TartanTed

Friday night in Edinburgh means different things to different folks. Judging by some of the drunken ramblings of people at bus stops I’m not sure why I would want to be here anytime for any reason.

I’ll admit that is probably too harsh an assessment from a sober visitor who is no longer used to big city life but really, some of the language and opinions that my children were subjected to in the public domain were less than ideal.

Anyhoo:

• Dinner with friends
• Rampant reminiscing
• Skating on ice
• Shopping the Christmas market

Friday in Edinburgh

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Two years ago Andrew and I had effectively a personal tour of Stirling Castle. We were there on a cold, damp, foggy day and we were in the company of Ann and Mike who happen to be Blue Badge Guides.

So you could say Andrew knows a lot about Stirling Castle. He certainly knows enough to politely decline the invitation to visit it again this year! 

However Patty and Emily have not visited Stirling for a number of years and wanted to see the work that has been done to the site in recent years. Thus Andrew was dispatched to a hill in Lanarksire with Karen, Lindsay, and several dogs in search of snow and adventure while we three headed to Stirling.

Andrew hill walking photos to follow when I get them, in the meantime here are a few photos from the Stirling Castle visit.

Stirling Castle

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Our Grand Tour is progressing at such a pace that I am having difficulty finding time to publish a roundup of our activities so please forgive the out of sequence postings.

From our time in Northumberland, at Vindolanda, there is a river in the gorge by the museum/gift shop which was flowing orange last time we were there. No orange water this time but here is a picture of the bridge over the Chineley Burn – bridge #9

This morning we dropped Andy off with Karen to go hill walking and added the frosty bridge over Coulter Burn to the list as bridge #10.

On the way back from Stirling we stopped at the Dobbie’s Garden Center roundabout and recorded bridge #11 on the A84. It did not have any descriptive signs so I suspect that it was the bridge over the River Forth before the road became the A84 and had more than horses and carts crossing over it!

Bridge Update #3

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Friday, day 7 of our Grand European tour of bridges or family vacation as my wife likes to call it, and we meet up with Auntie Ann at South Queensferry to walk the Forth Road Bridge.

At 3.107 miles (5 km) it is slightly shorter than the 3.42 miles of the Corpus Christi Harbor Bridge walk and at 32F it is considerably cooler than the Corpus Christi walk.

Also the dedicated walker / cyclist lane is much wider and much less steep than its’ Corpus Christi equivalent.

The Forth Road Bridge becomes bridge #7 on the tour and just for good measure we added Cramond Brig on the way home as #8

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Andrew was obsessed with the frost and ice at Vindolanda so when we got back to Edinburgh I set him loose on the Edinburgh Christmas ice rink in St. Andrew’s Square.

Emily joined him on the ice rink; they both fell down and they both had fun.

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The boys took a side trip to Eire on Tuesday but the whole family ventured South of the border on Wednesday to visit with friends in Gilsland.

Of course no visit to Northumberland would be complete without including some aspect of Hadrian’s Wall and this occasion was no different as we managed to take in Housesteads and Vindolanda,

Northumberland

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Monday we took advantage of our Lothian Buses Ridacards and took the #41 bus from our hotel to George IV Bridge at the High Street. From there it is but a short walk, uphill, to Edinburgh Castle where we bought an Historic Scotland 7 day family pass which gets us into both Edinburgh and Stirling castles as well as many more historic sites.

We arrived at the Castle Esplanade around 12:45 and made our way up to the One o’clock gun battery just in time to witness the ceremonial firing of the gun at precisely 1 p.m. This coincides with the dropping of the timeball mechanism at the top of Nelson’s Monument on Carlton Hill the original purpose of both being to set the maritime clocks on ships needed to navigate the oceans.

Edinburgh Castle

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Continuing my quest in search of bridges here is an update on those walked to date:

On our first full day in Edinburgh we visited the Castle, St Giles Cathedral, and walked down the High Street as far as the Tron Church.

We got off the bus at George IV Bridge so of course I logged it as bridge #3 and we ended up on Waverley Bridge over the station #4.

Tuesday was the boys side trip to Dublin where we met up with my friend Colin, now a resident of Eire, and we walked around the City center. Could have logged many bridges over the River Liffey but confined myself to Ha’penny bridge (#5) and O’Connell bridge (#6).

Bridges Update

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I guess Andy and I got off the bus at the wrong stop!

Well I suppose there is nothing else for it but to visit the Guinness Brewery while we wait for the next bus home.

The immigration officer at Dublin Airport raised an eyebrow when I told him we would be staying 6 hours. Nevertheless he stamped our passports and wished us a good time; I could tell he thought we were crazy.

Thanks to Colin for the whistle stop tour of Dublin.

6 hours in Dublin