Edinburgh Catch Up

I'm finally in a spot that will stay with me long enough (fingers crossed) to catch up on the last few days here in Edinburgh. Summary: St. Giles Cathedral. Edinburgh Castle. Royal Botanical Gardens. 


St. Giles Cathedral was originally built in the 14th century. 

statue is not St. Giles. according to the brochure, St. Giles looked like Dumbledore from the Harry Potter stories

Bits and pieces have been added and refurbished over the centuries including the organ, which was installed in 1992. The Cathedral is much like all the others with high "cathedral" ceilings and lots of stone, wood, and tile. Here is a picture of the ceiling. 

pretty cool, but kinda creepy too.

The stained glass windows were my favorite part. They were really stunning, mostly from 19th and 20th centuries.

graceful hands, intent looks

glass reflection on tile. lovely!

Edinburgh Castle is right in the heart of the city. I must say that while I like looking at old castles, most I've found are in the countryside, and it was really nice not having to take a long ass bus ride to look at this one.

hell yes! i walked up that hill

view of Edinburgh from the castle 

pretty

Our tour guide, who was an incredible source of Scottish history, was not a fan of the movie Brave Heart. Turns out "Mel" (Gibson) got just about everything wrong. "Brave Heart" was actually a term given to Robert the Bruce. William Wallace did great things for Scotland, but just not in the way Hollywood would have you believe. He also waxed on about how the "Wee Mel Gibson" couldn't have possibly handled a sword the way he did in the movie. The actual sword is about as tall as the "Wee Mel", and weighed about as much, as the wee man, as well. I don't think our guide cared very much Mr. Gibson. Random fact: The real William Wallace was 7 feet tall. 

The Royal Botanical Gardens are gorgeous! It was a sunny day, although intermittent with passing rain showers. And, thank goodness for the passing rain showers, because without them, the tour guide would not have taken us into the walter lily house.

 i bet this lily pad would've held up a small animal.

The hedges there huge! There was one hedge that was planted with a few different types of arborvitae so that the darker colors and lighters colors intermingled. At first I thought it was just the way the sun was shining, or the casting of shadows, but nope! it was planned that way. 

i love that they cut the entrance at an angle.

I got so many great ideas for my future garden. I took lots of pictures of plants I would like to plant, as well. This peony bush (yes a bush! about 6 feet wide and 8 feet tall, or so) was gorgeous! I wish I had seen the colors of this one before Dan did my tattoo. I will have him work it into another one someday.