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By Tom Allin

We stopped and explored the St. Giles Cathedral during our Royal Mile walk. The Cathedral stands out in my mind for two reasons: 1) the purpose of the Thistle Chapel and 2) the carvings within the Chapel.

History says a church has stood on this spot since 854 but the Cathedral building mostly dates from the 15^th – 19^th century.  A primary reason for very little of the first churches remains being available to view is invading English armies torched these churches twice in the 1400s.  St. Giles was built as a Catholic church but today is considered the primary church of the Church of Scotland and the “Mother Church of Presbyterianism”.

The Reformation reformer John Knox (1514 – 1572) preached his sermons from St. Giles.  Knox led the Scottish change from Catholicism to Protestantism.  The Scottish Parliament in 1560 decreed Scotland was a Protestant country.  Knox also played a role in the dethroning and eventual beheading of Mary Queen of Scots.  In today’s world Knox would be called misogynistic but in his time he held the common (male) thought that women were not capable of being leaders, etc.

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By Tom Allin

Yesterday was a Rest Day – I went to the grocery store and Nancy did laundry and we both caught up on emails, reading and resting.  Our one-bedroom apartment is large, contemporary in furnishings, and comfortable with lots of windows. 

Today we have decided to tackle the Royal Mile using Rick Steves as our guide or at least his tour outlined in his guidebook.  We Uber’ed to Edinburgh Castle to save our legs for a long day of walking.

Mistake on my part was I didn’t make a ticket reservation for Edinburg Castle and no tickets were available for the following three days we would be here.  Reservations is a way of travel in the UK – damn.

I like the justice system for determining witches.  If accused, you were tied up and thrown into a swampy lake.  If you sank (and drowned) you were innocent.  If you floated, you were guilty of being a witch and burned at the stake.

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We overslept this morning – I set my alarm for 7:30 PM instead of 7:30 AM. I was awake about two minutes before the owner of the Horse and Hound knocked on our door at 9:00 AM letting us know we were late for breakfast. However, by 10:00 we were driving the winding single lane roads with abbeys to see and Edinburgh to sleep as our goals for the day.

We enjoyed the Horse and Hound Pub because of its name not its small room. However, we thought the small room was a great room because it was the only room within 25 miles or more that was available to two Americans who aren’t used to making reservations more than 24 to 48 hours in advance. The pub had beer and pub food which means the beer was good and the food was OK.

Leaving Horse and Hound we had less than an eight-mile journey which I drove in less than 30 minutes. What was amazing about this trip was I made no wrong turns and there was a parking space in front of the abbey ruins – I am not sure which was the bigger miracle.

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We are in York; luggage is in our apartment and therefore it is time to go exploring.  

I hadn’t taken 20 steps when I could see Monks Bar in the very near distance poking out above the buildings in front of me.  Monks Bar is one of the primary gates through the old city wall.  Monks Bar was built in stages in the 1400s with the last stage – top story – completed by Richard III in 1484.  Monks Bar originally was constructed with a gated barbican and a series of murder holes from which defenders dropped rocks, etc. on to attackers.

The City Wall was primarily built in the 13th century and extensively renovated in the 1800s.

The city wall fortifications consisted of two sections of wall, one swamp, and one lake (for the king to fish).  The stone wall is very narrow and not particularly high.  However, most of the stone wall is built on top of a previous dirt mound fortification so that from outside an opposing army was looking at 20’ of a very steep dirt incline and then 10 to 15 feet of stone wall.  This made it very difficult to bring siege machines close to the wall and almost impossible to lean a ladder against the wall.  I wouldn’t want to be part of an attacking force.

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