I’m going to change it up and start with a picture, because we checked into our CASTLE this evening. Yes, it is a castle, and yes, it is amazing. Here’s the view from our window. The room is massive and gorgeous. The restaurant is in the dungeon full of knight’s armour, and the other restaurant is a sun room overlooking the river and fields. Very, very pretty!
We had quite the informative day with the history lessons going through our tours today. First on the list was Stirling Castle which is where part of the story of Braveheart takes place with William Wallace defending Scotland from the English at the Stirling Castle. A battle occurred very close to the castle since Stirling was a huge hub of commerce back in the day. Basically if you’ve seen the movie, forget everything you think you know about William Wallace. I’ve never seen it, so it was all new info to me. Kevin likes the movie, but he was well aware that it was a fabricated story.
Next we visited the Falkirk Wheel. This is a serious piece of architecture built to transport boats between two different canals instead of using the lock system. It’s one of a kind… youtube it. It’s pretty neat.
Lastly we went to Linlithgow Palace which was very, very pretty. All of the castles we’ve seen so far including Stirling Castle today were built for conflict. The main features of the castles were defense posts. This palace was built for luxury for the king. Of course the King and Queen had many different palaces all around Scotland (and England if you were King James), so this wasn’t that unique. But it was very interesting and beautiful to walk through. Oh yeah, and we read an account of the War of 1812 from the Scottish/English side. Interestingly enough, it said that the battle this regiment was involved in was a complete disaster and the Americans “mowed them over”. Usually when a country loses a war/battle, they just don’t talk about it. At least that is the US’s way of teaching history…
That pretty much sums up today…
William Wallace Monument photographed from the top of Stirling Castle. We decided not to tour this one, but it is definitely pretty!
This is inside the Linlithgow Palace. During special occasions when the King and Queen threw a gala or something, this fountain would flow with red wine. Absolutely gorgeous and intricately designed fountain!
Here you can see some of the intricate carvings done on the fountain.
