Second Day in Scotland

Friday, after another filling breakfast which included Haggis (like peppery sausage, but when you know what it's made of, it is hard to eat!), we drove to Perth where Scone Palace is. On the way, Mum and I broke out in a "Irish Lullaby"...too bad there isn't a "Scottish" lullaby so that we could have been geographically correct. Mum and I were trying to guess how they pronounced 'Scone'--was it like the scone you eat? According to the staff, it's pronounced 'Scoone'. This was mum's and mine's favorite Palace/Castle. The family, Murray's, still live in the Palace in the upper floors and their are pictures of them throughout the grand rooms. The Scone Palace once claimed ownership of the Stone of Destiny (make me think of King Arthur for some reason). Kings and Queens are crowned on the Stone of Destiny which is now located at Edinburgh Castle. England borrows the Stone for ceremonial functions, and will do so whenever either Prince Charles or Prince William will be crowned in the future. Scone Palace was opened up to the public in 1966 (probably because the family needed the financial boost). The Palace hosts a large star-like shaped maze. Mum and I went inside, thinking our minds could get us to the exit--but all we got was lost! I started joking that we were never going to get home in tribute to mum haha.

Mum and I loved Perth. In fact, everyone is Scotland, even just random people walking by, are sooo friendly. For instance, we'd be in line at a grocery store and ask the cashier advice on how to get to our next destination, and they would leave their post, walk us outside, and give us directions. Overhearing customers would even wait to help as well. Perth had great shops and a lovely little bakery where mum and I tried several delicious pastries! Yum!

After we left Perth, we figured we had just enough time to drive to Edinburgh and see the much anticipated castle located in the popular city. In case you're looking for a new term to describe how a car can be affected by the wind on the motorway, we have just the one for you thanks to mum--it's called "Fish Knife". By combining the two phrases "Fish Tail" and "Jack Knife" we now have a term to describe the occurance of both. :)

On the way to Edinburgh, we drove through Corosterphine (spelling?) and saw a few shops lining the street that we just had to check out. According to mum's calculation, we had enough time to get a bit of shopping in and still see the castle. We parked in a residential area (with permission from the homeowner) and walked over to our intended destination. In one of the shops I found a Doris Day cd!! Doris Day of all artists--so I bought it being a fan and mum and I listened to it later on the road.

When we came back to our car a little later, we discovered that someone had hit the driver's side mirror and left it dangling with no information, etc. It was very upsetting. Not only did we think we'd have to get a new car, but this pretty much ruined the rest of our plans for the day. After making some calls and checking out the mirror, mum discovered that she was able to put it back together herself, and when driving it to a local agency, the agent was even able to electronically move the window (you know, like the up, down, left, right function on the door panel). So, we were relieved to find we could keep the car and get on with the rest of our day. Now that we didn't have enough time to do Edinbugth Castle justice, we opted to drive by the ruins of the Linlithgow Castle not too far away. We got there just in time to snap a few pictures and then went back to our comfortable B&B.