Day 14
Arthur’s Seat
The amazing thing about Arthur’s Seat is how short a walk it is from the middle of the city. The yellow gorse stands out from the green grass. We took a long gradual walk around, followed by the short, steep scramble up to the top. The nice thing about Arthur’s Seat is that that you don’t have to go all the way up to get an awesome view.
National Museum of Scotland
After our hike, most people went to see Edinburgh Castle. While I definitely recommend visiting the castle, I had already been there in 2008. I wanted to see Pictish stones on this trip. They are standing stone from the era of the Picts, an early people in Scotland. They have a set of symbols that tend appear carved into the stones, but no one knows for sure what they represent. Some of the more striking examples are in museums, but many still stand out in fields. Unfortunately, we did not have too much time in our itinerary for individual students to go wandering off into fields several miles away, so museums were my best bet.
One classmate also wanted to go to the museum, so we headed down the hill and went there directly. The National Museum has many amazing things. It also has the most confusing layout I have ever seen in a public place. I found a couple of Pictish stones. They had a lot of artifacts from the Scots, though, so I did enjoy my visit. We made sure to see Dolly the Sheep, the first mammal cloned from an adult cell.
They have some of the Lewis Chessmen at the museum. It is interesting from a cultural standpoint because more of the chess pieces are located in the British Museum in London, even though they were found in Scotland. As an outsider, I can’t pretend to know all the nuances of the cultural and political history between England and Scotland.
I knew there must be more Pictish stones on the lower level, but we could not find our way there. We asked for directions, but our feet were so sore from our morning hike, we decided to move on.
Bru & Burns
We stopped for lunch. I decided to try the famous Scottish soda, Irn Bru. It was pretty good. It had a vaguely melon-like flavor.
Next, we went to the Writer’s Museum on the Royal Mile. It’s dedicated to Walter Scott, Robert Burns, and Robert Louis Stevenson. They have a lot of items from the writers’ personal lives. I took a picture of the printer for my print-making sisters.
Key Moment of the Day: The life-changing experience of Irn Bru. Just kidding. It was singing “Happy Birthday” to one of my classmates at the top of Arthur’s Seat. Our guide even brought a cupcake for her.