Tuesday, July 5th...

Every Tuesday morning Hilary volunteers at a village school, reading with young children.  I had a leisurely morning to read.  We had lunch when she returned and went down to the canal, which is 10 minutes away, for a walk.  The canal is a water way for transporting goods from London to Burmingham and in between those Cities.  It isn't very wide, about 30 feet, the boats that utilize it are not very big.   We started our walk at a pub along the canal with a wonderful outside eating area called The Three Horseshoes.

The canal has lochs every so often that boats have to go through so they have to tie up their boats and go up and hand control the loch to change the water levels (a mini version of the Panama Canal).  There was a boat doing just that today carrying a few pallets of what looked like insulation material.

Along the edge of the canal are house boats that are one story and very narrow. 

In photo one of the houseboats and photo 4 you can see that the residence have made little garden areas on land. In photo two you can see the path to the right that we were walking on so I could have walked up and knocked on their door.  

Independence Day...

Well, it is July 4th so HAPPY JULY 4TH everyone!  I brought along the appropriate wear for today.  I am wearing a red, white and blue shirt and blue pants.  I woke up to decorations in the livingroom.  Hilary put up decorations after I went to bed last night.

I hope everyone enjoys the day and doesn't get too baked in the hot weather.

Off to Buckinghamshire...

Sunday, July 3rd:
Today we packed a picnic lunch, went over to Jill and Howard's and Howard drove the 4 of us plus George their dog to Buckinghamshire and specifically Stowe Landscape Gardens.  The garden covers approximately 400 acres.  It is said to be the largest and most important landscape garden in England.  There are 4 main lakes one covering eleven acres.  The mansion was purchased in 1922 and turned into a public school(we would call it a private school in the states.)

You can see on the right they are adding on to the building to enlarge the school.
History:
"The Stowe garden was begin in the 1680's by Sir Richard Temple, 3rd Baronet, who rebuilt the Tudor house he had inherited and laid out a series of terraces and orchards.  His son, Richard, later Viscount Cobham, enlarged and developed this layout from 1713 till his death in 1749, to create one of the most famous gardens in England."
Various architects and landscapers were hired to design the various structures on the property as well as choosing various trees and other plants for the gardens.  It looks very natural as though it was just found like it is.
Here are a few of the structures.
Temple of Friendship where Viscount Cobham entertained his male friends.  There was a kitchen in the lower floor of the building.

 This one is called the Queen's Temple.

 This is one of the Saxon Deities.

 This was a replica of a gothic temple.

 This is Palladian Bridge, a beautiful stone bridge.

 These structures are the east and west lake pavilions.

 This is a new bridge they've built across this lake, I thought the view was beautiful.

We had a lovely picnic and strolled around for a couple of hours.  The weather was great again, very comfortable for walking.

The Last Day of June and The Last day in Scotland.

We walked down to the train station and boarded a train for Stirling, Scotland.  Our destination was Stirling Castle and possibly the William Wallace Memorial.  Stirling was surprisingly non touristy if that is a word.  We had quite a walk to get to Stirling Castle and I was glad going to the Castle was the "up" part of the walk.  We managed to get up to the Castle by signs that led us there because it was not visible until we were upon it.  It is set back at the top of a huge crag protruding up into the air.
On the lawn outside the entrance is a large statue of King Robert the Bruce who defended Stirling Castle in the Battle of Bannachburn.  William Wallace's famous battle was at Stirling Bridge a distance away with the Firth of Forth flowing under it.  We could see his monument on the top of a mountain peak but it was too far for us to get to on that day.
Robert the Bruce Statue

The William Wallace Monument from a distance.  Remember the movie Brave Heart with Mel Gibson playing William Wallace?

This photo of the monument was taken from inside Stirling Castle.

This Castle was built by King James V in the 1500's.  He was the son of David I I believe.  He was 2 weeks old when his father died and he was crowned king.  He didn't gain control of his kingdom until he was 16 years old.  He built this castle and decorated with many statues, carvings, and gargoyles to emphasis his ability to rule and that he was a powerful ruler.  The outside of the main living quarters has statues of him and other powerful people of the time both real and mythical for example Hercules.

He had medallions carved out of wood of these people also including himself and his wives.  These medallions were mounted within large squares on the ceiling of his large receiving room.  They were colorfully painted.  They had an exhibit of the original carvings.  Each medallion was about 3 feet in diameter. 

This castle has had a lot of restoration work done to it and the bed chambers of the king and queen were quite spectacular.

The king's bedroom:

The queen's bedroom:

The walls and ceiling were very ornate.

One of the buildings had a museum honoring the Argyle and Sutherland Highlanders.  They became famous as the "Thin Red Line" after the Battle of Balaclava in Gallipoli during the Crimean War.  They are still an active regimen.

Here I am standing on a grassy area between the outer wall of the castle and the inner wall looking out toward the Highland mountains in the distance.  You can see some roofs of the powder room to my left.

There was also a tapastry room where a woman was actually weaving a new tapestry replica of an original tapastry of the 1500's.  No photos aloud in there.

 

Before we new it it was 4:00 so we made our down hill trek back to the train station.  The distance was only 50 minutes or so.  We got back in time to visit shops one last time and have some dinner to end another fabulous day.

Holyroodhouse

Wednesday June 29:
Yesterday, we were at the top of the Royal Mile and today we walked down to the other end to the Royal Families Holyroodhouse.  When we got down there we came upon the new Scottish Parliament Building.  We ventured into the building to see what it looked like.  They have a public entrance with security of course but we were able to go into the "Debating Chamber".  It is beautiful inside.  Most all the furniture and the ceiling structure is made of Oak from all over Scotland.

After our visit there we saw another structure between it and a most magnificent crag protruding up.

It was called Our Dynamic Earth and it was an ecology exhibition that was very interesting.  It explained how the Earth was formed, what natural processes exist, how it has changed over time, how animals have adapted or not, and how people  are affecting these changes.  It was very interesting.

Well, we next went across the street to Holyroodhouse only to find that it was closed because of the Queen's impending visit.  I was disappointed not to be able to go inside.  They allow you to view all of the private rooms.  We lingered however because there was hustle bustle going on inside the gates.  Our wait was rewarded with a fantastic rehearsal of the military procession accompanied of course by a bagpipe and brass band.  The did a run through including cars coming in to deliver various military personel in preparation for the Queen's arrival.  Though we were a distance away behind barriers and had to view through iron gates it was a wonderful surprise.
The structure itself is huge and above the entrance is a large open crown, sword, and scepter, symbols of the Honours I told you about.

I didn't take pictures of the rehearsal because I didn't think a picture would do justice to the experience.
If you look at this last picture through the tree leaves you can just see the crown I was telling you about.  It looks like a dome.
After the rehearsal was over we walked back up the Royal Mile to look in shops and find some dinner.
It was another great day.
The weather has been great so far.

Edinburgh Castle

Tuesday, June 28:  Edinburgh Castle was a defense fortress.  The small St. Margarets Chapel within its walls is the oldest building in Edinburgh built in the 12th century.  There was a wedding today in the little chapel that maybe seats 6 people.  Our guide says that Father of the bride loves it.  There are many canons but there is one that looks more modern and is called the one o'clock gun that they shoot every day.  There is a gigantic canon also called Mona Meg that was huge and could shoot a huge canonball 2 kilometers or something like that.  The Castle had a huge Great Hall that the king used to entertain in. The Honours of Scotland and the Scottish Crown jewels are housed there.  The Honours are a sword, sceptor, and crown that was presented to the King of Scotland David I.  There was a room that was the armory filled with swords, pistols, daggers, and spears all mounted on the walls.  We spent the whole day here just soaking up the history and imagining what it was like to live there.

A Trip to Scotland

Monday, June 27th was travel day.  We started to morning by getting on a train in Hemel that took us into London Euston Station.  Then we went down to the Underground to take a train to Kings Cross Station.  There we got on the train that went up to Edinburgh, Scotland about a 4 hour trip.  The countryside was beautiful dark green with some flat farm land of wheat, potatoes, cows, and sheep with various small towns along the way or rolling green hills with trees in clumps here and there.  The train had four stops before arriving in Edinburgh; York, Darlington, Newcastle, and Berwick-Upon-Tweed (my all time favorite name). The Tweed is a river that meanders through the town of Berwick.  After New Castle we started getting views of the North Sea.  The train goes very near the east coast and Edinburgh is a coastal city.  It was amazing to think that I was looking at the North Sea.  The Sea connects with a river that meanders through Edinburgh called the Firth of Forth.  The train goes over a viaduct above the Firth of Forth before it enters the town and all you see is the water and many trees, it's beautiful.  
Arriving in Edinburgh:
When we got off the train I was immediately overwhelmed by the large train station, the people going everywhere and not knowing where we were to go to find a taxi.  We got that sorted out fairly quickly but figuring out where the queue was for the taxi seemed to be a bit confusing to some people trying to get one.  Finally we got our turn and were off to the hotel only to find out that we could have walked for maybe 10 minutes and gotten there on our own, which we did after that.
When you first see the town it is overwhelming because you have just stepped into Medieval Times.  All of the structures are very gothic but still in use and lived in.  The streets are cobble streets with  modern day vehicles driving on them.
A brief history:

Edinburgh is the capital of Scotland and spreads over 7 hills.  When you walk through the town you are either going up the road or down the road.  Unless you are down by the train station it is not flat. The old town, which covers a few blocks in all directions, is centered around a main road called the Royal Mile.  At one end of the Royal Mile is the Edinburgh Castle and at the other end is the Holyroodhouse which is the Royal Residence of the Royal Family.  Queen Elizabeth is the queen of England and Scotland.  Although Scotland now has its own Parliament.  While we were there the Queen actually came to town to perform some formal presentations to the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders Regimen and open Parliament.  Hilary and I thought it would have been lovely to dine with the Queen on Thursday evening as we tried to figure out where we should eat but we hadn't been invited.