UK Page Nine

We left London the day after our tour ended.  We took a train to Edinburgh and then rented a car, which was a very interesting experience.  I have never driven on the "other" side of the road and it was a challenge on our first day, especially since we were in a place that we weren't familiar with.  On our first day on our own, I actually lost a hubcap off of our rental, only to go back and get it.  I know the people who stopped behind us either thought I was insane or just thought, "Oh, another American."  We drove through Linlithgow and some other small towns on our first day there.  I think we finally stopped in Falkirk at what the company called a hotel, but what seemed to be like an upscale hostel to me.  The rooms had bunk beds in them and the bathrooms and showers were down the hall.  We decided to think of our time there as a girl scout adventure, after eating at a nice restaurant, of course.

On our second day on our own, we put all the goods in the rental and decided to go back to Linlithgow and see Linlithgow Palace.  That is one thing that I wanted to see last year and didn't get to see.  I think we were the first visitors there and I had fun exploring and climbing all the stairs and seeing all the different rooms.  There was a great view from the top of the palace.  After our stop there, we decided to buy a map of Scotland, so we could figure out where we were going.  We stopped at a little coffee shop for brunch and then drove on to Whitburn and Lanark.  Those two towns are were our ancestors were married and born.  We didn't find any new information, but it was very cool to be where my great-great grandfather was born.  We also got turned around a few times on some very back country roads, but it was fun and we ended up by finding our way back to Edinburgh to follow the directions we had to the castle we were to stay in that night.
This is the center of the town Linlithgow.  A lot of the small towns had those flags all over them, but I'm not sure why.  The building on the very left of the photo is where we enjoyed our brunch.  It was neat to be somewhere with just local people there.



 
This is Linlithgow Palace.  It was the birthplace of Mary Queen of Scots.



 

 This is a photo from one of the windows in the palace.  The second shot is me sticking my head out a second floor window.



 
This was probably my favorite part of the palace.  I climbed the spiral stair case all the way to the top of one of the towers.  I took a photo of it once I came down, which is the first picture.  The second picture is one I took of mom sitting on the bench, while I was atop the six story tower.  It had an incredible view.



 
 The view of Linlithgow from the tower.



 

These are more photos taken from the palace.



 
After we left Linlithgow we drove through Whitburn and into Lanark.  We stopped at the tourist information center in Lanark and they directed us to the only cemetary in town.  This is a photo of it.  Some of the tombstones were so weathered you couldn't read them.  Some were just old and fallen over, but it was a very interesting place to stop and investigate.



 
After Lanark, we drove the back roads to Edinburgh and then finally found our way to A7 which took us to Borthwhick Castle.  I had made reservations for us ahead of time on the internet and wasn't sure what to expect.  In these pictures you can see our rental car; it's the car that is in both photos.  When I first saw the eroding looking spot on the side of the castle, I wondered why they never fixed it.  Then during our tour of the castle, we found out that it is damage from when Cromwell shot a cannonball at the castle to get Lord Borthwick out.  Since the walls are 15 feet thick in most areas, it didn't do a whole lot of damage.



 

Here's Mom and myself in our room.  We stayed in the Sir Walter Scott room.  All the doors in the castle were very low.  We also found out the reason for that later.  Our castle tour guide said they did that to make it hard for the enemy to get through the door if they were wearing armor.  One small extra thing that we enjoyed at this castle was it was the only place we stayed that had washcloths.  As you can see from my picture, we decided to plan our next drive, which was one of the smarter driving moves we made.


 
This is the view that we had from our room.  Since the walls were so thick, we had to walk into what looked like a little cave entrance to get to the window.  If you look closely at the picture of Mom sitting in our castle room, you can see the window entrance behind her and the curtain.

 
 
 
Here's a picture of the great hall in the castle where we had dinner and breakfast.  I'm in this picture talking with Sarah and her sisters Liz and Megan, all from Iowa.

 
 
 

Here are a couple of shots from around the castle.  The first is Mom in the Borthwick garden and the second is a picture from the road to the castle.  The castle was set in a very beautiful place, but I think everywhere in Scotland was beautiful.

 
 

 
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