Traveling Thursday: Scotland part 3: Stirling and the William Wallace Monument!

Hello everyone!

Brrrr, it's getting cold here! We're supposed to be hit today with a Siberian cold wave, and even though here in my little corner of Spain it's a wee bit colder than previous days, we have no snow unlike other parts of Spain where they're covered white and at -14ºC!

Today's Traveling Thursday is the third and final part of my visit to Scotland! We took the train for a day visit to Stirling and the William Wallace Monument! I love the Braveheart movie and it made me take more of an interested for Scotland and its history, and once I was visiting Patri... I had to at least drop by to visit Stirling and the William Wallace Monument!

The photos are a bit out of order, cause Blogger uploaded them that way... but it was a fun day, with crazy weather! We visited Stirling first, the city and up the hill to the castle, we even had to be on short sleeves! Then we took a bus to the nearest bus station to the William Wallace monument, and the weather was getting colder, with more clouds and threatening some rain! The climb up to where the monument is quite a walk uphill again, and my knee ended up resenting it, but I wouldn't have miss it for the world! When we arrived it was closing up, so we barely got to see the gigantic sword that was frankly almost as big as me! As a result, I need to go back!

Gigantic tower it was the William Wallace Monument, my friend Patri is in the shot for scale!

View from Stirling Palace, it's called "The King's Knot"

Inside Stirling Castle walls, where the knights trained

Taking a photo with King Robert Bruce and a very nice old Dutch gentleman that wanted a pic with the Spanish tourist!

View of the garden of Stirling Castle

Walking around the Castle

View of the city from the Castle, Stirling

Resting area on the climb to the William Wallace Monument

Another side of the view from Stirling Castle, the site of the battle

View of the William Wallace Monument from Stirling Castle

Entry to the monument, closed, everything is on a big scale there!

Entrance road to the monument

Quite a huge tower!

Walking up to the monument

A statue of William Wallace as depiced in Braveheart, the movie

This was a map of the view from Stirling Castle with all the relevant historic sites, like the battle of Stirling and the battle of Bannockburn

Entrance to the castle!

So, who wants to come to Scotland with me next!?

Traveling Thursday: Scotland part 2: Rosslyn Chapel

Hiya there!

How's everyone doing? I've been a bit sick as of late, getting slightly better today, though I still have a bit of a cough and sniffles... my nose is a bit raw already, G called me Rudolphina today!

For today's Traveling Thursday is part 2 of my trip to Scotland! I'm sharing some photos of my trip to Rosslyn Chapel. If you've read the Da Vinci Code or seen the movie you will have heard about this place. It is really a remarkable building, worth of any and all praises, and of all the new visitors that the book and movie are bringing there. Full of carvings, and when I say full, I really mean full! From the ceiling to the floor all the walls are covered with carvings! I'm really thankful to Dan Brown for helping discover such an amazing place! You can think whatever of his books, but they do make you want to visit places, and some are less well known than others, and well worth the visit!

Rosslyn Chapel, proper name being Collegiate Chapel of St Matthew, is located at the village of Roslin, and nearby the ruins of Roslin Castle. It was a day trip for me and Patri, by bus, not too long a journey, and a totally worth one! The weather wasn't too bad, but cloudy and threatening some rain, which I guess it's not that rare for Scotland.

When we arrived, the chapel was undergoing some maintenance and rehabilitation work, so a giant structure was all over it, which meant no proper photos of the outside for me, but I took many many photos in the inside, and also a few ones of the corners that were free of the metal structure. And when I say many, I do really mean MANY! I'm so thankful for digital cameras!

Thanks to the rehab work you could go up and see the ruins of Roslin Castle

Pale is one thing, a ghost is more accurately describe me here!

The Apprentice column

The Master column

There are some unusual stained glass windows in the newest part of the chapel

Rosslyn Chapel is a wonderful place to visit, and I'd love to go back there, and also take some time to visit the ruins of Roslin Castle that we couldn't visit cause we were running out of time to catch the bus back to Edinburgh!

Traveling Thursday: Scotland, part 1: Edinburgh!!

Hey there everyone! This week I'm a bit more motivated to blog, so I'm keeping up a bit better with my blogging.


Today's Traveling Thursday is gonna be part 1 of a series of 3! I want to share photos of my trip to Scotland in 2006, and even though I didn't visit as many places as I wanted, I want to share many of the photos  I took with you guys!


Back in 2006 one of my best friends since childhood was living in Edinburgh to improve her English, so in July I used my vacation time to spend a week there with her! Today's photos are from Edinburgh itself, and in the weeks to come I'll share some photos of Rosslyn Chapel and Stirling and the Wallace Monument.

 Patri and me in Victoria Street

 With the Bobby dog

 Braveheart Cow! Freedoooooom!

 Carlton Hill

 Edinburgh city centre

 A view of Edinburgh from  Carlton Hill

 Going up to Carlton Hill and the view!

 Yep, that's a Vader tee I'm wearing, yep, total geek!

 A flower clock in the park at the centre of Edinburgh

At the entrance to Edinburgh castle, we wanted a pic with men in kilts!