Day 6–June 22–Laundry and Scotland’s People at the Archive
I went back to the laundromat to do laundry at 9:00 and was glad to get there early; I had to wait about 10 minutes for a washer, and by the time my load was started, the attendant was quoting people an hour and a half wait. When I arrived, there was a lively discussion going on between the attendant and a customer as to whether President Trump would be assassinated in office or whether he would quit because it was too hard.
After doing laundry, I met Kristin for lunch at the archive cafe, and then did some more work on Scotland’s People. It was largely unfocused, and mainly looking at the actual document images. I stumbled across a marriage record and the death records of several children that listed a weaver of the right name, but nothing that corresponded to my best candidate from the day before. Although I did not know it at the time, this may be a new best candidate, as my sister later found a will that listed a loom.
We did take-away baguette sandwiches for dinner and then I went to a meeting for the Waverly Communicators Toastmasters club and subsequent after-meeting pub talk. I really like the idea of having a meeting in the same building as a pub.
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Day 5–Scotland’s People at the Archive
After several days of lots of walking, I was ready for an easy day, so I took the morning to collect the research that my sister had done and formulate a plan for an afternoon accessing the Scotland’s People website at the Archive. You can get to this from the US, but it is much more expensive to browse. At the centers in Scotland, you can view an unlimited number of images for £15 per day.
Initially, there was very little to go on–a birth year and a name. It turns out there were a dozen or so men born with that name listed in the Old Parish Registers during the decade of birth, but only one with the birth year I was after. The Old Parish Registers may only contain about half of the births that occurred. I was able to figure out that I would need a lot more information from the American side to make any progress. I was also able to figure out that a find-a-grave entry for this individual is probably fanciful.
When the library closed, we took a nap and then I went off to do laundry but got there too late; last wash was at 6:00 even though they closed at 8:00. I hiked back up the hill and we went to a convenient Italian place for dinner and crashed.
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Day 4–June 20–Trains, Buses,and Ruins
The plan for today was to see the castle and cathedral ruins in St. Andrews, along with the coastline of the Fife. I ended up taking the train from Waverly Station to Kirkcaldy for 9.50 pounds (round trip) and then a bus (X60) from Kirkcaldy to St. Andrews for 8.60 pounds (day pass). I chose the train for the first segment because it promised (and delivered) the best views of the coast and the bridges over the Firth of Forth. I chose the bus for the second segment for the same reason. While in Kirkcaldy, I stopped at the museum, it is worth 20 minutes if you are in town but not a special trip. The bus stops in numerous small coastal towns and is quite interesting if a little long. All totaled, it took 3.5 hours to get to St. Andrews, including the museum visit in Kirkcaldy.
The view of the firth was spectacular, and interesting for the idle offshore drilling rigs.
St. Andrews is worth the trip, but the castle and cathedral ruins are, well, ruins, so it is important to understand that. The interpretative displays are in many ways the key. The town is a fun college town where all of the buildings are quite old.
While waiting for the bus back to Edinburgh or Kirkcaldy, wait at the St. Andrews University Student Union; the food is inexpensive and good, and the Wi-Fi is free with no intrusive registration. The Wi-Fi registration at the Costa Coffee shop is quite intrusive.
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Day 3–June 19–Hiking to Arthur‘s Seat
We started the day with breakfast at the hotel and realized that they really were not staffed for the volume of people that they had, so we plan to get there much earlier tomorrow. After breakfast, I started off to find a notebook for Kristin, an additional UK power adapter, and a copy of Rick Steves’ Scotland book to replace the one I left on my desk at home. Shortly after I started off, Kristin texted that the library sold notebooks, so I could crossthat off. I stopped at the Travel Information center near Waverly and got some good information on running down my errands.
I made the walk down Prince’s Street to WaterStone’s and found that they have notebooks, but not Rick Steves’ books. They have a very good selection of maps, so we will probably make a trip back later in the weekt to get some maps for Glasgow. I found the power adapter at a computer store a couple of doors down.
I now started in on my main plan for the day–a hike to the top of Arthur’s Seat, a 275 meter hill that offers a great view of Edinburgh. I headed up to the Royal Mile and turned left to go down to Hollyrude Palace. I stopped for tea about 3/4 of the way down to the palace, and made good progress in planning out my week while I watched the passers by on the Royal Mile. I continued on to Hollyrude Palace, where I picked up the trail to the summit. This is a moderately strenuous hike and you will want decent shoes or boots, though there were women doing it in flip-flops, at least near the bottom. I don't think I saw any flip-flops at the top.
The hike is about the same difficulty as the Enchanted Rock hike in Texas. The counter clockwise route is analogous to a 1/3 scale sea-level version of the Pinnacles trail in Big Bend National Park, with steps for the majority of the vertical gain. The clockwise version is longer but easier and is just a steep walking path until the last 50 meters of elevation gain, where it turns into steps and rubble.
For dinner, we went to a run-down pub close to the hotel and had forgetable fish and chips. I had a half-pint of Strong Bow cider while Kristin had a half-pint of McEwan’s; we both liked our respective choices.
After dinner, we went for a walk to find an ATM, and ended up walking through the Princes Street Gardens, where we found a community Scottish dance group meeting. For 5 pounds, you could get into the stands and join in the dancing. It reminded me of the Friday night crowd in Rennes.
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