05/10/11 Day3: Edinburgh

Today has left me unsettled. There's something about knowing that I'm leaving Scotland already tomorrow morning that makes me want to turn on my iPod to something familiar. I saw several sites in one day, painting after painting, few by artists I recognized, and saw so much change in one city. Scotland has past from independence to unification with England, from monarchy to protectorate, to a limited monarchy with a parliament. I saw two royal residences, one past and one present.

Edinburgh Castle

We went to Edinburgh Castle which is huge. I loved climbing all over the escarpments, and seeing that Scots really value their veterans. Every castle, and every church had some memorial to soldiers. They even have a residence specifically for veterans. I wasn't able to take pictures in either the room with the crown jewels or in Holy rood, or in the National Gallery. Everything here is so stately. It's almost overwhelming. I feel so under dressed, but I didn't feel like packing my entire closet in my suitcase.

Toward the center of the Castle is St. Margaret's Chapel. St. Margret married Malcolm III, famous for replacing Macbeth after his murder of King Duncan. She herself is famous for Romanizing the Catholic church of Scotland in the Saxon period of Scottish history. Queen Margaret persuaded clan leaders to have their liturgy in Latin rather than their native Gaelic, and to rest on the Sabbath. Reading the booklet I bought in her chapel, I saw a tiny bit of prosperity-gospel style theology, unless of course, the prosperity they're referring to is spiritual, rather than circumstantial. The chapel itself was built in 1093, and was used until the Reformation as a place of worship. By 1845 it was being used to store gunpowder. Today it stands as a hybrid between a place of pilgrimage and tourist attraction. I'm not sure what to think about Queen Margarete but God does and I suppose that's what matters most.

The National Gallery

I don't have a whole lot to say about the National Gallery, since it's hard to describe paintings to people who haven't seen them. I will mention seeing several Monet paintings, and an obscure painting by Vincent Van Gogh. The best part for me was seeing his signature, in all caps like this: VINCENT. My favorite painting in the entire gallery was "Three Oncologists" by Ken Currie. I've always been a fan of surrealism, and I feel this painting really takes surrealism to one of the deepest levels I've ever seen. For more info on this painting: check here.

The Deacon's House Cafe

For lunch about five of us went to the Deacon's House Cafe, which used to be his workshop. His father was the head or "deacon" of a guild of cabinet makers and passed the title onto him at his death. He used his title and skills to make copies of the keys to his clients' houses and robbed them as he pleased. He gambled and bought himself a few drinks with the money by night.

When someone nearly caught him breaking into the Excise Office in Chessels court, he fled to London, and then to Amsterdam, where authorities finally arrested him. They brought him back to Edinburgh, tried him, and hanged him the gallows he had designed. (Hence the term, "hanged by his own devices.") He thought that if he was hung by his own noose, he could rig it so that he could be revived by a surgeon after his supposed execution. Apparently it didn't work out for Deacon, because the cafe claims to be haunted by his ghost.

Deacon Brody is probably the inspiration for Robert Louis Stevensons' Jekyll & Hyde

The Holyrood House Palace & Abbey

Holyrood Palace is probably most known for its use during the Stuart dynasty, as well as its present day functions. It's the official residence of the Queen in Scotland, and she visits on an annual basis.
Mary Queen of Scots lived here, in the oldest part of the building after she ascended to the throne. She was raised in France by her French Mother's family, and she was crowned Queen of Scotland when she was less than a year old. Because of her Catholic beliefs, and the growing Protestant population in Scotland, Mary had to abdicate the throne in favor of her Protestant son, James VI. Since his second cousin Elizabeth I had no heir to the throne of England, he also became the King of England, James I.

Elizabeth II makes annual visits to the palace, and has honored Sir Sean Connery among other honored guests in the Great Gallery. Many years before Bonny Prince Charlie had a ball here as he tried to take back the Scottish throne from the Stuarts. Royal troops hacked at the paintings here in retaliation. Most of them have been restored.


Holyrood Abbey

Holyrood Abbey was founded by David II after God rescued him from a stag while he was hunting. It's named for a fragment of Christ's cross that supposedly found there. This abbey functioned as an Augustinian monastery until it was destroyed by an Anti-Catholic mob.

Palace Gardens host a garden party with the Queen in the first week of July each year.

It was strange to go to the Holyrood Palace, residence of Mary Queen of Scots, then to John Knox's house. It seems like neither was completely right about what Christianity should be like. At least the John Knox museum didn't mind my taking pictures inside.

John Knox House

The inscription on the front of the house reads "Love God above all and your neighbour as yourself" in Old Scots.

Most of this house was built in the 1500s, parts of it dating to 1470. By the 1800s, it had become a low-income residence, with one family to each room. The Church of Scotland restored the house in 1850 as a memorial to John Knox. He only lived in this house during the siege of Edinburgh Castle, but he probably died here.