Haggis, Snow and Mistletoe

If you read the prior post, then you know that we went to Scotland this past weekend and were stranded for a few days because of the snow. Although our travels to get home overshadowed our trip, we still very much loved Scotland. It has its own flavor, and we are considering going there again…when winter is over. Scotland has many traditions and proud people.

When we arrived on Friday, we setup a Literary Pub Tour for the evening. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera and didn’t get any pictures of Edinburgh or the tour. But if anyone ever goes to Edinburgh, I would highly recommend this literary pub tour. The two actors who did it were great, and I learned about Robert Burns and Sir Walter Scott.  

To start things off, I thought I’d invite you for a nice Scottish breakfast of baked beans, sausage, bacon, tomato, mushrooms, eggs and Haggis. For those of you unfamiliar with Haggis, I thought I’d describe its ingredients and the nature of cooking it. It contains the heart, liver and lungs of a sheep or pig, minced with onions, oatmeal, suet (beef fat), spices, and stock and traditionally simmered in the animal’s stomach. Mmm...I bet you’re hungry now. No, I did not have this traditional Scottish breakfast…well, some of it, minus the beans, mushrooms and Haggis. My Love ordered it the first morning, and because I forgot to take a picture, he ordered it the second morning.  

The next picture is Edinburgh Castle from the park. In order to get the entire castle, I had to be at a distance. This castle was built on a dead volcano and is guesstimated to have the first human settlement around 900 BC. 

This picture was taken from the castle and it captures the Scott Memorial, museums and the Christmas festivities.  

Once we were inside the castle walls, I took this picture of the front of the castle, another volcano and a church in Edinburgh.

I had to post this because it is fascinating to me. This is a prisoners’ door, and as you can see, they scrawled words on it. Can you imagine knowing an ancestor was held captive in this fortress and then finding their name on a door?  

This is a picture taken from a street above a street. 

We went down where the Christmas festivities were held near Princes Street and they had an area setup for rides, workshops and ice skating. I would have ice skated if I had my long underwear on. BRRR!

And this is a picture of the Sir Walter Scott memorial from the back. It was built in 1844, in honor of Sir Walter Scott, and is the tallest monument in the world that is dedicated to a writer.

At night, we went walking around and came upon a procession of bagpipes. I was soo excited that I was able to videotape them.

I had to take a picture of Deacon Brodie’s Tavern. He lived a double-life; by day—a skilled cabinet-maker and Deacon of the Incorporation of Wrights and Masons, by night—a burglar. It is assumed that his double-life was an inspiration for the book, The Strange Case of Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. In Scotland, Jeckyll is pronounced Jee-kle.

This is a picture of the Christmas celebrations at night. It was beautiful. Cold and beautiful, but we cuddled and kissed to keep warm. 

Those are just a few of the pictures I took in Scotland. Hope you enjoyed them.