For some strange reason I had forgotten that I am still a tourist in Scotland and I am therefore able to do touristy things. And let me tell you it felt great to be a tourist again. Cheryl, our friend Delwyn and I decided to go to Stirling Castle for the day. Ever since the first time I passed Stirling on one of the Haggis tours I have wanted to go there. Not only is it a beautiful place, but also it is so full of history, deeply Scottish history. I didn't get to do all of Stirling because it was much bigger than we had thought and we didn't have as much time as we thought. Forutnately the bus only takes an hour to get there and it only costs 4.40 for a return ticket. Can't beat that for a great day out!! Speaking of great deals we bought a Historic Scotland Membership and now we get into most castles and sites around scotland for free, and half price in the UK. Not bad!! (Not to mention we get money off in the gift shops).
Despite being rather similar to Edinburgh Castle, the history of it makes up for any similarities, as does the view from the castle. Off to one side is the city, another way is flat farm land, and yet another side gives you an amazing view of some fabulous mountains, some of which were snow capped!! It was amazing! Even the history of the castle was interesting, and all of the renovations taking place to get the castle back to it's original beauty are quite interesting. I dont' think it's worth going into a castle unless you get some sort of guided tour. You just learn so much more, even just about the architecture. There is so much that you wouldn't even think to look at. I can't even begin to describe it. Oh also from the castle we could see the Stirling bridge. This is the famous site where William Wallace fought off the English Army (Braveheart does the man such a horrible injustice), using that bridge. Near the mountains you can see the Wallace Monument, which is just outside the city, and a bit of a hike. Now this is one of the places that we didn't make it to, but definitely will be going back for it.
Luckily for us it was a beautiful day and we just wandered the city, than of course being female we had to go and do a little shopping. There was a great shopping centre just outiside of the bus station. We also wandered the Holy Rude Church grave yard which contained some really old gravestones. Sorry Laura, no ghosts.
The taste of tourism from Stirling has certainly reminded me of why I came and now I am planning trips, some things just even within Edinburgh. With my membership came a book and I didn't realize how many castles were in Edinburgh. We are also planning a trip out to London for St. Patty's day weekend, we screwed up our chances to go to Dublin, so we decided to go the other way. I'm very excited about that. I've spent the day looking for all sorts of different things for us to do. We are also starting to plan, slowly but surely, our backpacking trip that we will be taking when we are finished working here. I'm finally putting the holiday back into my working holdiay!!!
(I know I'm a loser)
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