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Saturday, November 06, 2010

Stirling Day 2- Stirling Castle and Wallace Monument

So our second day full day in Stirling we went to the Stirling Castle. This castle is quite amazing and historic. Stirling was once considered the “broach of Scotland” because it joined the Lowlands and Highlands. It was said that “he who holds Stirling holds Scotland.” This castle is also more preserved as it was built later than many others.

Here are a few pics from the castle. BEAUTIFUL. The views were just breathtaking!

fromthecastle8 fromthecastle2 fromthecastle3 fromthecastle4 fromthecastle5 fromthecastle6 fromthecastle7

This was one of the tapestries in the old chapel. Crazy!

tapestry

A couple shots of the boys and daddy exploring. :)boysatcastle1 boysatcastle2

I LOVE this one. So cute!!!danwithboyscastle

In the original kitchen, they added statues and the like to give a feel for what the true kitchen would have been like. The thing I liked was that the kitchen back then was  a place for men, not women! SUH-WEET!! Sign me up. :)kitchen

These two shots are of the outside of the palace which, sadly, was being renovated so we didn’t get to go in. Looks pretty awesome from the outside, though!!palace1 palace2

Our next stop was the Wallace Monument (as in William Wallace, as in Braveheart). What we didn’t know when we paid our entrance was that to get to the top, you had to hike about 1/2 mile up the side of a mountain and then climb 246 steps!!! For my profoundly anemic self, this was quite the challenge. But we made it and it was beautiful. Here are some views from the top.

This is a view of Stirling Castle from the top of the monument. Cool how I bring it full circle, eh? :)

 castlefromthe monument fromthemonument fromthemonument2 fromthemonument3

This is the view from the bottom of the hill when we were all done. We were at the very top of that thing!!! Incredible.

viewfromthe ground

And here is a replica of Wallace’s sword. Pretty cool!!

wallacesword

And Dan said I had to post this to give an idea of the size of the sword. I hate this picture of me but oh well. But, again, see? I’m really in Scotland!! :)

next tosword

And with that we conclude our time in Stirling. Watch for new posts of Camperdown Park in Dundee and a trip out to the beach from today. :)

1 comment:

Lisa said...

beautiful! great scenery in scotland!!