Just another day in Scotland...

Monday, July 8, 2013

Today was the perfect day - except for having to be Jess' navigator. The weather was awesome, again. It didn't start off great - it wasn't bad but there was a ton of fog everywhere. Really thick and view blocking. We couldn't see anything out of our back windows. We were out of the house by about 10:45 and we were on our way to Culross Abbey and village and then Dunfermline Palace and Abbey.

Jess thinks that because she had print outs and I have the GPS, things should match. They don't. Add to it the fact that the roads are all A or B and a number, the 3rd exit on the roundabout, etc and you have a potentially explosive situation.

Culross Abbey is in a quaint still medieval village. The roads are all cobblestone and the buildings are still the same as the were in the 15th C with some exterior upgrades and it is really quite nice. We've been to a few similar villages in Spain and in England. I'm not so sure they ever get old.

After failing on a cache and figuring out that the stroller would be useless on the cobblestone, Jess strapped his Highness to her back and we made the trek up the hill to the abbey. The abbey was pretty destroyed and obviously very old. I believe that there was a Pictish religious site there before the abbey. I have to say, it was very peaceful.

We hung out for a little, there wasn't much to see. We checked out the church that was there and that is still in use and then headed down so Jess could use the bathroom. The boys hung out and played on the swings and when mom was done, we headed to the car to eat our hobo lunch - which may be bummier than Jess' old veggies out of a can trick - PB&J. After a number of days of this, it's going to get tired real quick.

After eating, we were on our way to Dunfermline Palace and Abbey. On our way, we stopped in a car park to let the baby sleep and we attempted to as well but he didn't stay asleep long so we headed over to Dunfermline.

Don't get your hopes up. Again, there really wasn't too much to see here. More ruins, etc., but they trick you with the palace part - it was once a palace but I guess at some point, the palace part became more important than the abbey part, something that also happened at Holyrood and it was of course wrecked and destroyed by someone, who I forget.

It is here that Robert the Bruce and David I and I think, St. Margaret are buried. There is a cool shot of the spire and it spells out Bruce on it - but I am not getting the camera back out and downloading it. You'll have to trust me.

The Prince enjoyed that room above - he almost threw his cars out of the windows, once out of a rain shaft and he could yell and hear his echo. The simple things. We saw The Bruce's burial spot and the baby charmed the old people working in the shop while Jess and I used the can.

We headed back to the car, changed a poopie diaper and then headed to Craigie's Farm for some berry picking. Unfortunately, Jess' plan of gooseberries was a bust because apparently, they suck and the only way to eat them is to bake them in to something. There wasn't a ton of raspberries left but I think we still did pretty good. After our picking, we headed to the play area and I had a beer and Jess had some syrupy, sugary thing.

He loved the fake tractor and the slide and probably just the opportunity to run around. We changed another shitty diaper and then headed over to the animals. Jess always makes fun of my animal sounds but apparently I am pretty damn good because all the chickens came over to us when I started my clucking - and they were all clucking back! I'm not sure what that says about me...