Another one from Provost Skene’s house. It seems like he was producer of GTA3-5 (not involved in one or two) – at least if I believe Wikipedia as much as a museum caption. Perhaps the distinction is akin to being responsible for the Star Trek motion pictures, but skipping the first one and just starting with the Wrath of Khan. Khaaaaaaaaaaaan!
A very cool museum in the Aberdeen city center – with salutes to famous Aberdonians. They made the first MRI scanner here! (And interestingly made their own iron lung after seeing one in America …)
A different flavor of castle! This one was apparently occupied until around 1950. They have a a ParkRun here! It also has a lovely garden – hope to be back there in spring when more of the plants are in bloom.
So, as we are settling into a more routine routine, to some extent – a lot of these posts will reflect a backlog. Some will even be (sort of) intersectional – where medical research meets history so to speak. This isn’t about a clinical trial – but this suit was worn by a plague doctor. The weird beak thing was a pretty intense mask (filled with lavender and other herbs to ward off the miasma – but actually pretty effectively filter out airborne Yersinia pestis). At times in my medical career I have wished for some lavender in my mask … sometimes for toxic sock syndrome / sometimes for other things.
Part 1. Just about 20 minutes south of Aberdeen in Stonehaven (which has a unique heated saltwater pool that opens 25 May) is THE castle to see in Scotland. The Crown Jewels (which we did NOT photo in Edinburgh as that is banned) were hidden here from Oliver Cromwell, and co. I have never watched Game of Thrones but apparently this has something to do with it.
We saw the Edinburgh castle. There is a ton of history to see here. I think the social connections only allow the “featured” photo through so if you can’t see the other pictures here – be sure to head to the site islesandtrials.org .
I feel some complicated feels about how we owe the American ideal of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness to a lot of people (including some imprisoned here way back.) Hopefully the pursuit of happiness will return to favour soon.
Other fascinating or cool stuff here includes the Crown Jewels (photography not allowed), the history of Scottish involvement in many wars, the history of the various takeovers of the castle, and the tremendous views of the city.
I kept saying you can see a bit of the Firth of Forth rail bridge from here – and while I was obsessed with bridges as a kid – my kids were thoroughly umimpressed https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forth_Bridge
We took the train 2.5 hours down to Edinburgh to see some different sites while the young ones have break. Here is St. Giles’ Cathedral – from the website – “St Giles’ Cathedral, founded in 1124 by King David I, has been a working church for almost 900 years. A backdrop to Scotland’s turbulent religious history, it has seen the seeds of civil war sown and been John Knox’s parish church during the Reformation. It is still an important centre for civic services such as the Kirking of the Parliament and services for Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle.”
Aberdeen is known as the Granite City. Our house had granite quarried from this large quarry (now a pond) a few blocks away.
Isles and Trials 