Big Game, Royalty and Graves

Well it was the “Big Game”. Of course, I am not speaking of the Superbowl, that is not even mentioned over here. In fact, in the sport’s section of the national newspaper the Superbowl was not even referenced until page 13.

Instead, the big game is France vs Scotland in the Rugby Cup of Six Nations. It has been talked about all week. As we walked the streets on Sunday morning, the streets were packed with both Frenchman and Scots in their national colors, headed to the game, which was being held in Edinburgh. Most of the revelers had been hitting the Scotch since quite early in the morning. All the Scot’s fans were wearing their kilts, and the French had painted their faces (and bodies) with the French flag. We saw a french woman (at least 70) with her face painted. We also found another group of very, very inebriated French dressed as chickens. Lisa asked why they were dressed as chickens. They corrected her, and said they were “cocks,” the French team’s mascot. There were at least 50 cocks walking down the street together. (btw- the French won). Still no mention of the Superbowl.

Over the last couple of days we have seen many other of the sites of this great city.

We started with Holyrood Palace. This is the official residence of the Royal family, and has been for centuries. Not only did Mary, Queen of Scots live here, but this is also the place where Queen Elizabeth II still stays when she visits the capital city. She was here over the summer.

Next to the Holyrood Palace is the new Scottish Parliament. Parliament in Scotland was dissolved in 1707, as the United Kingdom was officially formed. All official UK government business was done in London. Ever since, the Scots wanted their own say in government. It was not until 1999, (over 200 years later) that the Scots were allowed to reopen their own Parliament, with limited powers.

Walking through the Royal mile you pass several old graveyards. Each has at least one person of fame buried there. We saw the grave of Adam Smith and also the grave of philosopher David Hume (basically it was a Western Civ class of graves). Also, I never had any clue how many great thinkers/writers were from or lived in Edinburgh. Walter Scott is the big name here for his writing. He has a gigantic monument at the center of town. Ben became interested when we visited the Writers Museum. He bought a copy of Ivanhoe.

You then have Robert Louis Stevenson (Treasure Island), writer Robert Burns, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Sherlock Holmes), Adam Smith, David Hume, Alexander Graham Bell, James Watt (stream power engine that started the industrial revolution), Tony Blair, up to JK Rowling. And they have Scotch! Not bad for a capital city of 500,000.

We went to a very cheesy exhibit on the Loch Ness Monster. It was pretty badly done, but the kids seemed to like it. I was hoping it would be a little more fun (where was my Scotch?). The Loch Ness is just north of Edinburgh in the Highlands.

We visited a couple of the National Museums (art and history). The history museum was ok, just very confusing to follow. It however had great artifacts from the history of Scotland. Secondly, we went to the National Art Museum. It was a medium sized gallery full of some famous non-Scottish masters such as Di Vinci, Rembrandt, Van Dyck, Boticelli, Cezanne, Monet, etc. First time my kids had ever seen any works from some of the most well known artists in history.  

We attended our first English spoken Mass since we arrived. It was at the Catholic Cathedral of St. Mary’s. St. Andrew is the patron saint of Scotland (no, he is just not a golf course), so this cathedral had a couple of relics of his (a shoulder bone, etc).

Finally, we visited another old site that had two items of interest. It is a church (Greyfriars Kirk) where a document ( The National Covenant) was issued and basically outlawed Catholicism (at the height of the reformation 1638). Also, there sits a grave with a unique legend. When merchant John Gray died, he had a two year old dog who followed the funeral procession into the cemetery. The dog, Greykirk Bobby, was so distraught that his master died that he laid on the grave for 14 years. Then he died at the age of 16. Bobby is now buried next to his master and a plaque which talks about the importance of loyalty and dedication (fun story and legend).

We all loved our four days in Scotland. It is a place we could really get used to. Lisa loves how everyone says “Cheers” as you depart. The people were very nice and of course it has a great familiarity with the things we are used to at home.

Off to Dublin for the second half of our holiday. As Ben mentioned to us today, we are headed for our seventh non-US country since September (my 8eighth).