Serious History

Last weekend we took a trip to Edinburgh, Scotland. This cite has been inhabited for many thousands of years. The mountain overlooking the flatland surrounding it is capped by the fortress--Edinburgh Castle--you see here:



This is a real castle in every sense--a fortress that is still in official use as Scottish military compound. Inside the walls, it is s small city with a chapel (over 1,000 years old and original--nothing "reconstructed based on our best estimate" stuff) and a cathedral. I could only get the nave of it since it is so large and I didn't want to back up too far to take the picture!



The city sits near the Firth of Forth and is also home to Sir Walter Scott. It has lots of great museums and sites to see. The Queen's palace Holyroodhouse and the Scottish parliament are across the street from each other--literally--but architecturally millennia apart:


(This of course is merely the one wing I could get in the view finder.)



(I wonder if the Queen feels that the neighborhood is slipping with parliament so close . . . There is nothing like this near Crawford, TX is there?)