Long days = full schedule!

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

We woke up to rain and thunder (apparently a rarity here, but I have heard it on two different occasions now!), which put a damper on out plans to visit a quaint fishing village on the coast. We reorganized and decided to visit the Edinburgh Castle with the photojournalism class. Here is a mix of students (not all of them) waiting to go in the castle.

An immortal knight guarding the castle entry.











The castle houses a small city within its walls. These next two pictures are of the buildings w/in the castle.












Stained glass window in Royal apartments showing royal symbols. The Scottish version of the Royal coat of arms shows the lion of Scotland in the first and fourth quarters, with the French fleur de lis in the second (today the English lion is in the second). The harp of Ireland is in the third quarter. The shield is under the crown, and they are surrounded by a circle of thistles (the flower of Scotland).

Here is the modern coat of arms of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II:











Queen Mary (of Scots) chapel. This is now a shrine to her.












Stained glass window commemorating William Wallace in Queen Mary's Chapel.












A cannon's view of the city. This is a working castle, there are active military troops here, although I saw few of them. They fire a modern "cannon" off everyday at noon, and the Scots set their watches by this....we all did yesterday since we have spent the last week or so being +/- 10 minutes off from one another!



The castle was packed with people and the weather turned sunny and warm. It was a nice day to be out and about. I didn't even see all there was to see at the castle, it was too big and I wanted to take my class to another site...the ruins of Holyrood Abbey where Queen Mary of Scots was married (one of the times she was married). That didn't work out as planned, so I took my students on a jaunt around the city and ended up at a nearly left alone castle, Craigmillar Castle. But, more on that later. (it is now Thursday morning) I have to get to breakfast because we have to catch a train to see a palace and a castle this morning before a tour of the Royal Commission on Ancient and Historic Mounments this afternoon!

Happy Longest Day of Summer!!!!!!!