UADarthmaul's Travels: UK 5: The final castle, the final hill, and a few museums

Today was the only sunny day of Scotland. It was also the coldest. We started the day by going back to Craigmillar Castle. I loved the way the sun was leaking through the clouds, and spent some time taking pictures from different angles around the castle. Unfortunately, at one point I pressed something on the camera that made every picture for the rest of the day appear washed out and brighter(+.03).

The castle was open to exploration and there were very few people there. Of note, was a family bringing a westie dog throughout the castle. A westie is short for the west highland white terrier, a Scottish breed. I'd not known before that it was a Scottish dog. Anyhow, I thought it was really cool that you are allowed to bring dogs through castles here. It seems to be more common to allow dogs places in Europe, as I recall the dogs allowed in Van Gogh's former home. In southern Florida, you are not even allowed to bring your dogs into the county parks, which is ludicrous.

Next, we took a bus to a local sword maker, to check out their Scottish swords, which I thought Miles would get a kick out of. Unfortunately, they are open every day during the week, but not on weekends. Right nearby was our next stop, Calton Hill.

Calton Hill has a monument to Horatio Nelson, who also has a statue made of him, which is fetured in Trafalgar Square. We did not climb the monument. Instead, we walked around,admired the views, and Miles climbed the National Monument. The National Monument was attempted to be built in honor of Scottish soldiers who died during the Napoleonic Wars. The city ran out of funding, leading it to be called Edinburgh's Disgrace. They've attempted to complete it in as early as 1901 and as lately as 2004.

We walked down a path of stairs that led beneath the train tracks, and back into our part of town. We took brief stops at the People's Story Museum and the Edinburgh Museum, before going to the National Museum of Scotland. Luckily, they were all free.

The Edinburgh Museum had an interesting piece about how although tartan(scottish plaid) had been banned since the Jacobite Rebellion, in 1822, Sir Walter Scott encouraged Scots to wear their colors to greet the king. This made tartan popular again.

The National Museum was very large. Miles spent a lot of time with the interactive science exhibits. At one point, he watched a teenager do a game involving reaction time. It was a wall with different colored lights in different positions. You had a certain amount of time to press the buttons as they lit up. The teen got 35. Miles went next. After Miles was done, I took off my jacket, handed him my camera, and showed Miles how it was done. I got 38. Only the red light gave me troubles.

We briefly walked through the Scottish history section. By the time we had reached the animal and dinosaur area, we were all a bit bored, tired, and hungry.