Scotland Day 1

This past weekend we drove up to Scotland. We left Saturday morning and drove most of the day. It took us 7 hours with stops. We probably should have left Friday night and driven at least part of the way, so that we could've had a little more time there. On Saturday in a place called Dundonald, they were having Highland Games that we wanted to go see. The games consist of big burly scottish guys in kilts lifting heavy logs and throwing them and stuff. We thought it seemed pretty cool. They actually have these Highland Games all throughout the summer with each town having them at various times. There were a couple more that same weekend we were there, but we had other things planned. So by the time we arrived in Dundonald, we had missed most of the games. This one was held at an old castle called Dundonald Castle. It was high up on this tall hill that we had to climb up. This was a really neat old castle. There was a big open room on the ground floor and then the second floor had a walkway around the edge looking down on the ground floor. Then we climbed up this tiny spiral staircase to the next floor. The roof had collapsed, so it was open up top. There were tiny rooms on the ends; but we weren't sure

what they were for. It didn't look like there were any bedrooms, but who knows. It wasn't a very big castle.

Dundonald Castle

View from top floor
Girls being silly in the castle




Hansen girls--you'll appreciate this: when we were coming back down the stairs to the main level of the castle, there was one girl practicing on the bagpipes and she was playing the beginning part of the "The Kiss" from Last of the Mohicans. It was so cool! It sounded just like it did in the movie.

Anyways, it was neat to see such an old castle. There was even a small prison down underneath that they called the pit. You climb donw this ladder into a small opening and there was a small room with no windows or doors. Spooky!

After looking at the castle, we went back down to the games--which was a grassy field, which thanks to all the rain was a complete muddy mess. The busdriver warned us that we should have brought our wellies (rain boots) but I hadn't even thought of bringing those when I was packing. The would've come in handy, though. Like I said earlier, we missed most of the games which we were upset about, but we did get to see the tug-o-war--and that was it. At the end, they had at least 20 different pipe bands (bagpipe players and drummers) who all got together and played the same song and marched in this field. It was pretty awesome to hear that big of a group play. You'll have to watch the video and hear for yourself. The whole atmosphere of the games was pretty awesome--we've decided that the next time we come back to Scotland, we want to spend a whole day at one of these things.

The Pipe Bands

After that, we had to keep driving to our hotel near Glasgow. When we finally got there we all had to go to the bathroom. Maggie was the first one to get in the bathroom, but when she was done, she couldn't get the lock open. I guess it was stuck (or really hard to turn--come to find out.) Garrett got out his leatherman and tried to pick the lock, but couldn't get it. So he called the front desk and had someone come up to help. They kept trying to get her to turn it each way, but it still wasn't working. Finally, they had to take the handle off the door and use Garrett's leatherman to get it unlocked. She was in there for a good 20 minutes. Luckily she kept calm the whole time and didn't freak out. She told me later that she had said a prayer to help her get out and she felt calm while she waited. I'm glad she knew she could turn to Heavenly Father for help. Garrett was worried that they'd have to take the door off. Luckily, it didn't come to that!