Lord of the ring...
Today was another fun, busy day in Edinburgh. As usual, we took a train from Queen's Street Station in Glasgow to the end of the line in Edinburgh. We learned that we don't need to wait in line to buy tickets—they have ATM style machines that are much faster and great if you don't have any questions to ask.
We had coffee and muffins on the train and arrived about noon. After another brief stop in the tourist information, we set out along the Royal Mile and saw the old part of the city. So many buildings have so much history. One building had an interesting origin—the result of a golf game.
Eventually we reached the end of the Royal Mile at the Hollyrood Palace. This is actually an official residence of the Queen when she visits Scotland. It is very impressive, well kept, and has a great deal of history. I was very taken with the fountain in the courtyard.
The one exception is the abbey next to the palace. It was destroyed because it had been used as a Catholic church and I suspect that there was no motivation to restore it for that reason.
Again, pictures weren't allowed in some sections of the Palace, but we got some good ones and got another book. I really enjoyed the palace. We ran into an excellent tour guide who was giving a private tour. We listened in on part of her talk and I was amazed at her detailed knowledge of the history of the Royal families, the art, furniture, and everything about the castle. Those folks were getting their monies worth!
Next we headed back up the Royal Mile which runs from Hollyrood Palace to Edinburgh Castle and stopped at the base of the Mound at the National Portrait Museum. The building was purpose built as a gallery and is another amazing building. It houses a nice collection of art.
While I was admiring one picture, I noticed the ring the man was wearing and instinctively felt around for my wedding ring. This is a pretty natural instinct, I think. The problem was, my ring wasn't on my finger. My mind started to race to remember when I had it last. Now I should say that I have thought about taking it off several times, but had resisted because I didn't want to chance loosing it. At home, I take it off often, but I thought it best to leave it on while here. I said something to Laurie who got a panicked look on her face. I remembered that earlier I had dropped a coin in the street and it made a noise. I retrieved it and we went on our way. Now I wondered if my ring had slipped off my finger at the same time. I could not imagine why that would be so, my ring fits snugly—but fingers swell and shrink with temperature, humidity, etc. and I feared that the ring had come off and I hadn't noticed. Since there was nothing to be done now about the ring, we finished our visit to the gallery and went on to other things but my mind was stuck on what might have happened to the ring. I didn't remember taking it off, but I couldn't remember if I had it on when we left the house either. I kept thinking about a time when I jumped into a pool and my class ring came off and I didn't notice for about 30 minutes. Lucky for me, my friend Dave Bloom found the ring while playing water polo.
We had coffee and muffins on the train and arrived about noon. After another brief stop in the tourist information, we set out along the Royal Mile and saw the old part of the city. So many buildings have so much history. One building had an interesting origin—the result of a golf game.
Eventually we reached the end of the Royal Mile at the Hollyrood Palace. This is actually an official residence of the Queen when she visits Scotland. It is very impressive, well kept, and has a great deal of history. I was very taken with the fountain in the courtyard.
The one exception is the abbey next to the palace. It was destroyed because it had been used as a Catholic church and I suspect that there was no motivation to restore it for that reason.
Again, pictures weren't allowed in some sections of the Palace, but we got some good ones and got another book. I really enjoyed the palace. We ran into an excellent tour guide who was giving a private tour. We listened in on part of her talk and I was amazed at her detailed knowledge of the history of the Royal families, the art, furniture, and everything about the castle. Those folks were getting their monies worth!
Next we headed back up the Royal Mile which runs from Hollyrood Palace to Edinburgh Castle and stopped at the base of the Mound at the National Portrait Museum. The building was purpose built as a gallery and is another amazing building. It houses a nice collection of art.
While I was admiring one picture, I noticed the ring the man was wearing and instinctively felt around for my wedding ring. This is a pretty natural instinct, I think. The problem was, my ring wasn't on my finger. My mind started to race to remember when I had it last. Now I should say that I have thought about taking it off several times, but had resisted because I didn't want to chance loosing it. At home, I take it off often, but I thought it best to leave it on while here. I said something to Laurie who got a panicked look on her face. I remembered that earlier I had dropped a coin in the street and it made a noise. I retrieved it and we went on our way. Now I wondered if my ring had slipped off my finger at the same time. I could not imagine why that would be so, my ring fits snugly—but fingers swell and shrink with temperature, humidity, etc. and I feared that the ring had come off and I hadn't noticed. Since there was nothing to be done now about the ring, we finished our visit to the gallery and went on to other things but my mind was stuck on what might have happened to the ring. I didn't remember taking it off, but I couldn't remember if I had it on when we left the house either. I kept thinking about a time when I jumped into a pool and my class ring came off and I didn't notice for about 30 minutes. Lucky for me, my friend Dave Bloom found the ring while playing water polo.
We were both really tired of walking and I was anxious to to take advantage of a sale at the Clark's shoe store we had passed the day before. I found a couple of great deals on shoes and slipped on a pair for the rest of the day. Just changing shoes made my feet feel much better.
Next went on to the National Gallery just accross the street which is open late on Thursdays. Actually, many of the galleries are open late on Thursdays which is really handy. They have a wonderful collection at the Scottish National Gallery. We saw many paintings by both well known and lessor-known painters. Many that are older than our country and yet displayed plainly without fan faire. No ropes, no glass…just the occasional guard and humidity meter.
When they were closing we walked out to see "what was on" for dinner. We checked our handy restaurant guide which is on loan to us from one of our neighbors. We were really tired of walking and hungry so we weren't making a decision very fast. A guard started towards us and I assumed he was going to ask us to leave. But no, this is Scotland and people are friendly. He spent 15 minutes or so giving us suggestions for dinner and then told us that he had to lock the closer gate (which went up some amazingly steep stairs) but we could get out the side gate which is actually closer to where we wanted to head anyway. What a delightful man.
We walked a bit further—always finding new things like the fact that John Muir was born in Edinburgh. Finally we found a middle eastern place that looked okay. I had a roasted lamb with chicken liver and rice and Laurie had a delicious chic pea stew type dish. She made the better choice I think—the lamb was good, but I was tired and kept thinking about my ring. After dinner we decided to call it a night—we still had a 45 minute train ride back and a bus ride—about an hour's journey and we had been walking all day. Everywhere you walk in Edinburgh and Glasgow is pretty much granite so after a while your feet hurt.
When we got home, I dashed up stairs to see if, by some chance I had taken my ring off before going to bed. On the way home I had half convinced myself that I had…but it was equally possible it was lost on the street in Edinburgh that morning and I'd never see it again. I looked around and didn't find it. I called the insurance company to see if it was covered. If it had been stolen, it would have been covered, but "mysterious loss" wasn't covered. I wasn't surprised because I think I had decided that my ring could be replaced and so self-insurance was a better bet than the premium. Laurie's ring is covered for "the works" because it is worth a lot more than mine. I determined that the next day we'd stop by the Edinburgh police department and file a report in the unlikely event that someone was honest enough to turn it in. Then, I spent some time registering for a Computer Forensics program I am planning on pursuing when I return home. The SMCC registration site is pretty poor. Several things don't work properly or require that you go back and forth between multiple web pages to complete a process. In the end, I passed the first test—I am registered for 12 units that begin 3 days after I arrive back at home. I am pretty excited about this, even though I haven't had time to research exactly what the job opportunities are after completing the program. However, it involves law and computers which both interest me. Although there were rumors that the market is up, the little bit of news I have read while gone is that there is more bad news. I am not excited about the current prospects and want to find something new to pursue—even if it means starting over to some extent.
As I finished my registration, Laurie came downstairs to tell me that she was going to make my day. Now every husband likes to hear those words, but they could mean a lot of things. In this case, she meant something very specific— she had found my ring in the sheets of the bed. Apparently I had slipped it off in my sleep the night before. Even though the ring could have been replaced, I was very happy to have found it!
Next went on to the National Gallery just accross the street which is open late on Thursdays. Actually, many of the galleries are open late on Thursdays which is really handy. They have a wonderful collection at the Scottish National Gallery. We saw many paintings by both well known and lessor-known painters. Many that are older than our country and yet displayed plainly without fan faire. No ropes, no glass…just the occasional guard and humidity meter.
When they were closing we walked out to see "what was on" for dinner. We checked our handy restaurant guide which is on loan to us from one of our neighbors. We were really tired of walking and hungry so we weren't making a decision very fast. A guard started towards us and I assumed he was going to ask us to leave. But no, this is Scotland and people are friendly. He spent 15 minutes or so giving us suggestions for dinner and then told us that he had to lock the closer gate (which went up some amazingly steep stairs) but we could get out the side gate which is actually closer to where we wanted to head anyway. What a delightful man.
We walked a bit further—always finding new things like the fact that John Muir was born in Edinburgh. Finally we found a middle eastern place that looked okay. I had a roasted lamb with chicken liver and rice and Laurie had a delicious chic pea stew type dish. She made the better choice I think—the lamb was good, but I was tired and kept thinking about my ring. After dinner we decided to call it a night—we still had a 45 minute train ride back and a bus ride—about an hour's journey and we had been walking all day. Everywhere you walk in Edinburgh and Glasgow is pretty much granite so after a while your feet hurt.
When we got home, I dashed up stairs to see if, by some chance I had taken my ring off before going to bed. On the way home I had half convinced myself that I had…but it was equally possible it was lost on the street in Edinburgh that morning and I'd never see it again. I looked around and didn't find it. I called the insurance company to see if it was covered. If it had been stolen, it would have been covered, but "mysterious loss" wasn't covered. I wasn't surprised because I think I had decided that my ring could be replaced and so self-insurance was a better bet than the premium. Laurie's ring is covered for "the works" because it is worth a lot more than mine. I determined that the next day we'd stop by the Edinburgh police department and file a report in the unlikely event that someone was honest enough to turn it in. Then, I spent some time registering for a Computer Forensics program I am planning on pursuing when I return home. The SMCC registration site is pretty poor. Several things don't work properly or require that you go back and forth between multiple web pages to complete a process. In the end, I passed the first test—I am registered for 12 units that begin 3 days after I arrive back at home. I am pretty excited about this, even though I haven't had time to research exactly what the job opportunities are after completing the program. However, it involves law and computers which both interest me. Although there were rumors that the market is up, the little bit of news I have read while gone is that there is more bad news. I am not excited about the current prospects and want to find something new to pursue—even if it means starting over to some extent.
As I finished my registration, Laurie came downstairs to tell me that she was going to make my day. Now every husband likes to hear those words, but they could mean a lot of things. In this case, she meant something very specific— she had found my ring in the sheets of the bed. Apparently I had slipped it off in my sleep the night before. Even though the ring could have been replaced, I was very happy to have found it!
posted by Michael at Thursday, July 15, 2004
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