Maya's Adventures Abroad: Stirling

Last Tuesday, I waited in line for two hours to make sure Lane and I got tickets to go to Stirling. It's an hour outside of Edinburgh and is strategically the most important city in old Scottish warfare. Alexander Smith, a Scottish poet, said, "Stirling, like a huge brooch, clasps Highlands and Lowlands together." It has a lot of history because of the different Scottish and English kings who have tried to conquer it. Mary, Queen of Scots, and all the Stewarts spent time here. Her son James was born and baptized here.

We got there around 10:30 on Saturday morning. Our castle tour time was not until 12:30, so we wandered around the old town, which still has many of its medieval buildings. We spent the entire day in a slight drizzle and all our views were of fog, but Stirling has been my favorite trip thus far.

The old church had an exhibit on the importance of the King James's Bible. This is the Church where James IV of Scotland (aka James I of England) was crowned King of Scotland. It was called the Church of the Holy Rude:

Bowling greens were common in medieval Europe:

We went by the old town jail, where you can pay over ten quid to "be a prisoner":

Then we got lunch! We stopped at the Old Town Cafe, which advertised a pancake special. Lane got potato pancakes, essentially latkas, and I got regular pancakes, essentially crepes:

So delicious! I can't wait to get to Paris to eat more food like this.

We headed to the castle after lunch. This is me with a statue of Robert the Bruce:

Once William Wallace resigned as guardian of Scotland, Robert the Bruce took over and continued the fight against the English.

Inside the castle, we first saw Queen Anne's garden:

All the plant life here is so bright from all the rain! It was a beautiful garden, despite the dreary weather.

The cloud of fog surrounded the castle and had a magical effect. This was the view from the Ladies' Lookout:

This castle was full of unicorns! The Scottish kings used lions for bravery and unicorns for purity and nobility on their coat of arms. The king and queen's chambers were full of painted and woven unicorns:

I actually tried to find a unicorn souvenir at the gift shop, but I soon realized how tacky unicorn souvenirs inevitably are. They were all pictures of the tapestries or stuffed unicorns covered in glitter with butterflies coming out of their head.

We went through the kitchens, where they were making a feast for the re-enactors. The most interesting thing I learned? 1 Scottish pint is equal to three English pints. This was mainly important when measuring ale:

Next, we took a bus to the William Wallace monument. Once you get there, you climb a fairly steep hill. Then you have to climb the tower, which has a 246 step staircase. The challenge is that it's a spiral staircase and people are going in both directions. Not a good idea!