WEEK 12: A visit to Scotland!

September 24 – 30, 2018

How the weeks are cruising by! Sister Foy and I did a lot of mowing this week, and there was more roofing, trouble shooting, and sign building for the men.  I also Did some more painting, while Sister Foy went on her Ministering one day.  Our adventure this weekend was fabulous!  We traveled by train to Edinburgh, Scotland, spent the night and returned the next day.  Edinburgh is the capital of Scotland and is more than 900 years old.  In fact, the castle site has been a place of defense since 74 AD!  The volcanic Castle Rock offers a naturally defended position, with sheer cliffs on the north and south, and a steep ascent from the west. The castle dominates the skyline of the city from its position on Castle Rock and is awesome to behold! I took lots of pictures,but we’re having trouble posting them here, so look to Facebook and Instagram for the cool pics!

From the Edinburgh Castle gates to the Holyrood Palace gates,the street is almost exa mile long and runs downhill between these two significant locations.  We enjoyed a guided walking tour of the city along the Royal Mile learning of Edinburgh's history and architecture.  We met the tour outside St. Giles’ Cathedral near Mercat Cross where we heard of many famous people that called the city home over the centuries, such as David Hume, Adam Smith, Robert Burns, Robert Louis Stevenson, John Knox, Sir Walter Scott, Thomas Carlyle and surprisingly Alexander Graham Bell plus many, many others.  Next we took the bus tour around the city.  There, we heard stories of how the medical school acquired cadavers (grave robbers!)  for teaching purposes since a premium was paid for providing dead bodies. The medical school of Edinburgh is the oldest medical school in the UK, one of the oldest medical schools in the English-speaking world.  We learned about the Scottish chemist, Joseph Black who discovered CO2,  James Young Simpson who first used anesthetics and Joseph Lister, who  developed antiseptic surgical practices but only has a mouthwash to memorialize his name!  Because Edinburgh was geographically contained on three sides by a wall and water to the north (the firth of forth), the rapidly increasing population had nowhere new to build, so the houses grew higher and higher.  Edinburgh claims to have the world’s first high-rise housing where some structures reached nine stories or more by the late 1600s.  The architecture is amazing!  By the end of the 18th century, “New Town” was built on farmland to the north.  Bridges were built over the deep ravines created by glaciers and the medieval town now blends nicely with the new town.

Someone named Billy Connolly said, “Scotland has two seasons, June and winter!"  Friday we were there in "June",  and fought to stay warm on Saturday as we toured the castle.  Being high up on a rock precipice has its disadvantages when the wind blows!  But with the hundreds of Scottish wool items being marketed all around us, it would have been easy to purchase lovely, soft warmth! I'm allergic to wool though, so we didn't.  Our ride back home was interesting as we were soon joined by 7 middle aged gents from Yorkshire, who were "out for a night on the town", and had a bit to drink,  We chatted with them, and invited them to church, which made the time pass quickly. 
This is another beautiful area, full of lush green meadows, flocks of sheep and a beautiful river winding through it.  Hopefully I can figure out the pictures, so you can see how beautiful it is!