Howdy, it’s Saturday morning and we spent yesterday in our new found country of Scotland. The days of 70F and warm are now gone and conveniently the colder/grayer/wetter Scotland has now come upon us. Largely this is good as we are well prepared for the later, not really if it was going to be warm on our hike. I mean I brought gaiters all this way, need some rain/mud to use them in…

We decided that Friday would be castle and visiting the royal yacht day. So after a brief breakfast encounter with some Nutella and coffee we started our trek up the hill to the castle. This place has been here a long time – (1500’s for sure) – with multiple captures between England and Scotland over the years – I guess I should say sieges… There’s an entire bloodline here of royalty as well as this was where you lived. I guess it’s location, location, location because the interior layout and stone is sort of dark and cold, but the views are amazing. They had one of the first long range cannons on display that could launch a 300 lb ball over 2 miles, pretty amazing. Of course a king or prince was killed several years later by someone putting too much gunpowder in their new toy, the ball getting stuck and the cannon exploded – but hey that’s how we learn right?

After our brief 2 hour castle exploration we then proceeded to the HMS Britianna – you know the ship from “the crown” that was sailed around the world by the queen / king / royal family… It’s pretty interesting how the king and queen had separate areas to live aboard the ship and how much pomp and circumstance occurred when they were aboard – but in reality they didn’t spend much time – but this ship did go multiple times around the earth. (once for each year in service). There were amazing things inside from its travels as well – artifacts and collection of items from far away. There is a huge formal dining room 60 seats – where the queen could entertain people when docked in other nations for a royal reception. It took three hours to prepare the place settings alone to make it just right, measuring each fork/spoon/knife for placement and location, etc. Its strange to think about how much time goes into the formality of it all. What’s even more impressive is to think that this little country really has a long history with the sea, and used to be the most powerful Navy in the world.

Ok, so as ships go, Cindy seemed more than excited to go aboard. Usually when we say “hey there’s a boat…” I get a rolled eye look and an “ok” that we can go see the ship. That is usually some cool war artifact or even more exciting is if there’s a submarine to go on. While legacy naval technology seems like fun, to Cindy I think it’s simply more gray metal and “hmm that’s interesting” – sort of a ok, let’s get this done with ;).

But with this boat, it’s different! You are sitting where the queen sat, seeing where the queen hung out, looked over the rail, maybe you’re in fact royalty as well? There is a new tea room that’s been added to the ship, so we were able to have some tea, scone and a salad. The waitress thought we were strange I think for ordering a salad at tea time, but hey we’re Americans so why not.

The royal family also did some amazing things while on the ship – interacting with the crew as well. They brought the royal ‘car’ (rolls royce) along when she was onboard – if not that then a land rover was also aboard – loaded via crane. The rolls had to have its bumpers removed to make it into the onboard garage. Other interesting facts is that if the Queen was on the ship the mail and ‘red box’ (you know from the show) were sent daily to the ship where ever it was in the world. So things were flown in – helicoptered in daily. This also included fresh food items. The actual kitchen staff from Buckingham Palace traveled with the family – so the meals were prepared to everyone’s liking. (Crazy).

Other than that, Saturday was a tourist day for sure. We ended up watching Deadpool II until midnight and a great day of washing clothes today…