6 Bus Trips, One Day

Today I got my money out of my Ridacard bus pass...

Craigmillar Castle

I hopped on a bus going east and went to Craigmillar Castle, a few miles outside of the city. This castle was where Mary Queen of Scots sheltered after the murder of her friend Rizzio, and also where plans were made to murder Mary's husband, Darnley.






Edinburgh Castle can be seen on the hill to the left. There is one smaller hill next to a larger hill on the right. I believe the smaller one is Arthur's Seat.

Just before it began raining (of course) I got on the bus and headed back to the city.

Botanical Gardens

The gardens were nice and green. The only excitement was that I missed my stop the first time, and ended up in a residential part of town by the sea. I figured it out though, and eventually ended up where I meant to be.


There was a very nice/large rock garden, emulating plant terrain in the Himilayas.

I had lunch at the cafe, and then headed back into town (once again).

Harry Potter

Met up with some of the international students to see the new Harry Potter movie. It was good. There was a scene or two they rushed through too much. Death shouldn't be a 5 second thing. Afterwards we attempted to find a pub without a cover, which is tricky on a Saturday night...but we found one. It was full of hen parties, lol. Kinda strange, but whatever.

Dollar, Drummond Castle, and Loch Katrine

I signed up for an International Students trip to Dollar Glen and Drummond Castle Gardens. Below are the shenanigans that followed.

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The train bridge over the River Forth. The bridge used to need to be painted constantly- it was so long that once the workers finished painting, they had to start over again, hence the phrase "it's like painting the Forth Bridge." I've never heard that phrase before, so it doesn't matter.

We were heading to Castle Campbell in Dollar Glen. We took a hiking trail through Dollar Glen. It was entirely uphill and took about a half an hour, thereby exposing my extreme out-of-shape-ness.

Iris at Castle Campbell

You've never seen me so happy to be at a castle. Really...except maybe in this photo:




Iris at Castle Campbell (again)

Campbell Castle was formerly known as "Castle Gloom" (situated between the River Sorrow and the River Care. I'm not kidding), until one of the Dukes of Argyll took over and had it renamed to Castle Campbell.

The view of the town of Dollar (where our hike began) from atop the castle tower

The courtyard from atop the tower

The intact tower with the crumbling main hall in the foreground

Arsty. Very.

The castle has a very small garden, much smaller than in the castle's heyday.

Castle Campbell again, on our way back to the bus.

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Drummond Castle was next on our list. It features a symmetrical garden that was popular at some time in Italy.

Drummond Castle Gardens

The garden focused in the center a sun dial which supposedly tells the times of different capital cities. Really, it just looked like a bunch of protruding nails and metal shards, to me:




Drummond's "Sun Dial"

And then someone pointed out the obvious futility of having a sun dial in Scotland. Maybe a rain dial.

When the owners of Drummond Castle no longer saw a need for a fortress, they built a manorhouse right next to it:




Drummond Castle on the left, the manor house on the right.

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Next we went to Loch Katrine (made popular in the poem "Lady of the Lake" by Sir William Scott), but it began raining (surprised?) pretty heavily, so there's no photos.

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Out of 40-some foreigners, I was the only American- which seems to be a common trend, leading me to the hypothesis that there are no Scottish people or Americans in Edinburgh.