Day 11: Welcome to All Things Scottish...

Edinburgh was quite spectacular, and we were given a tour by a bearded Scotsman with an accent so thick you could cut it with a knife.  He was quite a character!   Flirted a lot with the women on the trip, although I don't think any of them found out what he wears under his kilt.  He pointed out some of the details of the traditional Scottish costume, including the knife worn in one of the socks and the purpose of  the small bag that is carried around the waist.

He first gave us a tour around Edinburgh, where he explained the history behind the city and told some anecdotes about the town.  One of the more interesting ones was about Greyfriar Bobby, the name of a small scottish terrier that stayed by his masters grave when he died in 1858, until the dog itself died in 1872, some 14 years later.   There is actually a statue of the dog in the town outside of a pub with the same name.

Another story he told was about Deacon Brodies Tavern.  Deacon Brodie was a man who was famous for putting up a respectable front during much of the time, but became a gambling, womanizing wild man in the evenings.  He was apparently the inspiration for the story of "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde", written by Robert Lewis Stevenson (another Scott..)

A few other anecdotes:

The British slang term for "Bathroom" is "Loo".  This apparently derives from the French phraze "Gardez-Loo", which is what women in Edinburgh (and many other cities in Great Britain) yelled out the window as they threw out their bathwater! The term "scot-free" derives from Scottish Law.  To get off "Scott's Law Free" was a sort of loophole that allowed a person to be let off certain charges (I didn't write it down, but I'll find it somewhere) without a scratch. Edinburgh Castle was built on the eroded remains of an old volcano: only the core rock now remains after millions of years of erosion.  The last ice age carved out a "crag and tail" a roughly teardrop-shaped formation with the "crag" at the larger end (where the Castle is located) and the "tail" of rock behind it.   The "tail" is used a road leading up to the castle called the "Royal Mile".

We just missed being able to see the Scottish Military Tattoo (shown above) performed in front of Edinburgh Castle. It's apparently quite a show, with bagpipes and marching and music. Bummer!