Last of the Fam

Yes I know, I am the worst Blogger ever. It isn't that we haven't had time or nothing is happening... there is just too much good beer to drink. All kidding aside let me try to get caught up. I left off with Janna's folks. After we returned from the Highlands there were a few more days left to explore around Edinburgh.



Some of the sights were Dirleton Castle, Greyfriars Kirk, Linlithgow Palalace, Falkirk Wheel, Wallace Monument, Campbell Castle, and some other stuff I have forgotten.

Dirleton Castle is West of Edinburgh and supposedly has the longest herbaceous border in the world. Not really sure what a herbaceous border is, but they where very proud of it at the castle so I though I would share.

Greyfriars Kirk is a nice old church and the location of the famous Greyfriars Bobby story.

Linlithgow Palace is supposedly the place where Mary the Queen of Scots was born.



I think I have talked about the Falkirk Wheel before. This was our third visit but I will never get bored of that Engineering marvel.

One thing that we tell everyone who has come to visit is to be ready to walk a lot. I'm sure Janna's folks thought we where trying to kill them off, but honestly we just wanted to get in as many sights as possible. We weren't mean drill sargents as we did allow a break from time to time. As if they hadn't had enough hiking around, on their last day we decided they should see the view of Edinburgh from Arthur's Seat (the "mountain" overlooking the city). They did darn good for old people.

Coast Walk With Friends

One of Janna's classmates organized a walk along the coast east of Edinburgh. It went through a forest at one point. Damn, it was nice to smell pine again.

*Note from Janna* Ryan forgot to mention the "Beware of falling trees in high winds" sign that was posted on the trail as we went into the woods. Oh - and there was a high wind advisory that day. I didn't know that trees could make so many scary sounds. We walked fast!



At the end of the walk we checked out Dirleton castle. The picture in the middle was a neat egg shaped building call a dovecote. It was just a cage where doves were raised for food.


It was very neat visiting with Janna's classmates and hearing about their lives. They are from Norway, Germany, and Canada so we felt rather international.


And as always the best part is the ingenuity of the old castle builders. This one was the best so far. I counted 5 different shitters. The only thing they hadn't figured out was how to warm the seat.

Dec 30th

The 30th was another driving day. We put about 240 miles on the little Rover.


We first hit Arbroath Abby. It was yet another very old broken down building...yet cool.


We then headed north to Dunnottar Castle. This was by far the coolest castle yet. It was an amazingly fortified castle perched on a rocky outcrop. I could totally live there, but the upkeep would be a bitch.


Back to the fortification topic. The designers were geniuses. If you were able to scale the steep cliffs, get past the countless archer placements, and get though the door then you would encounter four cannons as you charged up the steps. The castle builders also added a nice little feature so the man of the castle didn't have to go outside in the middle of the night.

Dec 29th

The 29th was Castle day.

We spent much of the day light in the Edinburgh Castle. Not sure what to say about the topic. It is really old and really cool. You will just have to come and check it out yourself.


In the evening we participated in a torch light parade. We didn't really think they were literally giving a couple thousand people torches (maybe little candles), but we were wrong. With the wind gusts it was actually rather dangerous, but we had fun. Everyone kept looking over their shoulders to make sure the idiots behind them wasn't about to turn their hair into another torch. The parade ended up on a hill where some effigies were burnt. Yes...We made my folk participate in a semi pagan festival on their anniversary... but at least it was for charity:)


The day was capped off with some anniversary Twinkies and a few pints of ale. Happy Anniversary Mom & Dad.

Wish We had a Castle

Another part of our outing was visiting a few castles. We made it to Blackness castle which was on the beach and Castle Campbell which was in the hills. Castle Campbell had a great example of human ingenuity.......



Blackness castle was used to guard a major port back when. On the beach there were so may shells that they were near impossible to avoid. Janna ran around like a ballerina, while I had fun imitating Snap, Crackle, & Pop



Castle Campbell was up in the hills. To get there, it took an amazing walk through a glen that made us feel at home.



By far the coolest part of Castle Campbell was something D and I had also done in our fort out back by the shop. Built into the wall in the corner of the bedroom was a flat pan that drained out a stone trough to the outside of the castle wall. I am sure many peasants got a warm rain shower surprise from the man of the castle.

Wallace Monument

Anyone who has watched Braveheart, can imagine that William Wallace is a big deal around here. The biggest tribute to him is the Wallace Monument. It is a 220ft stone tower finished in 1869 near the sight of battle where Wallace and his men beat the English.



You can see the monument above Janna's head. The other picture is supposedly of Wallace's real sword. They say you can tell a man's height by the length of his sword (get that smirk off of your face). Since the Wallace sword is about 6' long they think William Wallace was about 6'6", much taller than the 5'9" Mel Gibson (the curator seemed fit to point that out).



We also had the opportunity to watch an actor talk about the big battle from the perspective of a Scottish solider. He was really cool until he started bashing the English king, Edward I "Longshanks". Now his colorful bashing was funny, but because I was the tallest guy in the crowd he seemed to think I was Longshanks (the nickname was because Edward I was tall). I was going to kick his ass, but he had an ax. In all seriousness, he was really good and put on quite a show.