While I was in Edinburgh, I took a break from the city last Saturday and went on a tour to Loch Ness. Within a couple of hours of leaving Edinburgh, the fan in the bus went out, so we had a full tour bus with no air flow (most buildings and cars here have no air conditioning to begin with) on about a 70 F day, which is warm for the Scottish Highlands. For me, it was worth the minor discomfort to get to visit the most famous lake in the world. As the tour was behind schedule, we only had time to take the one-hour cruise on the lake, but this afforded me a rare opportunity to capture some images of the lake's most famous resident and to take some beautiful pictures of the lake on a sunny day, which is almost as rare for that area as a sighting of the monster. On the way back, we passed through Glencoe, where 38 members of the MacDonald clan were massacred in 1692. All of the clans in Scotland were supposed to swear an oath of allegiance to King William, who had recently taken over from the deposed James II, the grandson of Mary, Queen of Scots. Due to some bad weather and some red tape, the representative of the MacDonald clan technically missed the deadline of Jan. 1, 1692 for this oath, although he attempted to give the oath before the deadline and it was evetually accepted by someone. English troops were sent in to live in Glencoe among the MacDonalds, then after about 12 days the troops carried out their orders to massacre the people living there. In the end, an inquiry by a Scottish council blamed the Secretary of State over Scotland, John Dalrymple, for the massacre, as well as the Campbell clan, with whom the MacDonalds had a long, bitter feud, which Dalrymple took advantage of in plotting the massacre. This remains one of the most tragic events in all of Scottish history.

On Sunday, I got to visit the Palace of Holyroodhouse, used by the Queen when she visits Edinburgh. The queen was in Edinburgh when I arrived, but had apparently left by Sunday morning, so the palace was again open to visitors. Mary Queen of Scots lived in the palace for a few years, so this palace saw its share of domestic violence, with Mary's private secretary David Rizzio murdered in the palace by her then-husband, Lord Darnley. Their marriage broke apart, and after James was born, Darnley was killed in an explosion at a house in Edinburgh, where he was recuperating from an illness.

Before I left Edinburgh on Sunday, I went to the National Galleries of Scotland. Since I was short on time, I focused on the most famous galleries, with notable artists from the Renaissance up to the 20th century. I knew the galleries must be good if a novice like me was able to recognize so many of the artists: Titian, Van Dyke, Raphael, Rembrandt, Peter Paul Rubens (NOT Pee Wee Herman for you wise guys), El Greco, Monet, Van Gogh, Paul Cezzane, Paul Gauguin, Edgar Degas (most noted as a sculpturist who made bronze molds), John Singer Sargent, and Thomas Gainsborough. You can tell that I was quite impressed with their collection, or at least the parts that I saw. Now I am looking forward to visiting the National Gallery here in London, whenever I get around to it.

A couple of other things I did in Edinburgh: the Scotch Whiskey Experience, and a Mercat tour under South Bridge. On the whiskey tour, I ran into a couple of undergrads from Georgia Tech, who are studying at Oxford as part of a large study-abroad group from GT, representing many different majors. The tour under South Bridge, which was classified as a ghost tour, took me through the vaults under South Bridge, which is actually invisible from the street, as it is covered by buildings. The bridge, featured last year in an episode of Cities of the Underworld on the History Channel, was built in the 1780s as a viaduct over a narrow valley between two hills. As the people of Edinburgh had been afraid of English invasion in centuries past, the city had been built upward within its walls, and buildings were likewise built around and on top of South Bridge, thus creating the enclosed spaces under 18 of its 19 arches. Many different tradesmen, such as cobblers, practiced their crafts in the vaults during the early days, but eventually the leaky bridge, which had not been waterproofed, forced the reputable trades to move elsewhere. Illegal businesses, such as body-snatching, moved in to the vaults. The ghosts that are said to inhabit the vaults range from the early period to the later criminal period. I didn't have any paranormal experiences, but I wouldn't say that the ghost stories are fictional accounts.