Stirling: Day Two

''Scots, wha hae wi' Wallace bled,
Scots, wham Bruce has aften led,
Welcome to your gory bed,
Or to victory.''

We had a wonderful meal at the hotel last night, a beef curry and a steak pie along with fried brie and chicken pate. Afterwards, exhausted from the rain and drive, we took advantage of the lovely bath and retired early. Today we awoke refreshed to see sunshine streaming in through the windows. After a tasty breakfast at the hotel buffet, we wandered up the winding cobbled streets toward the castle. The sun was earnestly trying to maintain its supremacy over the intruding storm clouds, but it occasionally lost its hold to sprinkles.

Along our path to the castle lie the Old Town Jail, so we stopped for a tour to avoid the rain. It was a fantastic decision, as each part of the tour was wonderful. The character guides were funny and informative, and although the Tollbooth jailer took a special glee in branding Melody, putting her in a manacle, stripping her, flogging her and affixing her ear with a rusty nail to a swinging wooden door, at least DJ enjoyed the show (it was mainly just a thorough description of his plans, but the manacle did chafe my neck a bit and I have an active imagination). The next guide was a reformer who transported the prisoners to a new jail (the Old Town Jail) that emphasized hard work, education, and rehabilitation. Discipline and isolation were the keys to the success of the program. Women were assigned all domestic duties in the jail, while men were given trade and literacy training. Interestingly, if you were literate and knew a trade, the work given to you was the hardest and most menial of labor, on the theory, you should’ve known better, and thus, could not really be reformed. Just hypothetically, I cannot help but wonder what difference it would make if “white collar” prisons in the U.S. took this attitude. To finish off the tour, we were rewarded with great views of the city from the top of the old Jail as well as a small vocabulary lesson in jail and Romani (Edinburgh) slang. Incidentally, we also learned that most of the floors of the jail are now city offices, so these civil servants are not using hyperbole when they refer to their cubicles as cells.

After being released from the jail, we ambled upward, stopping along the way at the Church of the Holy Rude. This kirk is the only other active church in the UK in which a coronation of a sovereign of the United Kingdom occurred. James VI, Mary Queen of Scots’ son, was crowned in this church in 1603 when Elizabeth I died without an heir. He was in direct line to both the Tudor and Stuart thrones as a result of the marriage of the Thistle (James IV) and the Rose (Margaret Tudor)100 years earlier. The church is lovely, with 500 year old gorgeous stone columns and hand-hewn oak ceiling. The history commemorated in plaques on the wall was also interesting, and included one for the Highlanders at Argyle and Sunderland. After snapping a few shots, we returned to the upward Wynd toward Stirling Castle.

Upon buying our entry tickets, we found that the next guided tour started in 40 minutes. Since our Old Town Jail tour had been so fun, we had a coffee and waited for it to begin. We were not disappointed. While waiting for our guide, we got to listen in on the beginning of the “kiddie” tour, and got a medieval vocabulary lesson to go along with our jail slang and Romani lesson from earlier. Once our tour started, we were given a great idea of the political and architectural significance of the castle. The guide painted a compelling picture of the political significance of Stirling Castle to Scotland, but my favorite part was when we were able to visualize the still grand edifice as it had been in the 1500s. The “King’s Gold” color, extraordinarily high four conical towers flanking the entry gate, and the symmetrical front wall and square corner towers must have been a sight to see. After a stop in the gift shop, we wound our way back down the hill toward the hotel, stopping along the way at Nicky Tam’s Pub for a lunch of Steak and Ale Pie and grilled sirloin. Back at the hotel, we drank the better part of one of the gifts we bought, had a light supper and settled in for the night.

A couple of quick words of thanks: we arrived in Stirling to find that we were in desperate financial straits. Some bad luck with bills, exchange rates and the freezing of much of our money by the rental car company, had left us unsure if we’d be able to pay for our hotel and car. What are thirty-somethings to do when they get in this kind of trouble? Call their parents!! Thanks to our folks (who funded most of this trip in the first place) we’re able to afford our, rather lovely, hotel and continue with our trip. They may very well be pondering annulling the marriage, sending Mel to a nunnery and me to a debtor’s prison, but they really came through. Thanks Folks! Also, we mentioned in yesterday’s post that we’d encountered some high wind and heavy rain on the drive down. We assumed that this was normal weather for the highlands. Turns out, we were driving in some of the worst storms ever to hit Scotland, with winds up to 100 mph. So, not only have we conquered roundabouts, but also nature! Still to come: The Wallace Monument, Old Stirling Bridge, and Bannockburn. Also, will the Iceland volcano disrupt our travel plans and force us to relocate, permanently, to Scotland. If so, can we borrow some more cash?

More communications to follow...