Just a side note: get ready for more insanity from that sorry excuse for a man for the next two months. Just like a cornered rat, he will do anything and everything to try to stop the Mueller investigation before the Democrats take over the House in January. Fortunately, Mueller is a thousand times smarter than him. I’m sure he’s figured out every move T will try to take. I’ve seen this analogy a lot: Mueller is the Master Chess Player here. T can barely understand checkers.
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Okay. On to Edinburgh. We were in Edinburgh for about 36 hours, so we could only see so much. I let Don take the lead, as he had never been there. Same with London.
We headed to the Prince Street Gardens and the walk to the Castle.
This is the statue of Sir Walter Scott that is part of the Scott Memorial.
You can see it on the left in this view from the other side of the gardens.
Somehow I had never gone inside Edinburgh Castle during my previous visit, and Don definitely wanted to go there.
We paid the entrance fee and explored the Castle.
I have one photo for you other than the one above, because it was so damned windy up there that I was afraid I’d get swept over the battlements! We did watch a film on the history of Scotland and its soldiers that was very interesting. It was beautiful up there, high above Edinburgh, but incredibly cold and windy.
A stained glass window inside the Castle’s chapel.
Eventually, we got so cold that we made our exit.
We headed further into Old Town.
The library. I love the inscription above the door.
We stopped for a snack at a ‘patisserie.’ Were we back in Paris? Hot chocolate for me, a sweet concoction for Don, and these.
Scones, clotted cream and jam, because I knew that Don had to sample this staple of the British Isles. He, of course, loved them.
As we walked along, we encountered the famous statue of Greyfriars Bobby.
Greyfriars Bobby was a Skye Terrier who spent 14 years guarding the grave of his master until Bobby himself died at the age of 16 in 1872. His master was buried in the graveyard of Greyfriars Kirk. I told Don the story of Bobby and we saw the Kirkyard across the street so we decided to explore it.
This is one of the oldest buildings in Edinburgh, completed in 1620.
A dark and windy day, rather appropriate for a visit to the Kirkyard.
All around the edges of the property are private graves, with monuments, many of them decaying.
I learned from a gentleman that I’ll soon introduce you to that the iron gates that kept these family sites private were taken down and used for the war effort during WWII, which explained something that had puzzled me – why were the sites so exposed?
Bobby’s grave. “Let his loyalty and devotion be a lesson to us all.”
We were walking around, discussing the grave markers when a man appeared and started explaining one of the gravesites to us in his charming Scottish brogue. His name was Wallace. He appeared out of nowhere, like the Scottish version of a leprechaun. But he is very real. He is a trained volunteer at the Kirkyard. They are a devoted group who appear every morning at 7 am to clean up trash and debris and share their knowledge of the history of this place with visitors. Wallace ended up taking us around the entire Kirkyard.
It was one of those moments where we thought to ourselves, “This is what the whole afternoon will be about.” By that, I mean, it was unexpected and magical and we were connecting to a lovely man and his spirit in a way that was rare. Whatever else we had planned was shelved. We also learned so much about the history of Greyfriars.
From Wallace:
• Greyfriars was where the Scottish Covenant was presented by the Covenanters in 1639, which said, in essence, that they would only pledge their allegiance to God and not the King. The King did not like that, and 1200 Covenanters were imprisoned in the Kirkyard while awaiting trial. They had very little food or shelter and townspeople would do their best to sneak food into the Kirkyard for them. I saw the gates behind which they were imprisoned – I can’t imagine what they went through.
• Bodies were wrapped in linen and were buried only 12 inches below ground. When the weather is wet, bones often rise above the ground and the volunteers mark the site with a stick and then go back when they can and push the bones back underground.
• J.K. Rowling, as a single parent who had very little money, used to write in the Elephant Cafe, which overlooks the Kirkyard, and she drew much of her inspiration for the first Harry Potter book from there. Many of the character names were adapted from the names on the tombstones. The George Heriot School, which is just beyond the grounds of Greyfriars Kirk, was the inspiration for Hogwarts.
Don and I are not Harry Potter fans, so we had no idea of any of this. Of course, now we want to read the series, having seen the real-life inspiration for its settings! It also explains why we saw so many young people taking pictures of the grave markers and the school.
• During WWII, Hitler instructed his soldiers not to bomb Edinburgh Castle. First of all, it was a directional marker for the flight to Glasgow, which was the site of industries that Hitler would want to obliterate, and secondly, Hitler planned to take over the Castle when he won the war as one of his private residences.
Behind these gates is the inspiration for Hogwarts.
The George Heriot School.
Wallace and I by the gravestone for the master of Greyfriars Bobby. Seems strange to be smiling, but after you’ve been there a while, you become entirely comfortable with the history and the gravestones and Wallace’s passion about the Kirkyard, as well as his wonderful sense of humor.
At one point, Bobby was in danger of being carted off by those who didn’t understand his devotion to his deceased master, but the children who lived nearby and an Edinburgh official banded together to protect him and allow him the freedom to come and go from the Kirkyard, just as any citizen of Edinburgh. One of the sextons would make sure he was safely inside the yard each night.
Don and Wallace in front of the grave marker for William McGonagall, considered the worst poet in the English language. Wallace quoted a few poems for us and they were, indeed, terrible. McGonagall is the inspiration for one of the characters in Harry Potter.
Wallace, by the way, made an appearance in Braveheart.
Thomas Riddell was the inspiration for the real name of Voldemort.
“Robby” robin, who lives in the Kirkyard and sometimes lands on Wallace’s hand.
I can’t tell you how much our time with Wallace meant to us. We still talk about him. He is gentle, kind and funny man who is devoted to his volunteer position. It was what I would call a Holy Encounter: spiritual, unexpected, and incredibly powerful. Our day turned into a journey that we didn’t expect and are profoundly grateful for.
Wallace may be in Florida as I write this. He and his wife were headed there for a vacation and I think it was about two weeks after our time there. Enjoy the sun, Wallace!
Just a quick note about our hotel, The Principal George on George Street. It is situated in three Georgian buildings that have been combined to form the hotel and it was wonderful. Gorgeous, with a great staff. They gave us a complimentary upgrade before we even got there, so we had a huge corner room with a king size bed and a beautiful view.
Our view:
Incredible restaurant – the best meal we had on the entire trip – with a great breakfast, as well.
There we go. Fini.
We headed home the next day.
And now it’s back to normal Claudia posts. I hope you’ve enjoyed these posts from our trip. It’s been a pleasure sharing them with you.
Happy Thursday.
