Reading this week:

• Hunting Pirate Heaven by Kevin Rushby

Today we would be absolutely mired in Scottish history. The first place we were going was the top destination (get it) in the city: Edinburgh Castle! We arrived not too long after the place opened, showed our tickets and went in. Audio guide in hand, we admired the views and then walked up to the very tippy-top.

I think the coolest bit of Edinburgh Castle is St. Margaret’s Chapel because it is the oldest part. I had remembered it from my previous visits in Middle School, and you know what it was about the same. I was surprised though at how small Edinburgh Castle was; in my memories of the place I seem to have imported various bits of Stirling Castle as well. What surprised my super amazing wife was how not particularly dark and dungeon-like it was, as one might imagine a castle to be based on the movies (this was her first real-life castle). However eventually we went into the Prisons of War exhibit they had going on and that satisfied some of the dungeon itch. Edinburgh Castle housed various prisoners of war in the 18^th and 19^th centuries, including Americans captured either during the War of Independence or the War of 1812. One particularly cool thing they had was graffiti carved into the door depicting an early version of the Stars and Stripes. I think I saluted it.

But no in general the castle seemed like a pretty nice place to live. We had lunch consisting of a cheese plate in the tea room, where my super amazing wife got tea but I got Edinburgh Castle whiskey (this being Sunday, they had to wait 15 minutes until 12:30 to serve it to me), before exploring the royal residence. Besides hosting the very impressive Scottish crown jewels (no pictures allowed), you can also see the room where Mary, Queen of Scots gave birth to James VI (well, you could look at that room around a corner with the help of some mirrors, but it’s not like either Mary or James were there anymore anyway). After paying our respects to Scottish history and poking around some more we departed the castle for the rest of our day in Edinburgh.

From there we took a circuitous route, hiking out to Ginger Twist Studio (where my super amazing wife got a skein of yarn and a book on walking through Scotland knitting socks) and then back to downtown to visit the National Museum of Scotland. That place is BIG. We had not allotted ourselves much time to see the place so we had to narrow our scope, and my super amazing wife decided to focus us on the Scottish history portion. On the way over there though we spotted Dolly the Sheep, who they have on this spinning dais thing to give everyone a good look at ‘er.

Anyways they have many many artifacts from Scottish history, including very ancient history, and it is all really extremely neat. The craftsmanship on some of the ancient jewelry and objects they have found is really astounding. They also have more grisly bits of history. Though the room that made both our eyes light up was on the industrial revolution, because it was a room that housed not only several looms but also several large early steam engines and like, man, they designed a room for us. As we wandered the rest of the museum the particular sorts of items I was on a lookout for was anything related to missionary societies in Africa or African explorations, and in this I was rewarded. I spotted not only various artifacts from Dr. John Kirk but also the gold medal awarded to Joseph Thomson (who I thought was the brother of John Boden Thomson, but in writing this entry I now realize the LMS missionary is not James Baird Thomson, author of Joseph Thomson’s biography), both very cool things to see in person. I was contemplating how I could get us to the Joseph Thomson Heritage Center on this trip but it just didn’t work out logistically, unfortunately.

Anyway if you are at the museum do make sure you go and visit the rooftop terrace, which gives a great view of the castle and of downtown Edinburgh. We closed the place down on this visit and were eventually shuffled out the door, though not without the necessary diversion to the gift shop. In the evening we contemplated various tweed purchases and had a lovely dinner featuring “haggis bon bons” as an appetizer, really a very astoundingly Scottish evening. In that vein a quick stop to memorialize Sir Walter Scott and see what he was up to rounded out a very very nice day in Edinburgh.

After having thoroughly enjoyed the southerly bits of England we set our sights on our real destination: the veritably sheep-filled country of Scotland. I realize the fact that there are more sheep than people in Scotland is due to a terrible history, but nonetheless we went with hearts full of hope to see as many as possible.

To get to Scotland we travelled in style aboard the Caledonian Sleeper. I was very excited about this experience and in the end it was indeed quite the experience. The fundamental reason we took the train was to save ourselves a day spent just travelling and for this it worked out pretty well. But I was also looking for an excuse to take it because I like trains and it wasn’t too hard to convince my super amazing wife. We departed Bath via one train, took the tube over to a different train station, and then boarded the Caledonian. Because of how late we bought the tickets we wound up with the most luxurious option, which gave us lounge access beforehand (where I got in the Scottish mood by enjoying Irn-Bru and shortbread cookies). It also meant we had a shower in our cabin which I took advantage of. The room was still very tiny and barely had enough room for both us and our bags but nonetheless. In the end the thing that would have made the ride better was if it were longer; it is only like a seven-hour train ride so by the time we were onboard and settled we only got a few hours of sleep before it was time to wake up and get breakfast. Sleeping through the ride in the dark also means you miss out on any potential scenery viewing. We arrived in Edinburgh as we were eating breakfast at the same table as a very nice couple from Indiana, before gathering our things and alighting.

After dropping our bags at the hotel we set out for the day’s adventures, which with our early arrival on the Caledonian put us on the streets of Edinburgh at about 8 in the morning. And what a morning in Edinburgh. Misty, foggy, and very atmospheric. It was early enough that almost nothing was open but we had the Royal Mile nearly to ourselves. We took in the sights and did some window shopping and eventually settled into a café to kill some time. Fortified, we spent the largest chunk of the morning hiking through greater Edinburgh to do some shopping, stopping by Topping & Company and Kathy’s Knits and The Gently Mad, where I once again was somewhat disappointed at not finding the exact bits of London Mission Society ephemera I had imagined would just be all over Edinburgh. Oh well. On our way back to the Royal Mile we enjoyed a hot chocolate at The Marshmallow Lady.

Despite being hopped up on marshmallow sugar we still needed lunch which turned out to be somewhat of a struggle on the Royal Mile. During my family’s now much-ballyhooed house exchange in Scotland while I was in middle school, the house we exchanged was actually in the suburbs of Edinburgh, which meant I have many fond memories of the Royal Mile. So that means I can’t tell if I am just misremembering how crowded it was back then or if it has gotten significantly more crowded, but every day while we were there the Royal Mile was PACKED. And maybe I was just a kid back then so I can’t tell anyways but it did seem a bit Disney-fied since then as well. But after several attempts we finally got some very good ramen for lunch.

But the real highlight of the day was Dovecot Studios which was just phenomenal. This was a destination picked by my super amazing wife so I did not know what I was walking into when we arrived but man it was magical. What they do is tapestries. Some rich dude in 1913 wanted tapestries for his castle or whatever so he just hired some people to start a studio and eventually started taking commissions. You could go up and see the tapestry weavers at work (or the singular tapestry weaver, while we were there), and they had some just fantastic art on the walls as well, both in tapestry form and in other media.

Downstairs they had an exhibition for The Caged Bird’s Song which was just mind-blowing. The first part of the exhibition was about the making-of, and then there was a video with the final product and I was just blown away by it. The tapestry is based off of a watercolor and the tapestry looks like watercolor, like you can see in the weaving the pooling effect of the watercolor pigments and the expressiveness of it all. How do they do it man. And I was satisfied with just a video of the finished piece until my super amazing wife pointed out that the real thing was like right behind me and man. What a craft, what a thing to see in person. Dovecot takes on a new apprentice every three years or so, which means there might be a slot in 2026 and might be worth it to turn one’s life upside-down to learn such magic.

Shaken and inspired we went back out into the somewhat overcast Edinburgh light and spent the rest of the day doing circumnavigating the Royal Mile to visit a few more shops. The best part of the Scottish Textiles Showcase was a very friendly dog who wanted you to kick his ball for him to chase, but at Greyfrairs Kirkyard we couldn’t find any of the Harry Potter graves. At Armchair Books the very knowledgeable saleslady was impressive but we didn’t get anything there either. The day ended with dinner at a Nepalese restaurant and us subsequently collapsing at the hotel, very footsore.