Dundee Trip

Well, back from another adventure! As you may have gathered from our last post, we went to Dundee yesterday, which is about two hours north of here. We hopped on the bus at 8:30 am and it took us to 11 am to get to Glamis Castle, which is just outside of Dundee. It was a fun trip...but guess what? It rained all day!!!!

As mentioned in the previous blog post, Glamis Castle is the current (and has been for the past 600 years) of the Bowes Lyon family (the Lord and Ladies of Strathmore). The late Queen mother was Elizabeth Bowes Lyon before she became the Duchess of York, and then Queen. It was pretty neat going to this castle because not only were we able to see a really great place, but we learned a bit about the history of the current Royal Family....which we didn't know much about before. Apparently, Lady Elizabeth Bowes Lyon met the Duke of York (he was not yet King), his brother was king at the time. He was King Edward VIII, and he stepped down because he married a commoner. This left the throne to his brother, the Duke of York, who became King George VI, and made the Duchess of York his Queen Consort. They took on the family name of Windsor, because the King quite enjoyed his time at Windsor Castle. They had two children together, Elizabeth and Margaret, and when King George VI died, Elizabeth (as the oldest) ascended the throne as Queen, and making her mother, the Queen Mother. So that's a little bit of history for you!

Anyways, back to the Castle....it has been in the Bowes Lyon family since 1372 when it was gifted to Sir John Lyon by King Robert II. The castle still has parts that are retained in their original condition, as you will see, with their stone walls, and not the plaster and painted ones that followed in later centuries. The Castle is still a family home to the Earl and Lady of Strathmore and their son (which you may see from the signs that were posted around certain parts of the property asking visitors to not enter so that the family's privacy may be respected. It amazed us that people still live in this beautiful place! However we're sure, although we weren't able to see them, that their apartments are quite modern.

We entered the Castle through a side door and quickly caught up with a tour that started in the beautiful Renaissance style dining room. It is beautifully decorated and has a huge table that can seat up to 40 people comfortably. The pictures you see are unfortunately not actually real live photos of the castle, as we were unable to take pictures inside to preserve its contents, but we did buy a guide book, and we took pictures of it! However the pictures you will see of the outside are real from our camera.

Then we went from the dining room into the Crypt, which was essentially where the servants would eat (and is not decorated this way now), and not an actual crypt where bodies are buried. (although the walls are three meters thick!) As you can hopefully see from the picture, the crypt is styled in the Middle Ages as opposed to the Victorian era dining room. We thought this room was super cool!

We then moved into the Drawing Room which is plastered and painted a pale pink. It has a huge fireplace and lots of paintings and is fairly typical sitting room for a Castle. The Castle also has its own private chapel, which is very nicely decorated, and apparently is still used by the family today. It also houses a ghost, Lady Douglas, who was killed long ago. But apparently she is a happy ghost...if there is such a thing!

The Billiard Room was next, which has a huge pool table and a grand piano which the Queen Mother used to play. This room was apparently used as a hospital room during the Second World War, for soldiers who were housed at Glamis.

Next was the Queen mother's apartments, which were decorated and made for her by her mother as a wedding present. In this rooms, Elizabeth and Margaret played when they were little...Margaret was actually born in the Castle, and was the first royal baby to be born in Scotland for over 300 years.

Finally we went into Duncan's Hall, which housed the arms of the soldiers (weaponry, not the actual appendages:) It is also thought that this is the scene of the crime in which MacBeth kills King Duncan. This hall also holds a stuffed Canadian Bear, which was the pet of the family, and who died, unfortunately by playing one day with one of the Highland Cattle (or Hairy Coos as the Scottish call them). As you can see, they have deadly horns, so the poor bear didn't fare very well.

The Castle was pretty cool, but we didn't get to see very much of it, because it is still in use. But we were able to explore the majority of the grounds.....which are amazing! The Castle is surrounded by many acres of fields (which are still used to grow hay) and grazing fields, for the Hairy Coos, and forest and gardens. The Italian garden is a beautiful enclosed area, with stunning flowers and little archways made out of hedges. Nearby is the Princess Margaret memorial, which commemorates her life and death. A little further away is the Pet cemetery in which you can see the pets of the Queen Mother and her daughters. Finally there is the walled garden, which is not much to see now, but used to be the vegetable and fruit garden that provided for the Castle's inhabitants.

All in all Glamis Castle is worth the trip! The trip up to it was beautiful as well with rolling hills and greenery...oh and of course sheep and hairy coos!

We also saw the HMS Unicorn....the oldest, still well preserved British battleship. To be honest, it was a little boring. It would have been a lot cooler if it had been fully rigged, but once we were inside, we found out that it had never been rigged, and had never seen battle, as it was built in an era in which the Navy was not in dire need of Battleships. But it was cool to see how they might have looked. Cramped quarters that's for sure!

Well, now that was long-winded. It's so hard to explain what it's like to you, so we try to be specific.....we want you to feel as if you were all there with us! Hope we gave you a taste!

On another note, today was Sarah's first day of work, and it went really well. Boring, but well. The company that I work for (I'll write as me now) is pretty prestigious....the building is gorgeous. My job is to listen for the telephone from the reception desk downstairs (I'm on the fourth floor), and they will tell me that so and so has arrived and is coming up for the meeting in such and such a room....and I have to meet this person (s) at the elevator, greet them, and take them to their room for the meeting. Then I go and call the host and tell them that their guest has arrived for their meeting. Then I go back to my desk and search BBC.co.uk until the next call. (That is the only web page I'm authorized to look at:) So needless to say, I know what is going on in the world now! But apparently they liked me and still want me back tomorrow, so that's a good thing!

Okay back to Rob/Sarah mode.......we'll continue to keep you updated on our travels....no plans this weekend yet....maybe we'll try take some pictures of Edinburgh for you as the festival officially ended yesterday! Yay! Keep well...we love you! And Ciao for now! (P.S. Below are pictures of the map that we got for the grounds, just so you can have a sense as to the size and location of the estate.)

Lots of love,

Rob and Sarah