Stirling

We slept until 8:00 Sunday morning, had coffee in the room, and went down to breakfast around 9:00: oatmeal with cream, maple syrup, and whiskey. That’ll wake you up! Then oysters and three other fish dishes, including salmon, of course. Then eggs, sausage, bacon, and whatever would fit on the plate.

Church of the Holy Rude

We walked to Holy Trinity Scottish Episcopal Church for 10:30 Communion. The rector “came over dizzy” during the homily, sat down, and read the rest of his sermon. This was not our best church experience: Three people in the choir, and a poor organist. Then we went up the hill to the Holy Rude Church, a Church of Scotland congregation. This is a historic building with a big Rushton & Dreaper organ from the 1930s. The church has a better history than the organ. We enjoyed talking with one of the members, former chairman of the music committee.

We toured the castle and the weaving exhibition, where they’re doing replicas of the Cloisters Unicorn tapestries. That was fascinating to watch. After a 2:00 lunch in the Castle Cafe, we walked through Argyll’s Lodgings and went down the hill to Smith Gallery. The best exhibit there was of works by E.H. Shephard, the original illustrator of the Winnie the Pooh books.

We walked about some more, then went back to XI Victoria Square. We were up in the room when we heard the piano downstairs. Judy went down to find our host playing the Bechstein. I joined them, a family from Oregon came in, and we ended up being invited to join the host’s family and the Oregonians on the deck for curried chicken. Our host, Iain Calloway, conducted the conversation Sunday evening. Excellent attitude, knowledge, and manner to make sure everything happened to make everyone feel comfortable. I enjoyed his claret, too.

Monday, July 14

Breakfast was the highlight of the day!

The spread was similar to the day before: four kinds of fish, including fresh oysters he opened as we asked for them, joined today by salt cod cooked in milk. I tried it all, of course. That was after orange juice and a half grapefruit. And a bowl of porridge, consisting of oatmeal, cream, maple syrup and a wee dram.

Next, a haggis! It was brought in on a platter amidst apologies for rushing it up and not having a skin on it. Not a problem. The oration that accompanied it was wonderful! We got a “dramatic reading,” from memory, of Robert Burns’s “Address to a Haggis.” Make that a dramatic presentation. Dagger to slice it with, great delivery, anything that would be impressive. It made tasting it later almost an anticlimax. Actually, with bacon, two kinds of sausage, broiled mushrooms and tomatoes, a poached egg, and toast, after all the other dishes, I didn’t eat a lot of it. It was a small haggis, I guess. What with all the drama, much conversation with the family from Oregon, Tom Lehrer and the Capitol Steps on the CD player, breakfast lasted over two and a half hours.

It was all downhill after breakfast. We loaded up the car and headed out toward the Edinburgh airport, intending on making a couple of stops on the way. The route to Culross wasn’t marked clearly, and we just breezed on through. We did stop at Dunfernline Abbey, and that was interesting. The Norman half of the building dates from the twelfth century, with several later Gothic rebuilds leaving their marks. The “newer” sections house Rob Roy’s tomb and a nice nineteenth-century organ facade.

Once we made it to Edinburgh, our trip to Scotland was done. We turned in the car, got a room at the airport Quality Hotel, and prepared to fly home the next morning.