My Trip to the UK and Ireland, Day 5

On our way to Edinburgh Castle we past this store (and a few others like it) filled with really sweet looking weaponry. Almost all had some sort of "Braveheart Sword" somewhere. I wanted one.

This place is now a city community center... but at one time it must've been a church of some sort.

When we arrived at the castle they were putting up bleachers... and they seemed to be going up right on top of some statues, which seemed weird to me.

Here's a quick look at the city from the parking lot.

Robert the Bruce.

Here's the coat of arms above the entrance.

And we have more suits of armor. Excellent.

This is the great hall, where they'd have feasts... and it's lined with weapons.

...including giant swords..

All of these are now museums of one sort or another..

This here is a tour guide wearing a kilt. There were a few people we saw thoughout our stay that were wearing kilts.. I saw one guy at a us stop [prolly mid 20's] and another older guy at the train station... Didn't really even seem that out of place.

So this castle was used to house prisoners for a long, long time... including prisoners during the American war for independance, and World War II... They had set up a recreation of what the place looked like at that time. These are the war prisoner's quarters.

They had some of the original doors from the prisons, and there were carvings in them from prisoners, and they explained when and what these carvings were about. It was pretty interesting.

Okay, prisoners had a lot of free time.. so they made things... including things like this boat. "Impressive" doesn't do this thing justice.

Those tombstones in that arc area down there are for soldiers dogs.

The view of the city from the castle wall was just beautiful.

This is a quick clip looking around the city from the castle wall.

Another look at the city from up high.

Another look around the city, and at the lineup of cannons on the Castle wall.

That there is the gun they fire each day to signal 1 p.m.

Another look at the city, and the water off in the distance.

Here's a look up at on of the levels of the castle wall.

It's me and a tank!

Here's another boat made by a prisoner.

Here's a clip of the dude walking to the canon, gettign set to fire at one.

So there we were, waiting for him to fire, and I'm taking 20 second video clip after 20 second clip... and then out of no where : BOOM... I was so caught off guard and scared by that thing that the clip starts out with me filming the sky above my head (i.e. I jumped and flailed my arms when the thing fired.)

Here's another scan around town, from a different side of the castle.

Here's the view from the other side of the castle.

That there, under the arched gate, is the portcullis, and it looked sweet!

That is the entrance to the castle, with William Wallace and Robert the Bruce standing on either side

Best store name ever!

Here's a look back at the castle, and it really just looks gorgeous.

This is our tour guide on our tour of the Museum of Scotland. She was a really kind, sweet old lady that showed us all around the musuem, and told a fine story of Scotland's history.

And we get more swords!

Here's a time line of how Scotland became what it is, starting from the dawn of time. Answers in Genesis would not approve.

Between the Royal Museum of Scotland and the Museum of Scotland was this set up (probably for kids) about science and sports.. and it included a basketball type game... so we all played. i 0wNZ0rD. Here's a clip of Robb playing.

Inside the Royal Museum of Scotland was a open area for coffee and it included a small pool complete with fish. Here's a clip of the fish.

An old school bike. Sweet. We're in the Royal Museum now, and this room sseemd to be dedicated to all sorts of things: transportation, communication, photography, etc..

It's the car Steve Urkel had in Family Matters!

It's the outfit Elton John wore on the Muppet Show!

This here is dolly the cloned sheep.

They had rooms just filled with all sorts of animals (stuffed, not alive...) including a ton of endangered and extinct animals. They had a number of dodo birds, and a carrier pigeon.. and a California condor...

Time for some food. I had a pork chop, and some beans, potatoes, yams, and a pint. It was glorious.

We're now walking the city, slowly making our way to Carlton's Tower, which the tour lady at the Museum pointed out to us.

I suggested climbing up this thing, but it was a long, long ways away, so we did not.

This palace must be important, because there are guard stations by the front door. It was closed and gated, so this was as close as we could get.

There's that mountain, getting even farther away.

We made it to the top of Carlton's Tower, and on top were a number of things... including this thing.

Here's me well in front of some giant columns.

Closer up to this tower.

Here's Joel setting up his camera to take a picture of the three of us on top of this scenic overlook.

And here we are, overlooking Edinburgh.

Me and Edinburgh.

Robb had a little trouble getting on the columns.. and thus performed the feat in typical dynamic "Robb" fashion. Always entertaining.

I was unable to find a razor this day as well, and I'm stuck with the beard. After a long, and kinda cold day, we're back at our hostel.