T. ended up sitting this one out, due to an overwhelming number of writing projects that weren’t getting finished, but the intrepid D. and Van trekked out to the close by city of Dumbarton with an eye to visiting the castle there.
According to the history, “Dumbarton was the centre of the ancient kingdom of Strathclyde from the 5th century until 1018. Impressively situated on a volcanic rock overlooking the Firth of Clyde, it was an important royal refuge.”
Unfortunately for all of that impressiveness, the castle, with its 547 stairs (!!! A great day for T. to skip, eh?) is closed during the winters on Thursday and Friday, so alas for our adventurers! They took pictures of as much of it as they could reach, but we’re saving Dumbarton Castle, a mere twenty minutes away via train, for next time Van’s in town. Or else, when N&K are here in April, we’ll start their castle touring off there!
Van had some shopping to do for his vast network of workmates, so the rest of the morning was profitably spent, picking up those “only in Scotland” gifts that will make people back home smile. It seems everyone needs shortbread, haggis, and Scottish flag fridge magnets, after all! D&T have no real idea of where the best touristy shopping might be found, but are happy to wander along and be amused at the number of hideous tchotkes people will sell. (Plastic thistles, anyone?)
Another interesting gift shop thing we saw was.. sticks. Allegedly, these sticks are meant for oat porridge; they’re spurtles or spirtles (or they’re also known as theevils). They’re simply early wooden spoons… without the round bit of the spoon, only the handle. We looked at the cloth for clootie dumplings, the steamed Scottish pudding we have yet to enjoy, and realized that what was sold in the gift shops for several pounds could be purchased at the grocery store… as it is just a bit of flour sacking. Still, it was fun to look.
Van opted out of tagging along to the University for Choral Society rehearsal, so D&T toddled off to spend an intense two hours working over their Hebrew and moaning, along with everyone else the inclement weather and the loss of their voices and the nearness of the concert — March 1!
Yikes. We are SO NOT READY.
Thank goodness for singing with the organ, which will boom along from the balcony of the gorgeous chapel building and drown us out!!!!
D. picked up a ticket for Van to enjoy the show, and we sloshed on home.
Van will only be here for a few more days, but we’re all pooped, and tomorrow plan to just take it easy!
– D & T
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
The concert is today???? What a great way to celebrate your b-day! Pop a fold.
Hope the concert went well! (I’m sure I’ll read about it in a subsequent blog post…)
And Dumbarton Castle looks awesome. I love castles; I can’t help it.