On the Road with Toby

 

I got to tag along on one of Toby's tours.  It was good for me to be shown something different and not just going to the places that I'm always picking out for myself based on my studies.  We went to South Queensferry, Hopetoun House, Dunfermline, and Culross.  A couple of these places get used a lot in films and shows; for example, Hopetoun House has been used in filming Downton Abbey and also Outlander, and Culross has been used for Outlander - and some older movies such as Kidnapped in 1971 and Captain America: The First Avenger in 2011.  We started in South Queensferry, which is very near Hopetoun House.  This was a stop mainly for taking pictures of the Forth Bridges.  The bridge in the picture at the top is the Forth Rail Bridge.  It was opened in 1890 and has been designated a UNESCO World Hertiage Site.  There were many new techniques used in the building of this and in the construction materials involved.  It also remains one of the longest multi-span cantilever bridges in the world today.This is so close to Hopetoun House that I was able to take pictures of the bridges from the roof of the house.

The piano, covered with pictures, is in a room that also has a pool table.  If you look closely at the pictures in the picture above, you'll see that the homeowners run in some pretty prestigious circles!

Pictures speak louder than words, but I'll state the obvious, which is that there are some very nice interiors and some very nice exteriors here, so it is no surprise that filming takes place here.  The Hope family still does live here, when they are not living at one of their other homes.  Adrian Hope is the 4th Marquess of Linlithgow, and when the family is here, they occupy the south wing of the building.  At some point in the rather recent past they had their books catalogued since they didn't really know what they had.  It turns out that the collection included a Gutenberg Bible, which they were able to sell for quite a good price.  While I'm sure it was hard to part with, maintaining a home like this doesn't come cheap!

I wish we'd had time to walk the grounds here.  From what I've seen since, I realize that there is an amazing view of the house from beyond the pond in the images above and below, but we had multiple stops today, so we didn't do an extensive tour.  The next two pictures are from the rooftop viewing area.

Just off the dining room is a butler's pantry with a dumbwaiter, warming oven, and bells for some (but not all) of the rooms in the house.

Before we left I ran back from where we were parked in order to get a picture of the ha-ha.  I had never heard of a ha-ha before, and it's probably hard to tell from this picture what it is.  What looks like a stone wall below isn't actually a wall.  The grass beyond it is at the same level as it is so that there is an unobstructed view of the sweeping lawns from the house.  This allows for cattle to be grazed in such a way that they can't get near the house but also so that it looks from the house as if it is all just one long sweep of lawn.

Then it was across the bridge and on our way north.

The next stop was Dumfermline, which, as with everything else out here, has so much history related to it.  A few connections here include St. Margaret, Robert the Bruce, Mary Queen of Scots, James I of England, and Andrew Carnegie.

At first glance, you may not notice this in the picture above, but near the top of the tower the brickwork spells out the word KING.  I didn't notice it while I was there until someone pointed it out to me.  This is to honor King Robert the Bruce who is buried here.  I think that this way of honoring him was done in the Victorian Era.  I've posted a closer view of the tower from another angle below.

The ruined refectory of the abbey

Our final destination was Culross, parts of which you might recognize from various shows and movies.

The yellow-ochre-colored building is Culross Palace.  The rest of the images on this post, except for the very last one, are from this palace.

They had games set out on various tables, representative of life in those times.  I'm all about the games!

This room is known as the Painted Chamber.  The paintings date from 1597-1611, and the room may have been used as a retreat where the life lessons and moral codes painted on these panels could be contemplated.  I think the phrase painted above is: "Men's pleasures fond, do promise only joys, But he that yields, at length himself destroys."  (If anyone can "translate" it better, please let me know in the comments.)

The garden yielded a lot of areas to explore and has multiple levels that gave many views.  I stopped at some point and let Toby and Nadia to up to the top-most level.  I finally waved the white flag!

We ended our day with a quick drive up the road to Culross Abbey, which ended up being closed - not sure whether due to time or due to ongoing COVID restrictions - but we did walk around the exterior and look out into the kirkyard a bit.  Off the the side is a manor house belonging to some member of the nobility.  The abbey is in ruins, but part of it is able to be used by the community as their local parish church.  

Edinburgh via Coldingham

Coldingham Priory

Today was another day in transit, but it was wonderfully easy since there were no trains and buses and transfers and different rules to deal with.  My friend Toby from Edinburgh drove to Eyemouth to pick me up.  Bless you, Toby!!  We stopped at Coldingham on the way -- a place that had caught our eye in passing a year ago when we went to Fast Castle.  The pictures above and below are on the grounds of the old Coldingham Priory and the current Coldingham Parish Church.  The priory was established in 640 AD (yes, just 3 digits in the date!).  It had it's share of ups and downs over the centuries from fires to Viking raids to border wars, but the medieval building was finally destroyed by Oliver Cromwell in 1650.  You know, when I was a schoolchild, I was taught to think positively of Oliver Cromwell, but now that I hear at nearly every cathedral or castle I visit that it was destroyed by Oliver Cromwell, I'm not feeling so positively towards him and am beginning to want to rename him "Dr. Destructo."  

This wall of diverse elements is known as a lapidarium.  It was built in the 1800s of stones found during a time of restoration.

The large slabs pictured below within the lapidarium are Templar gravestone slabs. 

Despite the work of Dr. Destructo and his armies, worship continues here to this day.

Like Eyemouth, Coldingham also has a nice beach area - different though - a bit more like some northern California beaches.

On the trip between Coldingham and Edinburgh, I saw windmills for producing electricity like the ones we have in California between where I live and the San Francisco Bay Area.  A couple of differences are that the hills are different in color and that we drive on the opposite side of the road!

When we got into Edinburgh, we stopped at Toby's place for a while first.  It wasn't time for check-in at my airbnb yet, so I just hung out a bit.  Rather than having Toby drive me, I decided to walk to my place. It ended up longer than I expected, but maybe that was only due to the fact that it started raining, which made the cobbles and flagstones slippery as I walked up and down hills hauling all my luggage along with me.  There is a reason I walk nearly everywhere no matter how far, other than being a cheapskate with a bit of a tendency towards pushing myself past my limits and a desire to lose weight, is that when you walk you get a better sense of how things are connected, and you get to see places close-up, details that you might otherwise miss.  (The next 6 pictures are on the way between Toby's flat and mine, but they were taken on various other days and not on that first walk!)  

When I arrived after about 30 minutes, I found the following at the end of the journey:

I shouldn't have been surprised, since I had started my walk similarly at Toby's flat!

But what I found when I opened the door to my new place was a large, bright, welcoming space - one of the nicest places I've ever stayed.  Truly, this place is unbelievably awesome!  I should post pictures of some of the awful places I stayed for comparison!

What a huge refrigerator!  All my other places just had a little cube of a thing. One place I stayed at earlier in my travels had one of those little cube-shaped refrigerators, a little segment of which was supposed to be a freezer, but EVERYTHING I put in the unit froze solid!! This place has a nearly full-sized refrigerator with separate freezer!  Wahoo!!

What a comfortable and lovely space in which to spend the last 5 or so days of my journey.

I don't like to miss any opportunities, so I dropped my stuff and took off for evensong at St. Mary's.

I got lost  .  .  .

  .  .  .  which I didn't think was possible for me in Edinburgh!

As it turns out I was on the opposite side of the Water of Leith than I thought I was, so I was walking in the wrong direction!  It's OK.  It was lovely, and you can't get too badly lost in Edinburgh.  You'll eventually find your way, and everything will be beautiful even if you don't know where you are.

I was late arriving to evensong, and I was afraid the door would be locked, but it was open.  Hooray!

This is my first time worshiping there where I was in the nave rather than in the choir.  It was interesting to get a different view, though I did miss being right next to the choristers.  I wonder if the space in which people are led to sit has to do with the time of the year?  St. Mary's has its own choir school and is the only cathedral in Scotland to continue a tradition of daily choral services; as you can imagine, the music is fantastic. Again, there were vestments involved, which I also do love!

After evensong it was off to Toby's place and then out to dinner together.

"Chim-chiminey, chim-chiminey, chim, chim, cheree  .  .  ."  I always expect to see Dick Van Dyke flanked by chimney sweeps dancing and singing on these rooftops!  

Circus Lane is between my place and Toby's.  I'll "have to" walk this way multiple times this week  .  .  .  alas  .  .  .  such a burden  .  .  .  oh woe is me  .  .  .  JUST KIDDING!

Bells Diner (right across the street from The Bailie) the restaurant where I had my first dinner in Edinburgh on this trip.  It's obviously well after 10:00pm since it stays light until ten!

I am once again, as of May 24, 2022 in my favorite city in the whole world!! :-)