Europe Trip - Day 19

Day 19 - Edinburgh, Scotland

The view from one of the windows at our bed and breakfast

Starting off to Macbeth's castle

Come on dad!!

I thought these tress that we had to walk by look really creepy

On the top of that hill is where they believe Macbeth's Castle once stood


I have conquered the hill

Mom conquered the pile of rocks... haha... j/k

This is called a "kissing gate". I thought it was kind of cute.

Our hostel room... the far top one is mine!

Mom making her bed after she made dad's

Umm... yeah...

Walking up a small side street

This is where the dinner and show was held

There were like 20 peacocks just wandering around the grounds

The room where the show was held

Just waiting to get our dinner

YEEHAW!!

This... is... haggis. And proof I had at lease ONE bite of it.

Trying to get some good pictures of the show

Rockin' the bagpipes

Today was the drive to the last destination we will be going to in Europe... and that place would be Edinburgh, Scotland (pronounced Ed-in-burrow). But... before we headed straight there... we tried to go to find this place by Perth that was in one of the books that I had from the travel class I took Fall semester. It said it was called Macbeth's castle... so of course I wanted to go see what it was all about. It was a whole lot harder to find than we thought it would be. No one in Inverness really knew where it was... or even knew what it was. I ended up going to the Tourist Information Center in Inverness before we left to ask. The lady there didn't really know what I was talking about, but gave me a tourist booklet for Perth and it showed all the castles in that area. At first I thought it was one castle because that's what I thought the travel class book had said it was called, but as I was reading the descriptions of the castles... there was this one that was called Dunsinane Hill Fort... and right in the description it said that it was known by the locals as the Macbeth Castle. WOOHOO!!! So... we went there. It was still pretty hard to find because it was... just out in a small little countryside. When we got there (after asking around a bit for directions), we had to hike up this hill. It was a nice little excercise after driving around so much. We got there as a field trip class was getting there. They were gonna hike up to it too to do a reinactment of some attack that happened there that took the fortress down. Which brings me to what was there... nothing really... just a hill... with a pile of rocks to mark where the fortress/castle had been. No one is positive if it was the same castle that was in Shakespeare's Macbeth, but they believe it is because there is a line in the play refering specifically to that hill. It wasn't a bad hike and it had a great view... so I didn't complain. :) I thought it was kinda cool. Me and mom were the only ones who made it all the way up... dad only made it about halfway and needed to turn back because he was hurting still from his fall yesterday. After the hike... it was back down the hill and to the car to check how dad was doing and head off to Edinburgh. We decided to try something different here... so instead of a hotel or a bed and breakfast... we're staying in a hostel. It's actually a really nice hostel. Not what I thought it would be at all. When I think hostel... I think low budget, crappy hole in the wall, but I guess they fixed this one up all nice. It's still funny though cuz we have bunkbeds. I was all excited that the first thing I said was "I call top!!". Dad just kind of laughed. We had to make our own beds... the bedding was just sitting on top of it. We did that... and dad layed down for a bit while me and mom went outside with the map we got at the front desk so she could get her berrings as to where we were at. She's kind of funny about needing to know where she is and what direction she is facing at all times. :) Once she figured that out... we went back up to our room to get ready for the dinner and show we were going to. The show was called "A Taste of Scotland". I didn't know what to expect, but it was actually REALLY good. It had a 3 course meal before the show started. The show was full of jokes, scottish dancing, bagpipes, scottish songs, and even some scottish history. It was fun to watch. I couldn't get a lot of good pictures in, but I did record a lot of the show. I'm not sure if I was supposed to or not, but I did anyway. :) They even had some parts where they'd show you a simple scottish dance and then the dancers would go pick people to have dance with them on the floor. Thank goodness I didn't get picked. I would've been so embarrassed. But now I know two scottish dances... if I can remember them after a couple days. :) The food was great... the show was great... but all great things come to an end. The show ended around 10 and we got a taxi back to our hostel. Of course mom and dad are in the room asleep. I'm down in the lounge area of the hostel because that's where the best internet reception is. I probably should go get in bed though. I'm not sure when we're getting up in the morning, but I do know that I just have to go with my parents to two things in the morning and then I get to go out and about Edinburgh by myself. Gonna do some shopping and exploring on my own for the first time this whole trip. :) Oh well... it'll still be fun. Tschus!