Stirling Castle, 26 July 2014

To celebrate one month of living in Scotland as well as my Mom's arrival into town, we decided to take a day trip to Stirling Castle. An easy 25-minute train trip from Glasgow (and Edinburgh), Stirling Castle is definitely a must see. It has been beautifully maintained and restored; is easily navigable by kids/strollers; and has incredible views. (Getting up to the castle with a stroller is less easy...narrow, cobbled streets+ bumpy sidewalks+GIANT HILL= treacherous). This particular Saturday was probably the worst weather we've had to date; it poured rain about 90% of the time we were there but c'est la vie in Scotland!
We definitely did not see all of Stirling but I think we hit the touristy highlights: Old Town, Castle, Old Town Cemetery, Church of the Holy Rude, and Cowane's Hospital (which, inexplicably, is a coffee shop and not a hospital of any sort). We might have hung around longer, but as previously mentioned, it was rainy and we ran out of obvious things to do, so we hightailed it back to Glasgow.

Very castle-y. I can definitely see why this was a favorite residence of the Scottish monarchs.

Cannons over the cemetery

The good news about the rain was that it made for awesome cloud shots

Inside the main living quarters of the castle, restored in 17th c. style

This was one of our first experiences trying to explain where we were to Lillian and it was pretty much a wash. She's clever, but so far politics and history are pretty much lost on her. Expounding upon important historical events, let alone wars, to a two-year old is pretty much impossible, so we stuck with: "Look! It's a castle! Maybe Anna and Elsa are inside!" and "Look! Cannonballs!"

The castle restaurant was pretty tasty and had lots of space for crawling and playing (win for everyone)

Very cool interactive part of Stirling--figuring out where different plant dyes to make paints come from

We spent most of the morning in the castle and headed back down ye olde treacherous hill after eating lunch. On a whim we stopped in the Old Town Cemetery, which if you enjoy cemeteries like I do, was totally awesome. Oldest graves dated to around the 17th century, and there was a fantastically over the top Victorian section.

Playing shopkeeper in the graveyard. Inappropriate? Perhaps. 

Makes you think, right?

Couldn't resist an artsy B&W shot

It was raining harder after the cemetery,  so we ducked into the Church of the Holy Rude, which was an excellent choice. The church dates to the 12th century and is one of only three churches in Britain that has been a coronation site.

Dark picture, but the Bible was open to Psalm 86: "There is none like you among the gods, O Lord, nor are there any works like yours."

After leaving the church, we were sortof scrambling. It was raining; the kids were whining; and it didn't feel like time to leave just yet. Across the lane was a sign for Cowane's Hospital, which turned out to be an old fashioned meeting house cum-coffee shop that was absolutely perfect for our needs. (sidenote: God has provided me "refuges" like this so many times in the last few months) The kids enjoyed being free; the adults enjoyed hot beverages; and everyone enjoyed being dry.

We were so happy to have Mimi with us!

After heading back through Old Town, we quickly figured out that the fun part of the day had passed and decided to return to Glasgow.

(A quick note about train travel: so far, so good! Typically for day trips we will buy tickets in advance online while using our "Two Together" pass, which gets us 1/3 off ticket prices. Sometimes we'll buy a round trip, and sometimes single trips. We never have to book specific times for local trips, which is really nice for maximizing flexibility with the kids.)