This updating after the fact thing is going to be rather difficult, I think! Must look back through the pictures, to remind myself of the day! Ohyeah! Linlithgow Palace.... Caroline had to work today, so she foisted me off onto Ronnie and his mates. Neil came to pick Ronnie and I up to head to the Palace, which was about a half hour away from Livingston, I think. We had a nice chat in the car about learning to drive in Scotland and Canada, and the differences/similarities -- and there was some mocking of Ronnie happening in there too, for he was the only non-driver in the car. The mocking of Ronnie was to be the theme du jour anyway, so might as well start early! We parked at the train station, and hot footed it into the town proper and up to the palace, which was bustling with activity. Once there, we found Fi and Andy -- two Firanites, so I was acquainted with them online already, at least -- and settled down right at the jousting lines to watch. From where we were situated, it was harder to see other events unless you got up to go and check 'em out, which people did from time to time. I myself went off to explore the palace and take pictures.

Linlithgow Palace was the birthplace of Mary, Queen of Scots. I climbed the far tower, and nearly tossed my cookies when I got to the top... I'm not usually afraid of heights, but for some reason, I was dizzy this day, and I was clutching my camera rather hard. There were just so many people up there, the walkway narrow, and with me being so clumsy, I was SURE I was going to drop my camera a gazillion feet into the courtyard below. Thankfully, thoughts did not manifest into truth!! This was the first GORGEOUS day in Scotland -- the first day of sun, that I was sure was going to last and last. And if I thought the weather changed quickly at home, well... Lower Mainland BC is no match for Scotland, let me tell you, as I was to find out consistently during my time there. Within hours, it started to threaten rain, but thankfully it held off until we were indoors. The event was great fun, and the performers quite good at what they did -- in fact, so good, that one of the jousters, Sir Steven, injured himself during the first set, knocking his shoulder out, so he had to be replaced by one of the younger squires, who was more eye candy than a good knight. Ah well, it's all the same difference to me ;)

After the event was through, we wandered down into town and to a pub to wait for Caroline to get off work and come and join us. This session started a massive 'pick on Ronnie' time, which had him eventually hold out and stop talking to us for a half hour. It got to the point where we were all quite concerned about genuinely upsetting him -- in the end he was fine, and we backed off a bit, but hell... I was just glad it wasn't me getting teased to death for a change. Usually I'm the one who gets it, being unable to resist rising to the occasion when baited! We couldn't get into our pub of choice for dinner, though, so wandered off to find a meal elsewhere... by this time, everyone was pretty much sacked out for the day, and we ended up just going home where bed was to be had, and rather early. I was off to Edinburgh again for the day, anyway, so wanted my energy!

after seeing Roslyn, we stopped in Linlithgow. We had just a look of the Palace. It was a Medieval and Rennaissance castle, now ruined, but enough of it still stands for us to be able to conjure up in the imagination what life in such a vast place must have been like!!

When we arrived, there was a wedding inside. You know, I´m a girl, and I like to see how are weddings around the world!! ;-) so for me, it was exciting to see men dressed in his kilts, and women absolutely marvelous!

After that we went for a walk in the park which went round the palace. We fed the ducks and returned to the car.