(May 6 - May 8)
The Wallace Monument
Tim, Matt and I atop the monument
The monument on the hill
The view from the top of the snaking River Forth
Matt, Tim and I in Edinburgh
Edinburgh Castle
The Royal Mile in the sunshine
The Edinburgh Castle at Night
The Royal Mile at night
The Mereat Cross
Heart of Methlodian
St. Gile's Cathedral
JK Rowling's inspiration for Professor McGonagall in the Grey Friar's Kerkyard Cemetery
The memorial to Grey Friar's Bobby
JK Rowling's favorite coffee shop
The beautiful architecture and landscape of Edinburgh
He stood, staring out over the Scottish landscape – the winding river River Forth, a snake in the grass, cutting through the green pastures of the countryside sitting beneath the baby blue sky patched with bright white clouds – and could picture in his head the advance of the English army and their peril as they were funneled through the valley and forced across the bridge. The magnitude of their numbers meant nothing.
Inspired by the moment which had come to grip him, his voice bellowed out: “Sons of Scotland, I am William Wallace. ‘William Wallace is 7 feet tall.’ Yes, I've heard. Kills men by the hundreds, and if he were here he'd consume the English with fireballs from his eyes and bolts of lightning from his ass! I am William Wallace! And I see, before me, an army of my countrymen here in defiance of tyranny. You have come to fight as free men, and free men you are. What would you do without freedom? Will you fight? ‘Fight against that? No, we will run, and we will live.’ Ay, fight and you may die, run and you'll live – at least a while. And dying in your beds many years from now, would you be willing to trade all the days from this day to that for one chance, just one chance to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they'll never take OUR FREEDOM!”
As he finished he gazed out over the breathtaking landscape, over the bridge where the battle ensued, and over Scotland which struggled for its freedom, his compatriot grasped him on the shoulder and said: “Alright are you finished? Can we go inside now?”
Tricked you didn’t I? No? Well I tried. I was hoping to convince you I was telling the story of William Wallace’s brilliant victory over the English at the battle of Stirling. In reality, that was just me, giving Mel Gibson’s speech from Braveheart when we arrived at the William Wallace Monument on the outskirts of the Stirling – I think it was entertaining for Matt and Tim to say the least.
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That’s right Scotland was the place of travel this past weekend as Matt, Tim, and I set out on a trip to the UK to visit our English speaking brethren. Most of the Loyola crew had already headed out to Scotland previously and their ravings over the beauty of Edinburgh were enough to convince us to take the voyage.
It was supposed to be a quick trip to the Land of Scots, as we arrived late on Thursday night in Edinburgh and after finding our hostel, hit the hay for the evening. We had decided that while Edinburgh was supposed to be a gorgeous city, we had to travel out to Stirling to see the Wallace Memorial and the beauty of the Scottish country side.
We awoke early (an extra hour early courtesy of me forgetting about the time change) and started on our way to Stirling. Stirling has both historical and symbolic significance to Scotland as it is the place where on September 11, 1297, William Wallace – “the Guardian of Scotland” – staged a strategic battle against the English – defeating them and providing momentary freedom for Scotland for the first time.
We arrived in the city around noon and headed out to the Wallace monument from the start – which turned out to be a good decision seeing as how it was literally a hike to get to. The castle-like monument jutted above the tree-line – the dark brown and grey stones dug directly out of the hill on which it was perched. After making it to the base of the hill we scaled the mountain and arrived at the monument. Though the view from the base was impressive, the ultimate vantage point was provided by the top level of the 207 step memorial. The gorgeous landscape (described above) was a welcome sight worthy of the trek outside the city center.
Once we finished with the monument, we ventured to the city center and headed about the silver city (pun on Stirling [I’m aware it’s spelt differently]). Crossing over the famed Stirling Bridge, we made our way up to the castle. The citadel provided an equally impressive view over the small city except from the opposite angle. The castle has stood as a focal point for both the city and Scotland as it lies at one of the crossroads of Edinburgh and Glasgow. From the castle, we headed into town, passing through the winding cobblestone roads and back down toward the train station. We stopped by the old town jail, the famed Stirling Bagpipe store, the indoor mall, The Church of the Holy Rude, and then headed back to the main station and back into town .
After a day touring through the gorgeous small city, we headed back to the capitol of Scotland - Edinburgh. Once we got back, we rested for a bit and then walked through Edinburgh at night. After wandering about for a bit, we found ourselves on the Royal Mile, the famous shopping street which once served as a direct line for the Royalty to move from the Royal residence to the shelter of the castle in case of an attack.
The next morning we had a planned day to tour through Edinburgh and spend the whole day seeing the city before we boarded our flight later that night. We got up for the 11am Free Walking Tour and set out for the 3 hour tour. The tour was outstanding and in depth and took us through most of the major sights of the city. We began on the Royal mile – this time in the beautiful spring sunshine which accompanied our visit. The tour then moved to the Mereat Cross, where announcements and punishments in the medieval days were made, and where Tim was used to provide an example of medieval punishments. We slowly worked our way up the Royal Mile’s most famous landmarks, from the cross we moved to the St. Gile (Scotland’s Patron Saint) Cathedral, to the Statue of Charles II, passed by the Heart of Mithlodian (the stone work in the shape of a heart which the locals spit on for good luck), and the Writers Museum.
Once we finished on the Royal Mile, we headed over to the University section of the city in the Grass Market. The number of pubs which line the square are famous for hosting Scotland’s bachelorette and “stag” parties – thus our tour guide told us not to mind the cross dressing gentlemen. After the Grass Market we headed to the coffee shop where JK Rowling first rented an apartment and began writing down her ideas for the first three of the Harry Potter septet. Across from the coffee shop is the Grey Friar Kerkyard Cemetery where she got some of the ideas for her character names. Up until this point in the trip, Matt, Tim and I had an amazing time in our trip through Scotland. However, it was right about the time when we got to the Grey Friar’s Bobby statue (the story of the most loyal dog in the world), that Tim received an e-mail on his blackberry that said that due to the volcanic ash and the closure of French and Spanish airspace, our flight at 7pm was cancelled.
With our flight cancelled, we threw out our plans for the rest of our time in Edinburgh – like to see the million pounds at the bank of Scotland, or to see the angel playing bag pipes in the Cathedral, or to visit the castle which overlooked the city – as we finished our free tour of the city and ate at the recommended restaurant (trying haggis for the first time). We then began formulating plans for our additional stay in Scotland. We headed back to our hostel that we had to check out of and pleaded with them to let us use their computers, to which they complied. After contacting a number of our friends in England and Ireland – and mainly all of the UK – we tried to figure out where we could stay for the next 3 days, because another flight to Belgium wasn’t scheduled to leave until then. After much debate we decided the first thing we needed to do was figure out our flight. However, when we couldn’t get in touch with Ryanair on the various phone lines they offered, we decided to head into the airport to fix the flight.
“Oh no you’re flights not cancelled, it’s actually boarding” – that was the line that the pointy-eared blonde haired man behind the desk gave us – “it must have been a glitch in the system.”
The shock was almost immediately followed by panic as Matt, Tim and I, fumbled for our passports and rain through the check in, customs, the passport check, and then the entire terminal (our flight was on the second to last gate). Roughly 20 minutes after we were told that our flight was still on, we were sitting in our seats in trying to comprehend the frenzy which had just taken place – simultaneously upset but grateful. The only unfortunate part of the trip was that we wasted our last afternoon in Edinburgh figuring out plans, when we could have been seeing more of the city. I guess that’s just one of those experiences that you can only have when backpacking around Europe – hopefully it’s one I’ll never have to repeat!
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