William Wallace Experience pt. 2 (Oct. 16)

Today was all about William Wallace. It was a promising day. Our first and basically only stop before going back to Saint Andrew's was the Wallace monument. It's this really tall tower that sits on this hill where William Wallace held camp before he defeated the English at Sterling Bridge. We ascended up the large crag of rock on foot to reach the tower. Outside the tower was a period clothed Scotsman, who fought with William Wallace. We learned about where Wallace came from, and the history behind Sterling. To get to the top of the tower, one had to climb in this narrow stone spiral stair case tower. There were 246 steps to the top. Along the way were little exhibit areas giving history. One was the hall of Heroes, and another held the actually William Wallace Sword. Cool huh? I will let the pictures do the talking.

 The spiral section of the tower on the left hand side is the stair case

 Architectural shot

 The Sword of William Wallace

(it was about as tall as me)

 Robert the Bruce

 Robert Burns

 Sir Walter Scott

 View from the top of the tower

 It was really cold and windy at the top. A small child could have been blown off the side, luckily there were no small children. 

 The battle of Sterling took place here. Wallace trapped the English on that little patch of land.

 FREEDOM! (sorry John)

 left to right: Adam 'the champ', Felicitas, John, Caroline, Andrew (back), Cooper (middle), Lauren (crouching), Ashely, Emily, Max

The Stair Case of DOOM! for some.

Our host family made us lunch, we ate that, watched the end of Back to the Future and got a mini bus back to St. Andrew's. I took a nap the whole way back. Then it was back into the routine of Saint Andrew's University life, hitting the books.