and tunnels. 

Unfortunately, we had taken a wrong turn to end up on this cycle route. Getting back on the correct route involved winding our way through a country park on bad dirt trails, rough single-track, and dealing with confusing maps that were posted randomly through the park. We made it through, and after a short stretch on a terrifyingly busy highway, we pulled onto a farm road to Culross. 

We had discovered the famed Culross Abbey! There has been a Christian settlement here since the 5th century, and until about 1217 AD there was a Celtic Christian church here. The Abbey was founded in 1217 by the 7th Earl of Fife, and the monks were of the Cisterian Order. Most of the Abbey is in ruins now, but the church remains intact and beautiful condition. 

Here are some of the ruins of the Abbey. The Abbey was huge, and with what little remains one can guess at the grandeur of the place by extrapolation the carved arches and imagining the whole Abbey built in such a manner. 

The Culross Kirk is mentioned in a very moving Scottish folk song about a woman called Thaney (or Thenew). The Scottish folk group Malinky do a fabulous version of the song on their Three Ravens album, and it's worth a listen. (Linky... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJT0vPTVCAQ)

After leaving the Abbey we went right down the hill to Culross.

Culross is a neat little village with narrow cobbled streets, colorful cottages, and windey alleys and closes. This village is where part of the Scottish TV series Outlander was filmed. Based on a series of books by Diane Gabaldon, the TV series is reportedly very well done. (We're going to try to watch a few episodes once we settle down.)

We left Culross and headed east along the Forth. The cycle path was largely along the firth, but every so often took a random detour inland, up a very steep hill, through a farm, and then back down again. Great way to see the country-side!

Eventually, we got to the Forth Road Bridge! This is it! Our gateway to Edinburgh!

The road bridge affords a great view of the rail bridge, shown in the back ground above. This rail bridge is beautiful to behold. It was started in 1882 and opened in 1890, built to replace another bridge that had tragically collapsed in a gale while a train was crossing. That bridge had been poorly designed and poorly built, so the new rail bridge was intentionally over designed to instill confidence in the travelling public. It's been standing for 125 years, so clearly it was done right!

The road bridge is a suspended bridge, and is well over a mile long. Thankfully we were off the traffic lanes, and it was smooth sailing all the way over the bridge. 

We wound our way through neighborhoods for the next ten miles or so, until we ended up near the city center. At this point we walked our bikes ... Easier than dealing with that traffic, and it was getting late and dark and we were tired anyway. 

Right away we found Ali's Cave, made famous by a hilarious spoof on a Scottish tourism board video. Watch the video here...  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFubsxHTApw

We stayed at a hostel located over a bar called Malones. It was pretty inexpensive, centrally located, and ... definitely weird. It wasn't a bad place at all, though the kitchen left a little to be desired! A wee two-burner hot plate. Cute. 

The hostel is run by the same guy who runs the bar, and it was clear that they don't put a lot into maintenance of the hostel...

This sign was carefully printed and laminated, and posted in one of the stalls in the ladies room... Why would one go through such trouble to make a sign if the issue is going to be resolved "as soon as possible"? Hmmm?  Well, it was a decent place, all in all. 

We put in our ear plugs to drown out the sounds of the heavily-drinking college kids on the street below, and tucked in. The next morning we had an adventure!

We got up early and followed the cycle routes to the east of the city, about sixteen miles away. 

Through a cool tunnel that was nearly a mile long...

Through an apartment parking lot (this is normal for the national network routes; we've been routed through Aldi parking lots, over pedestrian overpasses, on nettle-overgrown footpaths between farmers' fields, up, and down logging roads in the Trossachs... You name it. It's par for the course, and generally the routes are well done, scenic, and safer than being on the roads.)

We were on another railroad right of way through rolling farmlands and past old coal mines (marked by these head-stone looking plaques, and just hinting at the coal-mining history of this part of Scotland)...

To our target! We had a private guided tour of the Glenkinchie distillery, and a wee taste at the end. We highly recommend this malt! Very rich, smooth, sweet, and eminently drinkable. We learned on this tour of "the dram bell." Many years ago, the shift foreman would ring this bell and all the employees, (even those not working that day- they could hear the loud bell as they lived in company housing nearby), would come for their daily ration of whisky. Some would drink their ration on the spot and walk home (they lived close by so they could walk) and others would take their portion home.  The employer did this as a perk, and to keep the employees from stealing spirit while working. Sadly, Health and Safety regulations make this impossible now. Glenkinchie still has their bell in place, and they let us ring it! It was indeed quite loud! And shortly after came a wee dram!

It was a long ride there and back (16 miles each way!) and by the time we got home we were HUNGRY! 

We got falafel wraps from one of the many pizza-curry-chip shops (this shop had an especially inexplicable Che Guervera theme). Loads of calories! Be sure to watch that YouTube video we linked above, it'll help to explain the pizza-curry-chip shop phenomenon. We ordered a side of chips, and they were delivered with babaganoush ... strange, but VERY tasty!

We rested a wee while at the hostel, then headed out for some sightseeing in the dark. 

This is the magnificent Edinburgh Castle at night. It's impressive, even in the dark!

The next day we toured the castle.  It's huge! Magnificent! This is a view to the east, looking through a narrow window in a castle staircase. 

This is the National War Memorial, a very solemn place. Inside are books that list, by military group, Scotland's war dead since before World War One. It's quite moving and sad to page through the books and read the names and home-towns of so many thousands of boys, men, and women. 

The Castle is home to a variety of other buildings, including Saint Mary's Chapel. This wee chapel was the oldest structure built on the castle site, and houses a few small relics. The stained glass windows are beautifully done, honoring religiously significant figures from Scotland's past, including this one of Saint Columba who we've learned about in our prior travels. 

The Great Hall is home to an impresive display of arms and armor. It's a beautiful hall, though not quite as large as the hall at Stirling Castle. 

The day we were at the castle we saw an exhibition of Covenanter arms (1600's), done by a group of renactors. Several of them were musketeers, and they fired (blanks!) over the castle walls and into the city below. We have a video, which we'll post when we can. The fellow above gave a great explainer of his match-lock musket. The group also had a cannon, and that shook up the crowd when they fired it!

There was a display of the surgeon's tools. The tool third-in on the left of the musket balls is a musket ball extractor. The way its usage is described is ... gruesome, to say the least! 

The castle is quite impressive and has a long history. Like many Scottish castles, it was built, partially destroyed, built again and added onto, and later used as military barracks. It now houses the Honours of Scotland: the sword, the scepter, and the crown. Sadly visitors are not allowed to take pictures of The Honours, I'm sorry to say.

Outside the castle ... Loads of tourists! We're still not accustomed to being around teeming throngs of people! The weather was grey, but dry, and we had a great time just walking around the city. 

We found loads of little gems, like the one identifying a house where Robert Burns stayed. Such history!

And The Royal Mile is home to all sorts of strangeness... Like a violin-playing tight-rope walker (who's rope isn't all that tight). There were also bagpipers, jugglers, violinists, and a Stormtrooper wearing a Royal Stewart kilt. It takes all kinds, doesn't it?

That night we went to one of the greatest folk session icons in all of Scotland: Sandy Bells. Malones, our hostel and home-bar, was just across the street from Sandy Bells, and we fortunate to pay a visit to Sandy Bells every night that we were in Edinburgh!

The place was packed! The music was great, and we had a seat right up front. We recognized some of the tunes, and heard loads more that we want to try to learn at some point. There's a session pretty much every night at Sandy Bells, and some nights it's Scottish, some nights it's Irish, and some nights it's a mix. 

We stopped at a whisky shop, because, you know, we have a thing for whisky. We found a few we might be interested in, and put them on our Christmas wish list! (Hint, daD) 

There's a tourist wool shop right next to the castle with working looms in the basement. They weave tartan cloth right before your very eyes! They had loads of kilts, and bolts of fabric that are used to make them!

There is also a display showing the evolution of Highland dress. From the rough-woven fabrics that were pleated and draped to the finely tailored kilts as we know them today, the kilt has come a long way, and it continues to evolve in style and usage. The photo above shows the official dress of the Atholl Highlanders (center).

A wee selfie in a distorting mirror...

Edinburgh is home to the Victorian-Gothic styled Sir Walter Scott monument.

The monument was started in 1840 to commemorate Sir Walter Scott, the famous poet, novelist, and playwright, who wrote Rob Roy, Ivanhoe, Waverly, and a list of other classics that some of us suffered through in High School literature. Knowing more about the history of the country, and the places Scott came from actually helps one to appreciate those classics in a wholly different light. Might just have to give them another read...

We found Greyfriar's Kirk, where Greyfriar's Bobby is buried. Bobby was a dog who was so loyal to his master that he stayed at his dead master's graveside for fourteen years. Bobby is immortalized in bronze just next to the graveyard.

And the graveyard has a creepy wee shop, too! Sadly it was closed during our visit. It would be curious to see just what they sell?

This is Victoria Street, one of boB's favorite streets in all of Edinburgh. Aside from the colorful paint scheme, Victoria Street is home to a very fine tweed shop. Two, in fact: one for men and one for women! Somehow, and with much anguish, we walked out empty-handed. 

This is the North Bridge of Edinburgh. A beautiful old bridge that connects Old a Town to New Town, over what used to be a loch. The loch was drained, and is now location of a beautiful park and the Edinburgh Waverly train station. The Bridge was built in 1896, and replaced an older and smaller bridge that had been constructed in 1772. 

Our sentiments, exactly! And we couldn't have said it better ourselves!

Are thots, eggsactly, and we cood not half sed it more goodly!

We had coffee at The Elephant House. This is where JK Rowling wrote much of the first Harry Potter book. She returned here to write large chunks of the other books, too. You could very well say that this is the home of Harry Potter! The coffee was delicious, and the number of elephant figurines in the curio cabinets was rather remarkable. After strolling through the streets of Edinburgh, it is easy to see how it could provide the novelist with such magical visions- it is a beautiful city. 

Here's a lovely statue next to the Museum of Scotland. And remember, parking is not allowed up there! (Look closely at his feet.)

We spent several hours in the Scottish National Museum, and that was not nearly enough time. One of our favorite exhibits was of the Lewis Chessmen. You may remember Melinda mentioned these during our stay of Lewis/Harris in the Outer Hebridies. The Chessmen were a Viking chess set that was discovered at Uig (west coast of isle of Lewis) in a small stone chamber at the edge of a beach in 1831. It is thought the pieces were made in 1100 or 1200's AD. Quite enigmatic to ponder how they came to be on the beach, in such good condition.  Well, Edinburgh is home to these few of the collection, and they are something to behold. They're only about three inches tall but the detail is outstanding. We spent a good twenty minutes looking at the Chessmen, and could have looked longer if we didn't have other places to get on to. 

The museum is also home Graeme Obree's hand-made bicycle that propelled him to the one-hour distance record in 1993 and in 1994. What's really amazing is that he built the bike himself using parts from a washing machine and other scavenged sources! His shoes are actually bolted to the crank arm - that makes a very strong fixture and saves the weight of the pedals. The riding position is very aerodynamic (and pretty uncomfortable). We're we didn't ride a bike like this on our adventure!!

Late on Saturday night we took a creepy ghost story tour into The Blair Vaults under the old South Bridge. The Vaults, completed in 1788, are actually part of the foundation of the bridge and formed a network of underground passages and rooms that were home to, well, society's shadier characters. There are stories about lurking murderers, "professional women," whisky smugglers, and even grave robbers and body snatchers who used the passageways to transport their wares to the Edinburgh school of medicine!

Selling corpses for education of would-be docs was a very profitable business at a time when the only bodies available for dissection were those of condemned criminals. The predominant thought about dissection at the time was that it interfered with the soul as it departed the body, thus no reasonable person would willingly donate their remains to science!

On the tour we were treated to spooky stories and tales of haunting and ghosts who still lurk in the vaults. It's a bunch of stories meant to creep out we poor travelers, and it worked!! By the time we ended the tour in one of Edinburgh's many graveyards we were sufficiently freaked out that we stayed on the most well-lighted streets to get home. 

The next morning we had great weather, but, alas, our time in Edinburgh was nearing an end. Before departing for Glasgow we had brekkie in boB's favorite pie shop: Auld Jock's!

The pies are SERIOUSLY GOOD! Especially the cheese-and-onion pie, with mash and beans and gravy and a can of Irn Bru on the side!  That's good fuel for the road, eh? If any of you are ever in Edinburgh, you simply must go to Auld Jock's. It's at the bottom of Victoria Street, right at the east end of Grassmarket.

We packed up the bikes at Malones and headed west to our new home in Glasgow. We left many things undone in Edinburgh, but we'll be back for more [pies] in November when we come back for The Scots Fiddle Festival [and pies].

Now on to Glasgow. This is to be the final day of the official bike tour, and we should be in our Glasgow apartment tonight, the 12th of October. Hard to believe it's nearly over....

Daily Summaries:

9 October: Stirling to Edinburgh via Cycle Route 76, 764 and 1. Crossed over the Forth Bridge. Visited Bannockburn Battlefield of 1314, the Culross Abbey, Edinburgh castle at night and the famed 'Sandy Bells' folk bar for a late night session. Passed through Alloa, Clackmannan, Limekilns. Stayed at Malones Irish bar and Pub. Total 51 miles.

10 October: day trip to Glenkichie distillery in Pencaitland via Cycle Route 1 and 196. Visited Edinburgh castle, the Northbridge of Edinburgh, and 'Sandy Bells'. Total miles 35.76.

11 October: A day off bikes in Edinburgh. Coffee at the Elephant House, visited the National Museum, the wool and tweed shops and pieshop along the Royal Mile/Victoria st, Edinburgh castle for special reenactment event, St Giles Cathedral, Scott Monument, the Blair Vaults for storytelling tour, and of course 'Sandy Bells'. Total of 0 miles.

12 October: brekkie at Auld Jock's. Depart Edinburgh for Glasgow.