It took us a while to get up in the morning. The hostel was actually very comfortable and clean. I would recommend it to anyone going to Edinburgh hands down. After we got ready, we made our way to the Bus station where we could learn which Bus to take to Rosslin to go to Rosslyn Chapel. Some people might recognize Rosslyn Chapel from the movie Da Vinci Code with Tom Hanks and the St. Clair family that is descended from Jesus. This is not true, but the Chapel is real. It is rumored that the chapel is the resting place of the holy grail, ark of the covenant, mummified head of Jesus, pieces of the real cross, and Templar treasure. None of these can be proven. The vault underneath the church is inaccessible (12 feet of earth and no known entrance). There are no plans to dig up the floor to search for anything. Cool nonetheless. The chapel was super pretty and filled with symbolism in the stone masonry. Again, I could not take pictures of the inside. For a long time, the church was empty, and a group of people tried to preserve the stone by applying this concrete plaster over the stone. This simply made the church grey and took out the natural color of stone, and did not allow the stones to dry themselves from water. Over years, the chapel was a green color from algae that hung on the walls and ceiling. To naturally affect change, a hood was built over the chapel to protect it from the rain, and has thus returned to a normal color. Inside the church, there is an arch with what looks like maize (corn) from North America, which could mean that Templars visited NA before Columbus and are connected with the Saint Claire family adding to the mystery. The other are two pillars in the front of the church. They are the master and apprentice pillars. The master completed one and left for Rome to get inspiration for the other. A trip like that would take many years, and in a dream, the apprentice had a dream and was told to construct the pillar from his dream. It was stunning, and so much more artistic and delicate than the masters pillar. As is a common theme with Scotland, the master killed the apprentice, and was then killed by the other apprentices. The masters pillar was covered up to hide it, and was discovered a few years ago because the stone fell away revealing a pattern underneath. Another cool thing about the chapel is that there are Christian and pagaen elements all over. The green man is everywhere. It's really interesting. Both Sam and I were glad that we visited the chapel, and enjoyed it more than we thought we might. Another solid recommendation to those coming to Scotland.
Our next stop was to get to Craigmillar Castle. However there was no way to reach Craigmillar by bus unless we went back to Edinburgh and found the right bus. We found the Bus and found our way to Craigmillar Castle Park. It was super foggy outside and misty. We could only see 30 feet clearly before things would disappear into the fog. It was really cool to walk and then see this castle begin to loom out of the fog. We wandered around the grounds around the castle and could not find a way in. Walls and fences blocked our entry. Eventually we found the entrance (visitor center) and found out it was closed since 4. We arrived close to 6. However, we were so intrigued that we were determined to come back the following day.
Our next mission was to find dinner and visit Greyfriars Kirkyard. We did not stay long there, attempted to find Tom Riddle from Harry Potter, but were unsuccessful. For dinner we went to the Greyfriars Bobby's Bar just by the cemetery. I got fish and chips and Sam got Haggis Neeps and Tatties. I convinced him to get it, and he liked it. We met two couples from Texas (in their 40's or 50's) who we talked to for a few minutes. We left Greyfriars and went around the corner to the Sandy Bell's pub which is known for its renowned traditional music. We got there early, so we sat around for a while. The music was really good. The atmosphere was great and very jolly. I took a video of one of the songs, but the fiddle player looked at me and shook her hand at me, at which point I put the camera down and stopped recording. But a really good experience nonetheless.
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