N and N's New Adventure: Day 56. July 19 Thursday

Thursday, July 19, 2012

Normal morning, cheerful Joey and breakfast. Peter made oatmeal-very good, and so on. Then we made our way down to Aqua to wash clothes. We were back up the hill by 11:15 and decided to go to to Stirling Castle for the afternoon. We stowed our clean clothes, and started back down the hill to the Subway taking the outer loop to go into the city.

At Glasgow Central we bought two round trips to Stirling for 10 pounds 60. On the train and off we went as there was almost no wait, but there was no coffee. The ride to Stirling was a little more posh than the shuttle to Edinburgh, and we arrived in 30 minutes at the station in Stirling. It was time for lunch so we grabbed sandwiches and two mochas at the station cafe named Pumpkin. The local sandwiches were as good as any and the mochas were very good. We also got information on the best way to the castle which was uphill all the way from the station.

After lunch we walked a block to the bus station and caught the shuttle to the castle, 2 pounds for one way, three pounds for a roundtrip—we bravely decided on a one way. The ride up the hill to the castle was interesting as our driver gave a kind of red bus commentary. We alighted in the car park into the bright sunlight at the top of the hill.

We made our way across the moat bridge to the reception area. We paid for our tickets. The young lady who helped us was very nice with questions about America, and apologies for what had been rainy weather in Scotland The apologies were not unusual....we have a number of Scots apologize for their weather.

The first stop was the Queen Anne garden with a great view to the west, but the weather had been too much for the roses and despite huge thick root stock had only spindly tops and a few small blossoms by English and Scottish standards.

The castle was important for two reasons: one its strategic location as the lowest crossing of the River Forth, and thus the gate way to the Highlands. This is the reason why the Wallace monument is located here and why the battle of Bannockburn was fought within site of the Castle. The second reason for its importance was King James the IV who allied Scotland with France and claimed to be the equal of England to the South. Stirling was to be his seat of government. The palace is being rebuilt and refurnished to show it as it was at the time of James IV. We toured the Queen’s chambers and the King’s Chambers and the gallery of decorations.
We walked through the Great Hall and the Chapel Royal both beautifully restored from the army barracks that they had been until the 1970’s. We went through the regimental museum for the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders Regiment, one that through various transformation has been around since the late 1700’sand is still in fighting today in Afghanistan. We walked through a small passage to the Douglas Garden and then to the North rampart. The view to the north was magnificent. We then followed the wall around to the east where the drop off to the plains is more pronounced. From the grand battery one has a beautiful view of the Wallace Monument, a mile and a bit away. Our wall walk ended at the palace gift shop where we bought some post cards, and sampled some scotch whiskey/honey liquor mixed with cream.

The next decision was whether to walk or ride down the hill. After some indecision, we chose to walk. We knew that down hill was all we had to remember. So we set off, the area near the castle is historic buildings, which gave way to apartments and offices, then restaurants, and finally commercial. We stopped in a couple of places and then headed for the station.

We bought a coke and went to platform nine which was the next train for Glasgow, but we and all the other passengers were told that the train had already been and gone and that we should get to platform three. The train to Edinburgh came and left, then our train arrived. We boarded and then sat in the station due to some signaling work just outside the station. Finally on our way and a quick trip to Glasgow. As we arrived the train manager apologized that we would be arriving nine minutes late. For those of used to riding AMTRAK this seemed a very minor inconvenience.

The weather had been great all afternoon and when we got home Pete was busy with the grill and we had hamburgers and potatoes. Joey to bed, work on the blog, read, bed for us. another great day.

10,631 Neil steps
13587 Nancy steps

Stirling castle