May 28th – 30th 2005
The weekend of 28th, 29th and 30th of May 2005 was a bank holiday weekend and no one here stays at home on a long weekend. We people were also no exception and planned for a trip to the northern part of United Kingdom, the place of highlands, the place of haunted vaults and the place of bagpipers – Scotland. A very huge group – 15 in all !!! My friends from Pune – Meera , Aarti and their friends along with we people from Reading made up for the huge numbers. Shrikant had done a lot of research and found an accommodation in Edinburgh. So there we were all set to go to the land of Bagpipers.
We left Reading on Friday evening to London Paddington. Got the 2104 fast to London Paddington and from Paddington took the circle line on the tube (the underground metro in London is called Tube) to Victoria. We were planning to meet the other people in the Victoria station and just as we came out they too were there. I was meeting Aarti after a period of around 5 yrs !!! Well time flies …. And we gotta fly along with it I presume !! Once introductions were through we walked over to the Victoria Coach station from where we had booked the bus to Glasgow. The bus was at 2355 and we reached the place in good time to catch the bus. It was a double decker bus and it started off exactly at the time promised. Drudging along through the scenic beauty ( which came to light only post 06:00 AM ) we reached the city of Glasgow at 0900 on Saturday. As we came out of the Buchanan Bus Station, it started drizzling. The drizzle was too light to dampen our spirits and we marched along. After ‘saying CHEESE’ near the Glasgow Concert Hall (we could not go inside as the hall was booked by the University for its Graduation Day Ceremony) we walked down to the Glasgow Cathedral. Enroute we stopped at the Glasgow city chambers and again clicked a few snaps at the St.George square. The Glasgow Cathedral is a huge cathedral with a scenic beauty around it and this cathedral holds many a secret of yesteryears. The rose windows of the cathedral, the chapel and the aisles are worth seeing. The cathedral took a pretty long time and by the time we came out we were famished. Walking down to the city centre we located a pizzeria where we had a sumptuous lunch of hand made pizzas with coke. Then we went back to the bus station from where we were to catch the bus to Edinburgh.
When we reached Edinburgh at around 1630 Hrs, the sun was shining down at us in full gleam (Talk about the unpredictable English weather!!) The flat which Shrikant had found was bang in the centre of the city – had around 5 bedrooms, 2 kitchens and 2 bathrooms apart from a big hall. Soon we all got freshened up and were on our feet again towards the majestic Edinburgh Castle. The castle was closed for the day (People here don’t work after 5:00 no matter what!! Sometimes I wonder even beggars close shop at 5:00 and don’t accept pennies later!!!!) so we just walked through the Princes Street – the main shopping are of Edinburgh. Luckily for us some of the souvenir shops were open. Did some amount of shopping, had a look at the Princes Mall (From outside…it was also closed.) When we returned home it was almost 2130 Hrs and the wind was blowing like one possessed !!! Being a hilly country, Scotland is very very windy and it increases as one goes up north – towards the highlands. Once we reached home, we cooked dinner and had it. Then we were up till around 01:30 AM playing cards, dancing to the music and having fun.
On Sunday, one by one we got up lazily, freshened up and then headed towards the Edinburgh castle. This castle, situated on a hillock just off the princes street is a huge one and has got 3 war museums. On the top of the castle is a cannon which shoots off at 1 PM everyday. There is a very interesting story behind this cannon firing – In the earlier days when people used to use sundials for checking out the time, it was very difficult to synchronize the timing between Glasgow and Edinburgh as the sundials used to give a 6 minutes difference. Hence it was decided to fire the gun everyday at 1300 Hrs in Edinburgh in order to announce the exact time to the people. Nice way eh??? By the time we had a look at the entire castle it was around 1400 Hrs. We grabbed a quick bite at Subway and headed towards the Scottish Parliament. Enroute again saw some objects of interest and purchased it. Enroute we saw that there are some guided tours of Haunted Vaults. Scotland, from centuries, is known for its ghosts, ghouls, black magic and occult. So we thought that it would be a good idea to have a first hand experience of these things. The tour of the “Unexplained Haunted Vaults” was supposed to start at 1800 Hrs and we had some time to kill. Decided that we will dump all the shopping that we did at our room and then head to see ghosts. After a cup of tea we reached our pick up point where our tour guide Mr.Roger was waiting for us. After some story-telling about Edinburgh and the existence of the haunted vaults we were led to the 3 most haunted and active vaults. Fortunately or unfortunately, we were unable to either see or feel any sort of unexplained phenomenon. So in all we just heard stories of Mr.Boots (he was supposed to be a cobbler of yesterday and to this day tries to feel around the ankles of people who don’t wear leather shoes) , the kid (who tries to hold hand of any kid in the group and pull him to play) and the lady who always attacks other ladies due to reason best known to herself. After the rather quiet tour we saw the Scottish parliament house and then after a long walk came back home. Again played games and gossiped till around 12:00 PM before retiring.
Monday was a day of journey. Early morning at around 05:30 left Edinburgh to reach Glasgow at around 08:00 . At 08:30 had the bus from Glasgow to London back. The bus journey was rather quiet with all of us just soaking in the countryside scenic beauties on the way and reflecting on how the past 2 days just flew off. Also, we all made a quiet resolution that one more weekend is a must in Scotland – this time to the highlands comprising of Lochness & Inverness.
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