Scotland

For our last trip with the students we went north, to Edinburgh. Britain is bigger than it looks on the maps, and it's a long drive from here to the Scottish capital. The coach left at 6:30 a.m. in order for us to just barely make it for our scheduled tour of the Scottish Parliament at 2 p.m. (Of course, EU transport regulations dictate several driver breaks that we would not have taken if traveling by car.)

Scotland lost its separate Parliament with the Act of Union in 1707, when the red and white flag of England was superimposed on the blue and white flag of Scotland to create the red, white, and blue Union Jack, the flag of the United Kingdom. The Scots regained their Parliament again with the Scotland Act of 1998.

This is not Scottish independence (that's still being debated). But the Pàrlamaid na h-Alba (as the 129-member unicameral is called in Scots Gaelic) is allowed to make laws on local matters not specifically reserved to the UK Parliament. Reserved matters include foreign policy, national defense, many forms of taxation, and international trade regulations.

Scotland built a magnificent new building for their Parliament. The old Parliament building is still standing, just up the road behind St. Giles Cathedral, but has been used for a couple hundred years as the seat of the Scottish High Court. So a new, ultra-modern building was erected just across the street from Holyrood Palace (the Queen's official residence when she happens to be in town). It was opened in 2004. They don't like to talk about how much it cost.

We had arranged in advance for an official tour for our student group, so we got to see a lot more of the building than Mary and I had seen when we visited on our "scouting" expedition last September. Out tour guide was a very knowledgeable Portugese woman, which we really weren't expecting in Scotland, but hey, it's a European Union now.

Mary and some students at the Scottish Parliament

Following the tour we gave our students a bit of a scavenger hunt to help them discover key sights up the Royal Mile. They might have enjoyed this more if it hadn't been pouring rain with a cold wind.

On the walk back to our hostel we happened to pass a little coffee shop called, "The Elephant House." This was a much bigger deal for many of the students than Parliament, St. Giles Cathedral, or anything else. It is, after all, the café in which J.K. Rowling sat to write the first of the Harry Potter books.

Our hostel wasn't bad. Very close to everything, clean, and quiet in the bunk room where our students slept. But Mark & Mary had a room on what must have been the "Party Floor," at least from 2 a.m. onward. The noise made sleeping difficult.

Saturday morning, after a good breakfast at the hostel, we walked back up hill to Edinburgh Castle, where I had pre-purchased tickets to bypass the crowds. However, our path was blocked just inside the castle wall and we were crammed in with all the rest of the 57 tour busses arriving that morning, because a special event was taking place. Today was the opening of the annual assembly of the Church of Scotland. There being no separation of church and state in Britain, this meant that the military would be conducting a ceremony with 21 gun salute to welcome the Queen's official representatives to the assembly (whoever they may have been -- we were sort of hoping for Kate and Wills, but no such luck). We got to watch all the pomp and circumstance, complete with kilted marching band, but gained no crowd advantage. Nevertheless, a good time.

The Elephant House
[student photo]

After lunch I marched my troop down to the National Museum of Scotland and turned them loose for the afternoon to explore this, or one of the other good, free museums on the Royal Mile. Most did explore a bit, but tea at The Elephant House was a big draw, too.

Mary and I used the time to see something we'd missed back in September: The Royal Yacht Britannia, which was taken out of service in 1997 and has become a museum in Edinburgh harbor since. We caught a city bus from downtown to get out to Ocean Terminal, about a half hour ride.

The Queen's informal little boat was larger than the ship
in which we cruised the Greek islands.

A major theme of the exhibit was how the Queen wanted this yacht (commissioned by her father and put into service in 1953, shortly after she took the throne in 1952) to be "comfortable," "informal," and "like a country home" where she and her family could get away from royal ostentatiousness. In fact, the boat is a memorial to imperial hierarchy: The Royals clearly lived at one level, the officers led the life of English gentlemen, the NCOs and Royal Marines lived at their strata, and the common seamen quite obviously did not see any of the benefits of the yacht's luxury.

We bussed back downtown in time to meet the students and load the coach for our next adventure.