Day 12 Mom's trip, Friday 10 April

Continuing onward...

I'd swapped to work on Wednesday so that I could have Good Friday off, so Wed mom had to entertain herself but in the evening we traipsed across the Tay to Broughty Ferry so that mom could meet my friends Dave and Catriona, the couple who have opened their home to hosting me any time I need to escape St Andrews. We took Dave to dinner and then when Catriona got home from work we all chatted for a while in the conservatory until probably close to 10:30/11pm. They were on my list of must-meets, so I was glad we could squeeze in some time (with a minister) during the crazy Easter Week!

Thursday again I was in the shop, but I had decided the one walk I really wanted to take my mom on before we left town was the Lade Braes. Unfortunately, when I got home (and when she got home), I found she'd just come back from exploring along that path. I "sulked" (very jokingly), and then decided I still wanted to go for a walk - having been standing in the shop all day, so I took us back out on the path. Oddly enough, while we can't exactly trace where mom went off it, she had not walked the majority of the Lade Braes, so off we went for what turned into a 2hr walk instead of a mere 30 minute stroll while I showed her my favorite spots all along the path that I regularly run and walk on. The last of the daffodils were still out as were the bluebells, the trees were just breaking into green and some even starting to flower, so it was a perfect time to be on the trail! And I was glad I got to show it to her!

So, that brings us to Friday -- I'd originally planned to stick close to St Andrews and go to the 3hr Good Friday afternoon service, but then we changed plans and hit the road after all. We headed south toward Edinburgh, and on the way finally stopped at a castle that I have glimpsed from the highway only every now and again, sitting on an island in the middle of a loch. Having found it on our map and seeing it was on our way, we decided to stop at Loch Leven Castle. This was where Mary Queen of Scots was imprisoned for a year (1567/68, by the Scots who were no longer so pleased with her - and whence she escaped to throw herself on the dubious mercy of Queen Elizabeth, who merely imprisoned her in the Tower), but as I just discovered, earlier she'd debated John Knox in this castle over how Catholics should be treated. Ah, history! =) This website makes for an interesting read about the castle. The island used to be much smaller, but about 125 years ago they drained some of the loch to create more farmland, and in the process also about tripled the size of the island.

It is very well situated with a beautiful view, even on a traditional grey Scottish day!

From the castle walls - which used to be right down by the loch!

Looking out the window, we could see the ferry coming back and so, rather than spend another 30 minutes on the island waiting for its next round, since we were nearly done, we went ahead and headed back with it.

Looking at the castle shortly after launching....

And on our way back. You can see how it fades into the landscape, which explains why I've only noticed it occasionally on my trips past Loch Leven - the sun has to be shining on it just right for it to really stand out.

From here we kept heading south, round past Edinburgh and picked up what we'd intended mom's first day: Rosslyn Chapel. Now, ever since the Da Vinci Code came out, I haven't wanted to go as much -- too popular, too touristy! But I'm glad we did, it was well worth it! Even better, we made it for the final 10 minutes of their Easter Vigil - enough time for a brief bit of silent prayer and then the final benedictions. That was a special moment!

I didn't get any pictures of the whole chapel because I was startled to see an ugly roofing placed over the whole church -- turns out it's only temporary and will leaving in about another year, but is helping the porous sandstone dry out so that they can re-roof it properly and help preserve the chapel. Nor could I take any pictures inside, sadly, but at least compared to Durham they had better postcards! The carvings were phenomenal and well worth seeing, but literally nothing described in The Da Vinci Code is in the poor chapel - none of these intricate mysteries, no hollow pillars, no 6-pointed stars (for the movie they had to paste one up, which left a mark that they now call the "Hollywood spot." There was a man giving essentially a lecture/introduction to the chapel and he was fascinating, but I could tell his talk has had to change in the last 5 years to subtly but consistently debunking The Da Vinci Code rather than simply introducing the chapel! Every possible surface is carved, and sometimes things -- like Jesus peeking over the roof-ledge -- are hidden and involve really looking! The story of the Master's Pillar and the Apprentice Pillar is quite sad, as the Master is said to have murdered his apprentice out of jealousy after the latter's pillar was far more stunning and dynamic than the former's. The pillars are beautiful craftsmanship, but the Apprentice one is the one that somehow lives much more dramatically. On the whole, the chapel is fun, beautiful and interesting -- on its own terms! The one neat thing with the scaffolding up is that -- only for another year or so -- you can walk around the outside at roof level! And here I could actually take photos, too!

The roof actually has a lot of intricate carvings as well - although they are a bit more worn.

The ruins of Rosslyn (Roslin) Castle, much loved by the Romantics.

From here we went back in time again and drove West to the narrowest part of the country, and after somehow completely missing our road and only finding it (quite easily, of course) on the way back, we visited an impressive section of the Antonine Wall. It was only in use for about 20 years from about 142-162, before the Romans had to return back to Hadrian's Wall, and as such it was never quite as stable a wall - built more out of turf as well as stones. Still, this section was impressive in its own right, and we thoroughly enjoyed walking along it as well as we pondered both how defensible it would be against rabid Picts and Scots as well as enjoying the powerlines and trains all around us.

The wall, with the ditch in front of it.

Across the "Roman Tree Burn" (yes, we have no idea what that means either!) was the fort.

In front of the fort and other places all along the wall were these holes that would have been filled with sharp sticks and then covered over to look innocuous.

Down at the burn (stream), with the powerlines in the background -- the Historic Scotland blurb was quite feisty about those lines and how they destroy the setting! They were rather intrusive (and these were not the worst!)

One of our favorite signs... From here on we warned each other of "ponding" at regular intervals or debated whether a section qualified as "water logged ground" or actual "ponding"... =D

After this, we hopped back into the car, somehow ended up on a different road back (from which we saw the Falkirk Wheel, still to be visited...! I'm waiting to take Peoria Peter since I think it would fascinating with an engineer!), found our road and zoomed back to St Andrews so that we could go to an evening service at Holy Trinity - a service of largely medieval and renaissance music - absolutely beautiful and a good way to end this Good Friday.