I'm not quite sure I can do a history lesson on this one. You might be better off looking up a brief history of the town of Stirling online somewhere. But the important parts are these:
Sometime in the 1100's Stirling was a very powerful little town, considered the stronghold or the heart of Scotland. It was said "He who holds Stirling, holds Scotland." The town figured very prominently in two battles. One was at the end of the 13th Century, in which William Wallace (you might remember him from "Braveheart") held off the English at what became known as the Battle of Stirling Bridge. It is named such because, according to local legend, Wallace had a builder sit underneath the bridge until the English army came marching along, then he knocked out the pins, leaving half the army on one side, half on the other, and quite a few drowning in the river. What is definite is that the Scottish Army attacked while the English were still partly across, a nice little bottleneck.
The second battle here was the Battle of Stirling, in 1648. Don't ask me about it, I don't know anything, only that this was also the time of Cromwell.
Stirling has, at times, been a capital of Scotland and been home to the King of Scotland in the era of James IV (so, early 1500's) and before him. Thus, Stirling has a Castle, which--like the Edinburgh Castle--is seated at the top of an old volcanic plug overlooking a mostly flat terrain. It's weird, because in one way if you've seen one Scottish castle you've seen them all, I guess. A sharp incline to the Castle, even once within the Defences. No moat here, just perfect geography for a castle and a lot of stone walls.
A few things surprised me about Stirling Castle. There were a surprising number of little gardens and plazas, one that was named the Lion Square---perhaps named for the lion that was exercised there. Who would keep a lion in an enclosed castle? Must have been crazy. The site used for the chapel was the oldest building site on the hill, though the one standing there now was built by one of the Jameses in the style of a French chateau. The Great Hall was constructed with much lighter-colored stone than the rest of the castle, so it stands out, and the upturned-boat design for the roof was inspiration for the roof in the Edinburgh Castle.
There were draperies with unicorns on them everywhere. I mean it.
They are currently undergoing a project in which a set of seven tapestries that show a unicorn hunt are being commissioned to hang in the Great Hall, as they once were 500 years ago. Down the one side of the Castle, past the Powder Magazines, is the Tapestry Studio. There was one woman working at a gigantic loom with about three guards... to make sure we don't distract her? Tapestries are woven on their side, left to right not bottom to top. You can do postgraduate study in West Dean College, in West Sussex. It takes a year, apparently. You have no idea how much I want to quit physics and take up tapestry weaving.
Anyway. So the last main building is the Palace, which housed the King's Apartments and Queen's Apartments, where visitors would be received, dancing and dining hosted, and the royalty slept. While I was visiting these areas were being excavated and restored. Sounds bad, maybe. But I really liked the unfinished look, it felt more realistic than any color matching could have done. It was here that I saw a short dramatisation of the murder of the 'Black Douglas' who refused to pay fealty to King James II. I think. Hey, there were a lot of details to remember today!
-I also saw a really cool exhibit of the Great Kitchens, which had fake food and plastic cooks to show how the kitchens looked and ran back in those days.
-It must be a requirement for every Castle to have a museum for the local regiment of the Highlanders Army, this one was dedicated to the Argyll and Sutherland Regiment.
My entrance fee to the Castle included Argyll's Lodgings, a mansion located right across the street from the castle, owned by Alexander, and passed along the various Earls of Argyll. Though small, everything recreated a 1670's noble townhouse. Actually I was impressed with it a lot, even though there were only three or four display rooms, and everything was in the same shade of purple. Everything. But a really beautiful house.
On my walk back down to the town centre, I stopped by the Smith Art Gallery, though I saw very little art. The first, small room housed a temporary exhibit about printing in Scotland. The second, larger room focused on Stirling History. It started off fine, with archaeological artefacts from prehistoric times, then things got a little confused. They jumped from that to the role of area men in the Napoleonic Wars, to the 1297 Battle of Stirling Bridge and William Wallace, to a miners' strike in 1979, then back to the 17th century. I have never appreciated proper chronology before today, though I did learn a lot about the area's history.
Other than that, there isn't much in Stirling. It seems to be mostly a little commercial hub for the region.. one of these places that is central to everything and so it houses the main mall, even though the town itself is definitely not big enough to support so many shops.
That, and I put up about 30 photos from today, so go on and have a look.
Showing posts with label train. Show all posts
Showing posts with label train. Show all posts
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Massive Christmas Update: Scorraig
On Thursday morning I left Katharine's, took the train to the city centre (Central Station), walked about half an hour to the bus station on the other side of the city centre, and boarded a bus heading to Inverness, which is in the Highlands near Loch Ness and the North Sea, with a quick change of bus at Perth. Then Flora and I went grocery shopping for some important Christmas essentials, and we made it to the 'mainland' side of Scoraig, which Google Maps tells me might be called Carnach, seperate from Scoraig by a sea loch, Loch Rum. I think. Pronounced "Room".
Scoraig is a peninsula in the Highlands, nearish to Ullapool, and isn't an island but might as well be. It's best to access via boat. On the 'mainland' side is a free car park and a 'pier', a slope of concrete for small boats, but no permanent place for the boats to go. On the other side of the loch is Scoraig, another concrete pier and a boathouse, and a system by which the boats can be let out to sea using ropes on the pier. It is difficult to explain with words alone so I won't try. Scoraig is also accessible by foot, on a long path around some large hills/small mountains but it's so steep a road may never be put in. Very large things can be brought to Scoraig by a large raft if it's calm and clear.
About eighty people live on Scoraig (Scorraig is the local spelling, but one R is the official), though many were gone for the holidays. Flora divides them into the ones who are "creepy hippies" and the more normal. Most of the people came from England originally, and most are now in their fifties or older, though there are some children growing up there and a few people in their twenties escaping modern life. Everything is driven by wind power, which charges up the batteries used, with solar power secondary. Most people keep animals of some kind, mostly chickens, sheep, and a few people have pigs, cows, or horses. Most of the dogs are trained to be sheepdogs. Half the people are into drugs, some of the home-grown variety.
My first morning on Scorraig was the day of the winter solstice, so Flora and I joined the creepy hippies on the top of a hill to watch the sun come up. We arrived with an armful of fuel for the fire, and received brandy coffee and virgin hot chocolate at the top, shared amongst the dozen or so. The sky slowly lightened around nine, then we grew silent around 9:30 as the first rays broke over the hills. A low "ohm" began when the sun rose above the rocks. Some sort of crazy pagan ritual? Flora and I tried not to giggle. Our efforts were slighted when one of the dogs ran into our direct line of sight and squatted down, leaving its own offering for the solstice.
At that point giggling was guaranteed.
The rest of the time on Scorraig was relaxing and wonderful. What began as myself, Flora, and her parents for the first few days became eleven people in their large cabin. Eleven! During the few hours of daylight we went on walks exploring the area. About half a mile to the west was the end of the peninsula with beautiful views of sunsets, over the uninhabited islands. The mountains dividing Scorraig from civilisation were about two miles away, though I never went that far. One mile to the north brought one over the ridge and down to the other side, which was reputed to be amazing in the summer but muddy and desolate looking when we went over.
Our evenings were spent with large family dinners, games (including The Marble Game... Flora's young nephews, ten and eleven years old, asked me, "Does everyone play this in America?" Hah. Erm, no...) and talking.
Christmas dinner was the slightly untraditional roast beef, apparently most British people have turkey dinners, but it was accompanied by crackers (with crowns, jokes, and toys inside) and whisky---pretty Scottish! We followed the Bush family tradition of having our big dinner on Christmas Eve, and the opening of one present that evening, then a long morning on Christmas Day of presents after the equally-traditional breakfast of an egg and sausage sandwich (I did not partake). Because there were many crackers left over, we had more crackers with our Christmas dinner, which tasted surprisingly like Christmas Eve leftovers. The dinner, not the crackers.
I made friends with the two dogs belonging to Flora's brother, and became their primary caretaker for the almost-week I was on Scoraig. Mai (actually spelled My) was about ten, and her daughter Fati (actually Fatsy, but I felt that was too mean) almost a year old. Both were collie mixes, used as sheepdogs. Fati liked to jump up into laps and be cuddled though she didn't stay for long.
The day before Christmas I made my own contribution to the Christmas biscuits and baked a batch of coconut cookies that were more like coconut-hinted shortbread, as well as a batch of peanut butter cookies with Hershey's Kisses in the center, as Mom makes for Christmas. The Kisses baffled the other ten in the house, they'd never seen such a thing! Flora's "brother-out-law" told me, "I like the peanut butter shortbread biscuits, but what are these dodgy chocolates doing in the middle?" No one could understand how the chocolate kept the shape! I explained how the chocolates are made, and passed around the bag of unused Kisses, which did not impress our British friends. "It tastes like goat's cheese," Flora said. I suspect that British chocolate has different sweeteners than American chocolate. To me it was a bit like the taste of home.
Merry Christmas to all, and Happy Boxing Day!
Scoraig is a peninsula in the Highlands, nearish to Ullapool, and isn't an island but might as well be. It's best to access via boat. On the 'mainland' side is a free car park and a 'pier', a slope of concrete for small boats, but no permanent place for the boats to go. On the other side of the loch is Scoraig, another concrete pier and a boathouse, and a system by which the boats can be let out to sea using ropes on the pier. It is difficult to explain with words alone so I won't try. Scoraig is also accessible by foot, on a long path around some large hills/small mountains but it's so steep a road may never be put in. Very large things can be brought to Scoraig by a large raft if it's calm and clear.
About eighty people live on Scoraig (Scorraig is the local spelling, but one R is the official), though many were gone for the holidays. Flora divides them into the ones who are "creepy hippies" and the more normal. Most of the people came from England originally, and most are now in their fifties or older, though there are some children growing up there and a few people in their twenties escaping modern life. Everything is driven by wind power, which charges up the batteries used, with solar power secondary. Most people keep animals of some kind, mostly chickens, sheep, and a few people have pigs, cows, or horses. Most of the dogs are trained to be sheepdogs. Half the people are into drugs, some of the home-grown variety.
My first morning on Scorraig was the day of the winter solstice, so Flora and I joined the creepy hippies on the top of a hill to watch the sun come up. We arrived with an armful of fuel for the fire, and received brandy coffee and virgin hot chocolate at the top, shared amongst the dozen or so. The sky slowly lightened around nine, then we grew silent around 9:30 as the first rays broke over the hills. A low "ohm" began when the sun rose above the rocks. Some sort of crazy pagan ritual? Flora and I tried not to giggle. Our efforts were slighted when one of the dogs ran into our direct line of sight and squatted down, leaving its own offering for the solstice.
At that point giggling was guaranteed.
The rest of the time on Scorraig was relaxing and wonderful. What began as myself, Flora, and her parents for the first few days became eleven people in their large cabin. Eleven! During the few hours of daylight we went on walks exploring the area. About half a mile to the west was the end of the peninsula with beautiful views of sunsets, over the uninhabited islands. The mountains dividing Scorraig from civilisation were about two miles away, though I never went that far. One mile to the north brought one over the ridge and down to the other side, which was reputed to be amazing in the summer but muddy and desolate looking when we went over.
Our evenings were spent with large family dinners, games (including The Marble Game... Flora's young nephews, ten and eleven years old, asked me, "Does everyone play this in America?" Hah. Erm, no...) and talking.
Christmas dinner was the slightly untraditional roast beef, apparently most British people have turkey dinners, but it was accompanied by crackers (with crowns, jokes, and toys inside) and whisky---pretty Scottish! We followed the Bush family tradition of having our big dinner on Christmas Eve, and the opening of one present that evening, then a long morning on Christmas Day of presents after the equally-traditional breakfast of an egg and sausage sandwich (I did not partake). Because there were many crackers left over, we had more crackers with our Christmas dinner, which tasted surprisingly like Christmas Eve leftovers. The dinner, not the crackers.
I made friends with the two dogs belonging to Flora's brother, and became their primary caretaker for the almost-week I was on Scoraig. Mai (actually spelled My) was about ten, and her daughter Fati (actually Fatsy, but I felt that was too mean) almost a year old. Both were collie mixes, used as sheepdogs. Fati liked to jump up into laps and be cuddled though she didn't stay for long.
The day before Christmas I made my own contribution to the Christmas biscuits and baked a batch of coconut cookies that were more like coconut-hinted shortbread, as well as a batch of peanut butter cookies with Hershey's Kisses in the center, as Mom makes for Christmas. The Kisses baffled the other ten in the house, they'd never seen such a thing! Flora's "brother-out-law" told me, "I like the peanut butter shortbread biscuits, but what are these dodgy chocolates doing in the middle?" No one could understand how the chocolate kept the shape! I explained how the chocolates are made, and passed around the bag of unused Kisses, which did not impress our British friends. "It tastes like goat's cheese," Flora said. I suspect that British chocolate has different sweeteners than American chocolate. To me it was a bit like the taste of home.
Merry Christmas to all, and Happy Boxing Day!
Massive Christmas Update: Glasgow
So while I have internet back, it's about time I make an update on my life post-finals.
My last exam was Thursday, and I went to my friend Katharine's in Glasgow on Saturday. While there I pretty much recharged from the semester. There was a very large park across the street from her house. I'm bad at estimating areas, but to walk around the perimeter took me about an hour, and it had on the grounds a pond with pavilion and boating dock, walled garden, 'glen walks' that went through some heavier forest and around a waterfall from the man-made dam, a few large open fields, and a couple sets of children's playgrounds. Right next to the park was a train station, so a three-minute walk from her house and twenty-minute train ride got me right into the city centre, very convenient for visiting Glasgow. On my last two days I even took the train trip by myself, AND figured out the Glasgow Underground (a very simple loop with about a dozen stations).
I went to the Glasgow Museum of Modern Art, shopped a bit in the pedestrian area of Sauchiehall/Buchanan streets. I visited the museum of Kelvingrove, what used to be a huge mansion on a hillside in Glasgow, on the north side not the city centre---Kelvingrove was a bit of a mixed bag, by which I mean that the organisation was lacking. There were two open areas, one on the west end that had the taxidermy displays, and the one on the east had some really weird sculpture, including heads hanging from the ceiling with a range of emotions on their faces.
Right near Kelvingrove was the Museum of Transport, which included pretty much every range of transportation used since the invention of the steam engine---and the working model of the steam engine was so cool I could have watched it go for hours. I don't think I'd ever seen one before. The displays had: horsedrawn carriages, including gypsy 'caravans' (modern-day caravans are our RVs/trailers). Old cars, especially interesting because few were American and most were makes I'd never seen before. Some trams (still double-decker) back in the 1930's, before they had buses. Trains, which were boring except for the platform view of the engines. A large room of model ships, pretty boring except for the warships. And some bicycles and motorcycles, apparently the first bicycle is credited to a Scotsman!
Katharine's family was warm and inviting and I learned a lot of things about Scotland, some of it from her younger brothers who are both crazy about rugby. Their TV got a lot of channels, so it was pretty much my first experience with British television that wasn't set to a sports channel so that the pub-goers could watch the evening football match. I helped decorate the house for Christmas, and was asked a lot of questions about life in America. Her 16-year-old brother asked, "Is living in America like Laguna Beach?"
It was pretty cute.
My last exam was Thursday, and I went to my friend Katharine's in Glasgow on Saturday. While there I pretty much recharged from the semester. There was a very large park across the street from her house. I'm bad at estimating areas, but to walk around the perimeter took me about an hour, and it had on the grounds a pond with pavilion and boating dock, walled garden, 'glen walks' that went through some heavier forest and around a waterfall from the man-made dam, a few large open fields, and a couple sets of children's playgrounds. Right next to the park was a train station, so a three-minute walk from her house and twenty-minute train ride got me right into the city centre, very convenient for visiting Glasgow. On my last two days I even took the train trip by myself, AND figured out the Glasgow Underground (a very simple loop with about a dozen stations).
I went to the Glasgow Museum of Modern Art, shopped a bit in the pedestrian area of Sauchiehall/Buchanan streets. I visited the museum of Kelvingrove, what used to be a huge mansion on a hillside in Glasgow, on the north side not the city centre---Kelvingrove was a bit of a mixed bag, by which I mean that the organisation was lacking. There were two open areas, one on the west end that had the taxidermy displays, and the one on the east had some really weird sculpture, including heads hanging from the ceiling with a range of emotions on their faces.
Right near Kelvingrove was the Museum of Transport, which included pretty much every range of transportation used since the invention of the steam engine---and the working model of the steam engine was so cool I could have watched it go for hours. I don't think I'd ever seen one before. The displays had: horsedrawn carriages, including gypsy 'caravans' (modern-day caravans are our RVs/trailers). Old cars, especially interesting because few were American and most were makes I'd never seen before. Some trams (still double-decker) back in the 1930's, before they had buses. Trains, which were boring except for the platform view of the engines. A large room of model ships, pretty boring except for the warships. And some bicycles and motorcycles, apparently the first bicycle is credited to a Scotsman!
Katharine's family was warm and inviting and I learned a lot of things about Scotland, some of it from her younger brothers who are both crazy about rugby. Their TV got a lot of channels, so it was pretty much my first experience with British television that wasn't set to a sports channel so that the pub-goers could watch the evening football match. I helped decorate the house for Christmas, and was asked a lot of questions about life in America. Her 16-year-old brother asked, "Is living in America like Laguna Beach?"
It was pretty cute.
Thursday, November 29, 2007
interchangable
"Reckon" is used so commonly here it no longer sounds like a Southern word to me. Although, my friend has picked up on my habit of saying "I guess" instead. Apparently that's an identifying phrase of mine.
Tomorrow, well, today really, is the last day of classes for the term. Kind of exciting! Only, after this we're meant to be revising ("studying") and I suppose I ought to, too.
-In school (high school) the teachers are teachers. At uni, "teachers" no longer seems to apply. They become "lecturers", and I think "professors" is an accepted, but unused, word.
-The set up is quite a bit like in Harry Potter, for those of you familiar with Hogwarts. I think school lasts for six years. The first four are the Standard Levels, with an exam at the end, like OWLs.
-After that you choose the A-Levels to take over the next two years, also culminating in a final exam, like NEWTs. Most people take about five.
Today I accomplished several important things with my life completely unrelated to exams.
1. I walked my passport and other identifying items to the far end of Princes St, the commercial area, about 45 minutes' worth of fast walking. There they got photocopied and soon enough I will be an official volunteer at CHSS!
2. Train tickets for my winter travels.
We've been learning in Archaeology of Scotland about a Bronze Age settlement in the Hebrides in which bog-mummified bodies were excavated from the foundations of the houses. It's some pretty crazy stuff, check it out.
Tomorrow, well, today really, is the last day of classes for the term. Kind of exciting! Only, after this we're meant to be revising ("studying") and I suppose I ought to, too.
-In school (high school) the teachers are teachers. At uni, "teachers" no longer seems to apply. They become "lecturers", and I think "professors" is an accepted, but unused, word.
-The set up is quite a bit like in Harry Potter, for those of you familiar with Hogwarts. I think school lasts for six years. The first four are the Standard Levels, with an exam at the end, like OWLs.
-After that you choose the A-Levels to take over the next two years, also culminating in a final exam, like NEWTs. Most people take about five.
Today I accomplished several important things with my life completely unrelated to exams.
1. I walked my passport and other identifying items to the far end of Princes St, the commercial area, about 45 minutes' worth of fast walking. There they got photocopied and soon enough I will be an official volunteer at CHSS!
2. Train tickets for my winter travels.
We've been learning in Archaeology of Scotland about a Bronze Age settlement in the Hebrides in which bog-mummified bodies were excavated from the foundations of the houses. It's some pretty crazy stuff, check it out.
Monday, October 29, 2007
More on London
Oh yeah... Sunday morning we went to the markets in the East End, where bagels (spelled beigels?) could be procured at 20p each. Tasty, cheap, and delicious.
When it began to rain we dashed into a free admission art exhibition entitled "fake plastic love", by Stuart Semple. It was weird, lots of repeated images like Andy Warhol in landscapes inspired by Dali's later works, with modern pop culture icons and vague words in bold colors. A few were easily decrypted, but for the most part Cory and I were completely mystified.
As we left the exhibit, Cory said, "I think rain is the best thing that ever happened to this exhibit."
But don't take my word for it. You can see what we saw, as "Part One" of a two-gallery exhibit, at http://fakeplasticlove.co.uk/
The text after "enter" is what is written on the back of my map, and all eleven paintings can be seen under the "large paintings" tab. Indeed, they were large---bigger than most walls I've ever seen in my life. Some weird stuff.
Also in London yesterday was an NFL game, New York Giants vs. Miami Dolphins. A little bit weird too. As I stood in King's Cross, waiting in the queue to board our train, a lot of NFL jersey -wearing fans passed through in the other direction. The first one I found odd, the rest caused me to remember, "oh yes! That's right, there's American football here today."
Saturday night/Sunday morning, we set our clocks back an hour, so there is currently only a four-hour time difference between GMT and the east coast. Amazing how much brighter it was outside at 7:30 this morning!
When it began to rain we dashed into a free admission art exhibition entitled "fake plastic love", by Stuart Semple. It was weird, lots of repeated images like Andy Warhol in landscapes inspired by Dali's later works, with modern pop culture icons and vague words in bold colors. A few were easily decrypted, but for the most part Cory and I were completely mystified.
As we left the exhibit, Cory said, "I think rain is the best thing that ever happened to this exhibit."
But don't take my word for it. You can see what we saw, as "Part One" of a two-gallery exhibit, at http://fakeplasticlove.co.uk/
The text after "enter" is what is written on the back of my map, and all eleven paintings can be seen under the "large paintings" tab. Indeed, they were large---bigger than most walls I've ever seen in my life. Some weird stuff.
Also in London yesterday was an NFL game, New York Giants vs. Miami Dolphins. A little bit weird too. As I stood in King's Cross, waiting in the queue to board our train, a lot of NFL jersey -wearing fans passed through in the other direction. The first one I found odd, the rest caused me to remember, "oh yes! That's right, there's American football here today."
Saturday night/Sunday morning, we set our clocks back an hour, so there is currently only a four-hour time difference between GMT and the east coast. Amazing how much brighter it was outside at 7:30 this morning!
Sunday, October 28, 2007
London!
This weekend I went to go visit my friend Cory, who is currently studying at UCL. I took the train both ways, which was an exciting adventure in itself because---I've never really ridden a train before. So to go from Edinburgh's Waverley Station to King's Cross in London was amazing, even though it took five hours one way and 7.5 to come back.
Friday night I got in late, and we dropped off my stuff in Cory's room, then went walking down to the Thames to see the Parliament Building and Big Ben lit up. Also because we were there around midnight, we heard Big Ben ring! Which is does every 15 minutes, but all the same.
London was a little overwhelming. It just seemed so huge and so incredibly full of people... and yet, didn't have the skyscrapers I feel comfortable with in NYC or Chicago. It was British, but in a different way than Edinburgh, and there it's not just a question of scale but also of England and Scotland, north and south.
Saturday we got up early to head over to the National Gallery, where we looked at mostly 19th century paintings... Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, my favorite genres. Pizarro, Cezanne, Monet, Renoir, Seurat, Van Gogh, Morisot, Manet, Sisley, etc, etc. Popped into the National Portrait Gallery, where the portraits of past monarchs lost my interest but the "modern" portraits were extremely interesting to look at.
St. Paul's Cathedral was a shortish walk away, but expected 8.50 quid for student admission, which we were unwilling to pay no matter how cool the Whispering Wall might be. So then it was to the British Museum, housing a lot of historical exhibits. I forgot until I was inside that it had the Elgin Marbles and lots of Egyptian artefacts. They are particularly defensive about the Elgin Marbles, and I took a pamphlet explaining why the Museum hasn't returned the marbles to Greece to read on the train.
The Elgin Marbles actually took up an entire, gigantic hall... they were placed in the approximate location as at the Parthenon. Another hall held the mural-like friezes of an Assyrian palace, depicting a royal lion hunt and military conquests. The Egyptian exhibit was extensive and I wish my camera hadn't run out of batteries at that point... I do have mixed feelings towards Britain keeping all the artefacts, but I suppose that can't be helped.
In the evening we went to a choral concert that Cory was in, then wandered around London finding grocery stores still open.Only one seemed to be, and luckily it had the pumpkins we sought for jack-o-lanterns.
Now it's back to the reality of classes and cold weather (London is several degrees warmer than the rest of Britain, and especially the windiness of Edinburgh). I'm working on getting pictures up, so be patient!
Friday night I got in late, and we dropped off my stuff in Cory's room, then went walking down to the Thames to see the Parliament Building and Big Ben lit up. Also because we were there around midnight, we heard Big Ben ring! Which is does every 15 minutes, but all the same.
London was a little overwhelming. It just seemed so huge and so incredibly full of people... and yet, didn't have the skyscrapers I feel comfortable with in NYC or Chicago. It was British, but in a different way than Edinburgh, and there it's not just a question of scale but also of England and Scotland, north and south.
Saturday we got up early to head over to the National Gallery, where we looked at mostly 19th century paintings... Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, my favorite genres. Pizarro, Cezanne, Monet, Renoir, Seurat, Van Gogh, Morisot, Manet, Sisley, etc, etc. Popped into the National Portrait Gallery, where the portraits of past monarchs lost my interest but the "modern" portraits were extremely interesting to look at.
St. Paul's Cathedral was a shortish walk away, but expected 8.50 quid for student admission, which we were unwilling to pay no matter how cool the Whispering Wall might be. So then it was to the British Museum, housing a lot of historical exhibits. I forgot until I was inside that it had the Elgin Marbles and lots of Egyptian artefacts. They are particularly defensive about the Elgin Marbles, and I took a pamphlet explaining why the Museum hasn't returned the marbles to Greece to read on the train.
The Elgin Marbles actually took up an entire, gigantic hall... they were placed in the approximate location as at the Parthenon. Another hall held the mural-like friezes of an Assyrian palace, depicting a royal lion hunt and military conquests. The Egyptian exhibit was extensive and I wish my camera hadn't run out of batteries at that point... I do have mixed feelings towards Britain keeping all the artefacts, but I suppose that can't be helped.
In the evening we went to a choral concert that Cory was in, then wandered around London finding grocery stores still open.Only one seemed to be, and luckily it had the pumpkins we sought for jack-o-lanterns.
Now it's back to the reality of classes and cold weather (London is several degrees warmer than the rest of Britain, and especially the windiness of Edinburgh). I'm working on getting pictures up, so be patient!
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