The tour ended yesterday. So, why are we getting up at 6:45 today? Because, today we are taking the train to Edinburgh for the day. My husband K is a clarinetist and he wanted to see the musical instrument collection at the University of Edinburgh. Evidently, it's quite a fine one and he knows someone who knows the curator. He's set up an appointment to get to visit it. It is not open to the public.
The maid was already on our floor, when we went down to breakfast at 7:35. We ran into Roseanne, our tour guide, in the lobby. She was supervising getting other folks off to the airport. We'd heard last night the rather negative review that the young woman from Texas had written about her and really disagreed with it. We'd thought that Roseanne had done a fine job and took the opportunity now to hug her goodbye.
We were directed to the dining room and saw many others from our tour having breakfast. K took advantage of the opportunity to have a full Scottish breakfast, which included a rather black patty of haggis. He doesn't hate it. I got fruit, a peach and cream smoothie, a chocolate croissant, and ordered porridge. I was rather surprised, when that arrived on a tray along with brown sugar, syrup, and white sugar to add it.
After washing up, we were out of the room at 8:35 to head off on our outing. Along the way to the Queen Street Station, we saw the city waking up and folks heading off. We saw more of the Oor Wullie's along the way, as well as interesting buildings. I did a double take when I finally saw the logo on the building in the last photo. Not what you'd expect in there.
We reached the station at 8:52 and, since it is under renovation, it is not photogenic. K had wanted to be there in time for the 9:00 train. I figured I had time for the restroom, so I followed the signs, which led to large temporary restrooms outside the station. However, they were clean and free, so hurrah.
When I got back, we went to the turnstiles to get on the train. K had trouble with his ticket and an attendant let him through. I had trouble, too, and when I called for an attendant, she said that the ticket was for off-peak travel. So, K had to come back through and wait with me for the 9:15 train.
At 9:10, we went to track 4 for the 9:15 train. It departed on time and was a clean, modern train. It was very quiet, although it did rock from side to side. Along the way, it varied between clouds and sun, and there was even fog at times. Most of what I saw out the window was farmland and the hills.
We arrived at the Edinburgh Waverly station at 10:05, which is in the New Town below the Royal Mile. We were on track 17, which tells you something about the size of the station. You could tell that a lot of the track area used to be open air, but was now enclosed, which makes for a better travel experience. The station itself had some marvelous skylights. It was really rather beautiful. I even found a couple of Oor Wullie's on our way to the free and very clean WC, with its new wooden doors.
It was cooler here in Edinburgh than in Glasgow, but not really chilly.
The next thing that had to be accomplished was getting up to the Royal Mile. I knew from our time in Edinburgh earlier in the trip that this was going to be quite a climb. I was not wrong. Standing at the bottom of the close and looking up the stairs was almost enough to make me turn around and go back to Glasgow. My knees were really going to hate me.
When we got up the first set of stairs, we took a moment to check out our surroundings and notice the architectural tricks that went into building on this hill. The next set of stairs was shorter, at least.
At 10:30, we were on the Royal Mile. Hurrah! K went off to the university museum for his appointment, while I headed down the Royal Mile, stopping in a few shops as I went. However, 10:58 found me at my destination, the Museum of Childhood. The museum was free, although you could make a donation. I had no small bills on me, unfortunately.
The museum covers all aspects of childhood from birth to early teens, I would say. It has great signage on each topic. There are toys, of course, but also exhibits on uniforms, food, etc. It centers on British and Scottish childhood, of course, but an American can see parallels and will even recognize some of the toys. Yes, that's a Buzz Lightyear, as well as the Fisher Price phone.
When we'd first started talking about this extension, I'd looked through the Rick Steves
Scotland book to see what I could do to amuse myself. This museum struck me as interesting. Then, a British dollhouse magazine sold me on the place in an article about the miniatures that they had. That's what sold me. I don't collect dollhouses and the oldest miniatures I own only date to the 1960's. I like to build my own dollhouses and room boxes, usually from kits. However, I do enjoy looking at older dollhouses.
As I went through the galleries, I must admit that I kept looking for them in anticipation. It became clear that they were on an upper floor and I was going to have to climb stairs, as least some of the time. (In fact, I wound up using the elevator only to come back down.) I finally found the large gallery with the dollhouses and miniatures in glass cases along the sides of the room. It was amazing! I took photos of just about every one of them. Don't worry, I'm not going to put them all here. However, I will put some of them that are rather interesting.
The Nuremberg kitchen dates to about 1900. The thatched roof house advertised as "Princess Elizabeth's Miniature House" was based on an actual playhouse built for the current queen's sixth birthday in 1931. The real "Little House" is actually 24 ft long and 8 ft deep! The miniature house and the Tudor-style house are by Triang, a company I've read about.
They had an interesting exhibit of toys that had been made to help get kids ready for work. I'm not sure that we had as much of that sort of thing here. I suppose Barbie's various careers would count.
They had some model trains, but they were difficult to photograph. The toy cars were interesting.
I came across three more Wullie's, that were smaller than the ones I'd seen elsewhere. That is probably because each of these were painted for a different primary school. I also found a newspaper magazine-sized booklet that listed all the Wullie's and where one could find them. It is perfect for my album about the trip.
I then came upon a display about a most amazing idea. Since 2017, every new-born baby in Scotland goes home with a box of supplies! Well, at least, if their parents choose. Odd that some would not. Maybe, it's the rich ones that don't. It sounds like a great way to get any child off to a good start.
Oh, and there was a sign explaining about baby colors. We'd heard at a Shakespeare production in Orlando about the fact of the colors switching gender.
The building that the museum is in is a repurposed one. I'm not sure what this used to be, but they are proud enough of their restoration of the Georgian ceiling to put it on one of the info signs outside that gallery. It really is lovely.
The last big room I was in had case after case of dolls.There was even a place for play. It was amazing. I collect dolls, but mine are more modern. I have a room of Barbies, for example. These, while including Barbie, also included china dolls and historical dolls. One doll's presence had caused controversy, evidently, for they went through a great deal of trouble to explain their reasoning. I appreciated it, as I never would have given it a thought, not knowing anything of its history. I'll put all of their explanation here for you to read, as well as a photo of the doll.
There was a display of needlework such as children would have done. Some of it is far fancier than what my grandmother taught me. Several interesting displays dealt with children's clothing.
A really interesting sign told all about school uniforms. We don't have them in our county, but I went to Catholic school, which did have them, of course. The earliest school uniforms in Britain were clothes provided to poor children to both clothe them, and, get this, to remind them they were "objects of charity." Of course, that was the 16th century. Most kids wore everyday clothes to school until the 19th century, when it was decided that regulation was needed. At Eton in England, they decided to dress all the students like conservative London gentlemen. It became known as the "Eton suit" and was commonly worn by young schoolboys. Wherever there wasn't a distinctive outfit, standards were still required, such as the Norfolk Jacket for boys and plain, dark dresses for girls.
The Hogwarts robes seem to be a throwback to the 16th century use of a long robe with hood over normal clothes. That was actually done for centuries in Great Britain.
K, meanwhile, was having a grand old time looking at the musical instrument collection. He took many photos. Here are some.
K was actually not far away from where I was and neither of us was far from the Hilton Carlton Edinburgh, where we'd stayed when we were here at the beginning of the tour. So, he asked me to meet him there at 12:13, so that we could go to lunch together. He wanted to go to The Elephant House, where J.K.Rowling wrote the first Harry Potter book. It was a short walk up the Royal Mile, but I really didn't think we'd get in such a popular place.
When we arrived, there was indeed a line, which had a surprisingly large number of Asian folks. However, a small table right near the counter opened and we were seated at 12:38. It took a little while for someone to come get our orders, but I guess that was to be expected. We discovered later that there was a large room in the back that was full.
K chose Homemade Quiche Lorraine with Potato Salad for Ł8.95, which seemed rather reasonable. It was delicious, too. I ordered Roast Ham and Mature Cheddar Ciabotta for Ł7.95, which had disappointingly little meat on it. K's small Americano coffee cost Ł2.95, while my canned Brodies Lemon Iced Tea was Ł2.65. It took a while for the food to come, but it did not dissuade us from ordering a dessert to split. We chose a delicious Traditional Scottish Cranachan (oatmeal, honey, and raspberries served hot) with vanilla ice cream for Ł4.95.
Before going to the counter to pay, we took turns going to the restroom. K didn't take photos, but I just had to. All that Harry Potter graffiti! What amazed me was that they actually put plexiglass over some of it to protect it.
At the counter, besides adding Ł3 for the tip, I bought postcards and a pin badge. We left at 1:45, with K off to see the rest of the collection in McEwan Hall, which is the older building below.
I headed off for the National Museum of Scotland, which was only a 7 minute walk. The building is huge and, truthfully, not very photogenic on the outside. I had been worried, when I'd seen the large staircase outside two weeks ago, but was more than grateful to see that the entrance was actually at ground level. It was free to get in, but I did pay a pound to buy a map.
I decided that the place was really too big to attempt to do it all. So, I'd concentrate on the history of Scotland, since that had been such a big topic during the tour. If there was time at the end, I'd check out some of the other galleries. I found a handy elevator going up and it opened onto the beautiful glass-roofed Grand Gallery. It was so much more attractive than the exterior of the building and struck me as something out of the 1890's with its white wrought iron railings around the walkways on the floors above. I also loved the Inchkeith Lighthouse lens from 1889 at one end of the gallery. It was so cool to be so close and be able to look up into it.
As I was heading into the newer section of the museum, I saw this on the floor and liked the sentiment, as well as the Celtic knots.
One major theme the past two weeks was the independent spirit of the Scots and how much they had not wanted- and many still don't want- subjugation to England. It is a very old sentiment.
The galleries had so much about Scottish history, although it was more written than in terms of artifacts. I suppose that stands to reason. I made a valiant effort to go through it in exact chronological order, but it was not possible with the way the galleries were laid out. You couldn't, say, start in one direction around the walls of a gallery and enter the next picking up where you left off. It was rather frustrating. It was also frustrating that there were partial floors that one had to get to, often by stairs only. Other times, it was an interminable wait for the elevator, because that particular elevator also went up to the restaurant on the seventh floor.
I'm not going to go into all the details, because so much of it was discussed in the blogs covering the past two weeks, and, more importantly, I don't want to bore you. I will, however, show some of the items that interested me.
This first one surprised me that it was not encased in glass or something, since it is so old. It was just standing there on its platform.
The next piece amazed me for the amount of detail it had.
The next piece is cool because it gives the origin of the Stewart dynasty, which was so important in Scottish and British history.
As a Geometry teacher, I didn't really deal with logarithms, but as a math minor, I certainly studied them. And in my History of Mathematics course, we, of course, learned about their inventor, John Napier. What I didn't know or remember was that he was from Scotland. We learned about Napier's bones, which he used to do multiplication and division problems. It was so amazing to see this box with the mathematical calculating tables dating back to 1680, as well as this ivory set of Napier's bones from 1650.
They had a cast of Mary Queen of Scots tomb in Westminster Abbey. Here was a very Catholic queen buried in what was by then a Protestant church, which seemed incredibly unfair to her. The tomb is amazingly detailed, down to the ruffles created by her petticoats, when lying down. It was beautiful. The sign said that it was erected by her son, James VI, "perhaps partly to appease his guilt at distancing himself from his mother during her lifetime". I thought that this was probably true and rather interesting that they pointed it out. She was executed in 1587 and this was built 1606-12. "The tomb was a symbol of rehabilitation..." Appeasing his guilt or not, it is wonderful.
After the Reformation, Catholics really couldn't worship openly. There were no churches, so priests traveled to different communities and homes to celebrate Mass. Catholicism survived in particular on parts of the western coast. There, they'd even have open air Masses in secret with a "heather priest". These are chalices for traveling. The stems actually unscrewed to be put in the bowls.
One thing that I knew was in the gallery was the Lewis chesspieces, one of the best known objects there. They were carved in the 12th century and found on the island of Lewis 700 years later. They were probably made in Scandinavia, but the museum says that they belonged "equally to the Gaelic world, where they were clearly valued". They are mentioned in a 13th century Gaelic praise poem. I don't play chess, but I loved their expressions. Later, in the gift shop, I passed by souvenir versions of them several times and the queen had such an attitude, that I just had to buy her.
Another cool display was of Highland dirks, which had developed from the medieval dagger. They were used as tools, eating utensils, and weapons, usually by men. Really struck me as something a guy in a kilt would have.
The Dutch played a game called "kolf", which was played over short distances. But, it was the Scots who gave us the modern game of "golf". The first golfing society was in St. Andrews, by whose golf course we'd gotten off the bus.
K turned up in the museum around this point in my touring. As per usual, we roamed each gallery on our own, intersecting paths every now and then.
Scotland, as we'd seen over the past two weeks, has a lot of sheep. Someone has to do something with that wool, so there's a lot of weaving. I loved the colors being worked on this loom.
We came out into a large hall that had big posters about famous Scotsmen. Some, I could have told you were Scottish; some, I could not. I'll give a quick rundown. First up is James Watt. I don't know about you, but I certainly learned about the inventor of the steam engine, who kicked off the industrial revolution. I think, I even knew he was Scottish. Sir William Thomson meant nothing to me until I saw his title "Lord Kelvin". He is, in fact, the first Baron Kelvin, the title being named for a river that runs near his laboratory at the University of Glasgow. Absolute temperatures are stated in degrees kelvin in his honor, as he calculated the value of absolute zero, along with inventing a lot of things.
I'm sure you know that Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone was Scottish. Disney's Epcot even gives him a Scottish accent in the American pavilion show. Robert Burns, the poet, is well-known as a Scot and proud of it.
We'd visited Sir Walter Scott's home near the beginning of the tour and he's got a big memorial over in the New Town section of Edinburgh. Another Scotsmen handy with the pen was Robert Louis Stevenson.
Charles Rennie Mackintosh- certainly a Scottish last name- is well-known as a designer responsible for the Scottish Art Nouveau style. I love the chairs!
One Scotsman is beloved in the United States, John Muir, who emigrated to the US and campaigned for the formation of our national parks.
We learned about Sir Alexander Fleming and his by-chance discovery of penicillin in school, but I don't remember hearing he was from Scotland. On the other hand, Charles Darwin was definitely English, but studied medicine for a couple of years in Edinburgh, before turning his attention to the natural history collections of the university.
I was surprised to learn David Livingstone ( as in "Dr. Livingstone, I presume.") was Scottish. That tidbit about him never came up, nor did his active campaigning against slavery.
You know who else was Scottish? Dolly, the sheep, who was the first mammal cloned from an adult cell. She lived from 1996-2003. Stuffed, she's now in the museum, along with various scientific and technology exhibits.
I roamed through the fashion exhibit, but it was difficult to photograph anything. I did take a picture of a Harris Tweed suit, but I'm not thrilled with the result.
I had better luck with the millennium clock, another famous item in the museum. It's a rather strange beast with figures that move to a Bach concerto on the half and full hour from 11 to 4 each day. I missed the performance, unfortunately. The clock is supposed to represent the turmoil of the 20th century and is divided into a crypt, name, belfry and spire. The photos I took have a lot of representations of death.
We managed to get to the gift shop before closing, where I bought the aforementioned queen and some pins and cards. It was closing time, 5 pm, when we exited the building. It was a good visit.
We headed back to the Royal Mile, stopping in a shop or two and buying 3 more postcards for Ł1. We made our way to the North Bridge to go back to the Edinburgh Waverley station. We had a good view of the Scott memorial, the train station, and even the Firth of Forth from the bridge.
What we didn't have was a clear idea of how to find the entrance to the station. That took some work, but we were finally inside at 6:13. And, just 13 minutes later, we were on the train on Track 12 for Glasgow, which departed promptly at 6:32. I got one more photo of the hill with the Edinburgh Castle on it, as we pulled away.
The train arrived at Glasgow Queen Street station at 7:15. We headed back to the hotel, looking for someplace to eat. As we headed down Buchanan Street, a major shopping area, we some interesting sights. Two more Wullie's were spotted, one of whom was made up as Billy Connolly ("Oor Billy"), who is an actor I've seen, but didn't know he was a Glasgow comedian. Another was "Oor Rod", i.e., Rod Stewart, who is actually from London, but has Scottish ancestry and is a fan of Scottish football. He had references to songs on his bucket. There were interesting vine/branch sculptures and more buildings with discreet signs telling you not to believe the staid facade, such as the TGI Fridays.
We finally saw a place that advertised a deep-fried Mars bar, like we'd seen in several videos before the trip. However, I wanted real food, so we skipped it. We were having real trouble finding some place for a meal. Finally, just blocks from our hotel, we found ourselves at the corner of Argyle and Union Streets at 7:36. The intersection was all America on the four corners: KFC, Pizza Hut, McDonald's, and Tim Hortons. Even though the last is a Canadian company, they have a presence in the US. Since that was a brand we hadn't dined in, except in the Toronto airport, we chose that one.
It was a small restaurant and hadn't been bussed in a while. We ordered a Chicken Wrap Meal for Ł5.19, a Chicken and Mozzarella Panini for Ł 3.99, and because Tim Hortons is known for it, a Double Chocolate Donut for Ł1.29. The wrap meal came with a drink, so we got a bottle of Coke Zero. The waffle fries came with a sauce, so we chose barbecue.
We sat at the counter that was at the window looking out on Argyle. It took a little while for the food to come. It was pretty good, as fast food goes. While we were sitting there, we suddenly realized there were people on the sidewalk waving at us- they were some of our tour companions! We also got to watch police talking to some people. So, dinner and a show!
At 8:05, we left and I got a photo of the Radisson blu on our 5 minute walk to it.
Once in our room, I realized that we could see the Glasgow Central Station from our room, because it was really close by. Unfortunately, it is not the station you use, if you want to go to Edinburgh, hence our use of Queen Street Station. It is the white building with arched windows.
My roses have held up really well on the trip. I'm sorry that I can not take them along tomorrow.
The phone says that I walked 15,822 steps for a total of 5.3 miles and only climbed 2 floors, which is baloney. I've got that terrible rash that I get on my lower legs, when I am in Europe, it's hot, and I've walked a fair amount. It's called "Disney rash", but I've never gotten it at Disney!
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