Edinburgh Day 1: A whole new country

So, the UK may not be particularly big but it is really long and a trip of north takes much longer than one to one of the numerous things to see in the south. Finally for my second to last week in the UK I headed into the rainy rainy north. The first stop was Edinburgh. I got up at 5 fir my early train so I could get into town with as much time a possible. Of course, my first train was late and I ended up nearly yelling at the guy working at the ticket counter in London and getting into Edinburgh an hour later than planned. When I reached Edinburgh, it was grey and pouring rain. I headed out from my hostel for Edinburgh Castle but didn't take out my map to protect it from the rain. Slightly later and slightly turned around, I decided to duck into the first tourist attraction I could find as long as it was dry. This urned out to be St. Giles' Cathedral, the high Kirk of Edinburgh. It was founded in the 12th century and is the principle church of the Church of Scotland. Interestingly, while the Queen is head of the Church of England, she does not head the church of Scotland. The Thistle Chapel (chapel of The Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle, Scotland's foremost Order of Chivalry) in the cathedral is fairly modern but quite pretty. I wont go into too many details about the Cathedral, but I do especially like the top outside bit which looks rather like a crown to me.

statue of John Knox

Next up was John Knox House, where John Knox did very briefly live. Here, I learned all about the Scottish Protestant Reformer and his dislike of three Catholic Marys (Mary of Guise, Mary Tudor and Mary Queen of Scots). Partly due to Knox, the Church if Scotland is Presbyterian rather than Anglican or Roman Catholic.

John Know and I being angry and Protestant

Next I went to the People's Story a lovey and free (even better!) museum about the people of Edinburgh and their historically mostly poor living conditions. They had lots of mannequins about. It was fun.

By this time, most of the museums and things were closed, but of course it didn't get dark until at least 9 and I felt I should take advantage of this. so I just wandered around for an hour or so, getting to know Edinburgh before heading back tot the hostel to plan day 2 and incidentally getting talked into going to the nearby pub with 4 of the people in my 6 bed dorm.

Adam Smith near St. Giles

I asked two different people to take a picture of me with the statue. Neither seemed to instinctively grasp that a) I wanted the statue in the picture not just the name and b) you can actually turn my camera around to be vertical. I tried a tactful, "ah maybe one a bit wider. No success. Finally on the last day I gave up.

Castle. in the fog and rain. also its on a volcano. More on day 2!

Wye Wales

Exams are over so its time for a quick couple trips before heading back to Austin. This week, I went to Cardiff for a night. I was off remarkably late (the train ticket price dropped around 10 am) to Cardiff on Thursday and arrived around 2:30. After dropping off my bag at the hostel, I headed straight to Cardiff Castle. The castle was originally the site of a Roman fort and incorporates some of the Roman walls. The first keep, on a motte surrounded by a moat was built in 1091. The castle also includes an elaborate Victorian mansion commissioned by the Marquess of Bute. The rooms are gorgeous and each has a theme and often many references to the family's Catholicism. Both the older keep and newer mansion are pretty awesome. The castle complex is also pretty huge so I was there fr several hours.





By the time I finished in the castle, everything had closed. But these days it stays light outside until around 9. So, trying to make the most of my time in Cardiff I wandered around the city. I went by the city hall and Alexandra Gardens and wandered by the Millennium stadium, which is pretty modern-looking. Finally, I headed back to the hostel.




My next day in Cardiff I had booked an all day tour of the Wye Valley. Lucky I choose the company I did because a number of people joined us who had originally booked another tour company but their guide had cancelled it because his wife was going into labor. The tour was very nice even though I wasn't particularly fa into Wales, in fact we headed back towards England. Our first stop was Chepstow Castle in Monmouthshire by the River Wye. Built in 1067, today it is the oldest Norman stone castle. It also is home of the oldest Castle gates in Europe.




Next we visited Tintern Abbey, which is amazing. The Cistercian abbey was founded in 1131 but like many churches was destroyed by Henry VIII. The ruins though are so cool. The abbey is know for inspiring William Wordsworth's poem "Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey", Alfred, Lord Tennyson's"Tears, Idle Tears", and painting by Turner. It really is great.








After a quick lunch stop, we were off to a lookout spot in the forest of dean called Symonds Yat. From there we could see pretty far into Wales on one side and England on the other. It was really cool to get to see some of the countryside. At the viewpoint where we stopped there were also a bunch of people with binoculars who were watching a pair of peregrines near the cliff. They very nicely let us all look through their binoculars and told us about the peregrines. We also might have see one flying, we definitely saw some kind of predator bird gliding. It was nice to see some of the forest although we didn't stay longer enough for any patronuses to lead us to hidden swords, as is apt to happen in the Forest of Dean (and J.K. Rowling would know, she grew up around the Wye Valley).


Finally, we went to a town called Caerleon, which translates to 'Fort of the Legions'. Unsurprisingly this was the site of a Roman garrison. They had a little museum of Roman finds from the area, Roman baths, and an amphitheatre. The baths weren't as impressive as those in Bath and unlike them would have been cold. The remains of the amphitheatre though, were pretty cool and we walked around it for a while even through it started raining on us.


The tour was great and I got back to Cardiff just in time to have dinner and catch the train back to Brighton, Unfortunately one of the trains was a little late causing me to miss my other connecting trains and so I didn't get back to campus until after 1 am. Still totally worth it.

Lily goes to Lewes

Falmer is about as far from the town of Lewes as it is from Brighton. However, until recently I hadn't been to Lewes. Lewes isn't particularly big or exciting they have a nice little castle and an old house that was owned but not occupied by Anne of Cleves (Henry VIII's wife #4) after her divorce/annulment. This, of course I knew. But, as I sat watching the short video on Lewes in the Castle's museum I was shocked when they referred to a Tom Paine who influenced the American and and French revolutions and lived in Lewes. "Wait!" I exclaimed internally to myself (I do try not to shout things out load in public) "Thomas Paine, Common Sense?" Yes. From 1768 to 1774, Thomas Paine lived in Lewes, was involved with civic life, debated politics and married his landlord's daughter, Elizabeth. Goes to show, you never know when you will run into somewhat briefly lived in by someone famous. Here are some pics of Lewes.

sign at the castle

I attempt to both shoot a crossbow and take a picture of myself shooting a crossbow.

view of Lewes

Oh yeah 'ol Thom Paine lived just over there