EUROPE PICS 2: SCOTLAND

Some more pics from the European tour/vacation. After playing two shows in Ireland, we left our cushy promoter provided hotel rooms, took a ferry to Scotland and moved into a two bunk bed room at a hostel. It was dorm-like living, four adults, one shower, no frills living. So we spent little time in our rooms and much time seeing the city of Edinburgh (pronounced Edinborough).



The Globetrotter Inn - a hostel actually - we shared with dozens of bearded college students on vacation. A pretty nice place, just without the amenities of a hotel. It's a bed, a shower and two pieces of toast, jelly and cereal for breakfast...for very very cheap. And right on the coast.





My picture of the Edinburgh Castle from far away didn't turn out so well so I scooped this one from the internet. You get the idea though. It's a big ole castle on a hill overlooking the city.





From one of the many layers of the castle. I can't imagine being a foot soldier with only a sword, storming gigantic wall after wall during the Lang Siege. The Lang Siege is a year long attack on the castle that was the result of a religious argument. Queen Mary of Scotland was Catholic but married a protestant James Hepburn in 1567. Much of the Protestant nobles rebelled against her. She ran away to England/was taken as a prisoner to England. Her son, the infant James, become the new King of Scotland - King James VI. A few nobles remained loyal to Queen Mary and they held the castle until 1572 when King James (actually his regent) asked Queen Elizabeth of England for back up (she's Mary's cousin and a Protestant). Mary's cousin the Queen sent England's heavy guns to the castle and the already year-long siege ended ten days later in 1573. Mary was ultimately convicted of treason, , a charge brought by Elizabeth, and was beheaded in England in 1587. She's now buried with her rival cousin in Westminster Abbey.





The view of Edinburgh from the castle.





A chapel inside the castle decorated with images of nobles like WIlliam Wallace and Robert the Bruce.





The castle was used in part as a prison in the 1700s. Inmates from many countries and from Scotland were housed there and given a ration of food and clothing. But the Americans got less than any of them. They were considered pirates, people with citizenship in a nation not recognized as legitimate at the time. Doors from the prison have been preserved, complete with graffiti carved by inmates. This is an American flag left behind by a "pirate."




Again, my pictures aren't so hot. Pics of London are next.