Scotland

Stirling Castle

The View From....

 In August we went to Glasgow for the World Science Fiction Conference. 

We stayed three days in Stirling, a city of about 40,000, with way too much history.  If you happen to be in northern England and you want to bring your army into the Scottish highlands for a little light looting you have to figure out some way of getting past Stirling.  That's why two of the biggest fights in the country's history, Stirling Bridge and Bannockburn, happened more or less within sight of the castle.  Both of them, by the way, are represented, badly, in Braveheart.

One feature of the Castle is the room full of Stirling Heads, large oak medallions made around 1540 to decorate the ceiling of one room.  

We took a lovely hike on the Back Walk, built in the 18th Century, the oldest publicly maintained road in Great Britain.  (It ain't a road by modern standards.  It's a nice trail.)

The bench honors (?) John Damian, an alchemist who, in 1507, supposedly tried flying off the top of the castle with feathered wings and landed in a dung heap.

 

Stirling was a last minute decision.  Edinburgh, the capitol of Scotland is one of my favorite places in the world and I thought we would spend several days there until I remembered that August is the month of the Edinburgh Festivals and the Festival Fringe, which overfills the city.  We did make a one day trip by bus, which worked out fine.  As you will see, the city was stuffed, but we had a great time.

Speaking of crowded, Worldcon was huge and amazing. Unlike the one in Dublin, the space was large enough for the event. 

Some of my favorite quotes from the Con:

"In Sunday School I asked the priest why there was a special school for Christian myths but not for Norse myths." - Ada Palmer

"Sometimes it's the wrong books that make all the difference." - Jo Walton

 'Ancient' in India is anytime before you guys came to colonize us." - Gourav Mohanty 

"Miss Piggy is the ultimate drag queen." - Robert Berg

""The story of Cinderella traveled the silk road just like silk or tea or the Bubonic Plague." - Kate Forsyth

"Even when there is only one religion there is more than one religion." - Ian R. MacLeod

"For Japan to win the U.S. high command would have had to lose their entire minds." - Liz Bourke

"I have very strong feelings about some books about King Arthur, which we won't go into. But damn you, Marian Zimmer Bradley, damn you." - Kari Sperring