Edinburgh Castle
Door: Samantha de Bruijn
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Samantha
10 Oktober 2010 | Verenigd Koninkrijk, Glasgow
Since Edinburgh is quite easy to get to once you are in Glasgow city centre, we decided to have a look in Edinburgh Castle on Saturday the 18th of September. Glasgow to Edinburgh is only about 50 minutes by train. We arrived at Edinburgh Waverley station, which is the main railway station in Edinburgh and the second-largest railway station in the UK. There were even cars passing through the station!
The castle is quite close to the city centre of Edinburgh. I think it was about a 20 minutes walk from the station to the castle, but since we arrived in Edinburgh around lunchtime, we headed towards a lunchroom first. The first lunchroom we saw was the Fruitmarket Gallery. It looked quite ok, but once we were in, it turned out to be quite an expensive place to lunch. As part of the art collection, there was a piano staircase, which made some noise when you stood on it. Every stairstep up made a tone that was a little bit higher than the previous one. We even thought about trying to do 'Für Elise' with the three of us, but decided to leave without annoying the people in the rest of the lunchroom.
On our way to the castle we went into what we thought was a normal tourist shop. It turned out to be a normal tourist shop as well as a kiltmakers and weavers exhibition and a place were they sold kilts, scarfs, socks, etcetera from all different Scottish clans. You could also try them on and they would make a photo of you (in exchange for what we thought were too many pounds).
Edinburgh Castle is not owned by the National Trust of Scotland, but by the Historic Scotland, so we couldn't use our membership card and had to pay like any other person. Well, we did have some discount, because we are students, of course. When we arrived at the castle, we had to wait for a quarter of an hour before they would start a guided tour. The guide didn't take us into the castle, but pointed out several things around the castle and told us a little bit of history about it. Which was actually quite nice, because afterwards we could have a look in the castle on our own. There were not that many rooms inside the castle were we could have a look, but there was a hall and there were, of course, some dungeons/prisons. There was also a little room where Mary, Queen of Scots gave birth to her only son: James. She was forced to abdicate due to religious reasons, of course and gave the title to her son. James was crowned James VI King of Scots when he was only 13 months old and he later became James I King of England and Ireland as well.
Edinburgh Castle is also the place where they keep the crown jewels of Scotland, also called 'Honours of Scotland'. There is a crown, a sword and a sceptre. Nowadays the jewels are not longer used for official crowning ceremonies. There was also an exhibition about the history of the jewels. Why there is a sword and a sceptre, how the crown got its shape and stories about the many times people had tried to steal it and how they kept avoiding that.
There were also some museums around the castle, but we didn't really feel like visiting them. There were mostly about the Scottish Army. After leaving the castle grounds, we acted like a tourist and visited some tourist shops. They are actually all the same, but nevertheless it was fun to have a look around. We finished our trip by going out to dinner in Edinburgh and taking the train back home.
Love, Samantha
------------------
Photos: http://s1046.photobucket.com/home/MathildeCastelijns/allalbums
The Fruitmarket Gallery: http://fruitmarket.co.uk/
The Tartan Weaving Mill: http://www.edinburgh-royalmile.com/interest/tartanweavingmill.html and http://www.geoffreykilts.co.uk/
Edinburgh Castle: http://www.edinburghcastle.gov.uk/
Crown jewels: http://www.rampantscotland.com/edinburgh/bledin_crown.htm
The castle is quite close to the city centre of Edinburgh. I think it was about a 20 minutes walk from the station to the castle, but since we arrived in Edinburgh around lunchtime, we headed towards a lunchroom first. The first lunchroom we saw was the Fruitmarket Gallery. It looked quite ok, but once we were in, it turned out to be quite an expensive place to lunch. As part of the art collection, there was a piano staircase, which made some noise when you stood on it. Every stairstep up made a tone that was a little bit higher than the previous one. We even thought about trying to do 'Für Elise' with the three of us, but decided to leave without annoying the people in the rest of the lunchroom.
On our way to the castle we went into what we thought was a normal tourist shop. It turned out to be a normal tourist shop as well as a kiltmakers and weavers exhibition and a place were they sold kilts, scarfs, socks, etcetera from all different Scottish clans. You could also try them on and they would make a photo of you (in exchange for what we thought were too many pounds).
Edinburgh Castle is not owned by the National Trust of Scotland, but by the Historic Scotland, so we couldn't use our membership card and had to pay like any other person. Well, we did have some discount, because we are students, of course. When we arrived at the castle, we had to wait for a quarter of an hour before they would start a guided tour. The guide didn't take us into the castle, but pointed out several things around the castle and told us a little bit of history about it. Which was actually quite nice, because afterwards we could have a look in the castle on our own. There were not that many rooms inside the castle were we could have a look, but there was a hall and there were, of course, some dungeons/prisons. There was also a little room where Mary, Queen of Scots gave birth to her only son: James. She was forced to abdicate due to religious reasons, of course and gave the title to her son. James was crowned James VI King of Scots when he was only 13 months old and he later became James I King of England and Ireland as well.
Edinburgh Castle is also the place where they keep the crown jewels of Scotland, also called 'Honours of Scotland'. There is a crown, a sword and a sceptre. Nowadays the jewels are not longer used for official crowning ceremonies. There was also an exhibition about the history of the jewels. Why there is a sword and a sceptre, how the crown got its shape and stories about the many times people had tried to steal it and how they kept avoiding that.
There were also some museums around the castle, but we didn't really feel like visiting them. There were mostly about the Scottish Army. After leaving the castle grounds, we acted like a tourist and visited some tourist shops. They are actually all the same, but nevertheless it was fun to have a look around. We finished our trip by going out to dinner in Edinburgh and taking the train back home.
Love, Samantha
------------------
Photos: http://s1046.photobucket.com/home/MathildeCastelijns/allalbums
The Fruitmarket Gallery: http://fruitmarket.co.uk/
The Tartan Weaving Mill: http://www.edinburgh-royalmile.com/interest/tartanweavingmill.html and http://www.geoffreykilts.co.uk/
Edinburgh Castle: http://www.edinburghcastle.gov.uk/
Crown jewels: http://www.rampantscotland.com/edinburgh/bledin_crown.htm
Reageer op dit reisverslag
Je kunt nu ook Smileys gebruiken. Via de toolbar, toetsenbord of door eerst : te typen en dan een woord bijvoorbeeld :smiley
