Last day in Scotland

I started writing my first post for Rome and then realized I had forgotten to wrap things up in the land of no sun. :).

We woke up to the sound of pretty intense rain. If confirmed for us that our plan of doing inside things was a good one.

We went to the National Museum of Scotland to see their exhibits on the history of Scotland. I knew in my head that there was Roman influence, but it was really interesting to see the combination of things that I recognize as roman and things that are stereotypically Celtic. Also, Viking influence. Dane is wearing Viking dress up clothes they provide for children.










You may have noticed in pictures recently that Dane has this umbrella that he uses as a pointer and a prop in pictures. Here, he's rowing this log boat.



I thought this was cool. In an area talking about how Scots Used natural resources, there was a whole case of how they used whale material. These are containers made from whale vertebrae.






Sorry this is hard to read. It describes different dairy products and the tools used to make them, pictured below.





This is a type of guillotine. What was most interesting to me is that it was already a museum piece by the time our nation was just a few years old.





This is a treasure chest, basically, with an elaborate lock on the underside of the lid. Gringotts, anyone?



And a precursor to the piano.


A really old Bible.



This was a wine bottle; I just thought it was pretty.


A weaving loom with an example of tartan being woven.





After the national museum, we grabbed a quick lunch



and walked through a few more museums.
One was a writers museum dedicated to the sir Walter Scott, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Robert Burns. It was mostly a collection of things that once belonged to them, but there was also this really cool book sculpture that had been left anonymously at the museum. Others like it had been left at other places in the city dedicated to literature in some way. I took a picture of it before I realized there was no photography allowed.







We also went to a tartan weaving mill, but it was more of a shop than a working mill. Dane did like the display of the kilt through the ages.






And, of course, the castle.






The rain had lightened slightly, so we walked up the main street to find a coffee shop to enjoy our last few hours in Scotland. Like my umbrella?



This was our view as we relaxed in the warm shop.


I'm so excited that in my next pictures I will be wearing shorts!

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