Scotland Day 8

We started the day by taking a 45 minute bus ride out of Edinburgh to visit Rosslyn Chapel. Rosslyn Chapel has magnificent architecture and history, and most recently was a major feature in the last part of Dan Brown's book, The Da Vinci Code.

We got there just in time for the free guided tour, which I highly recommend, as the guide points out many of the interior features and mysteries of the chapel that we would've missed. And by tour, I mean everyone sits in the pews for 30 minutes and looks around as the guide gives an overview of the architecture and carvings. It seemed as though almost every carving had a some purpose or meaning (and they are still trying to figure out the hidden meaning of some features). After the Da Vinci Code came out, the chapel has attracted some crazies who believe the Holy Grail is inside the chapel (for instance, one visitor attempted to saw through the famous Apprentice Pillar believing the grail was hidden inside... of course they caught him before he could do much damage). One mystery I thought was interesting is that there are carvings of corn in the chapel. The crop was unknown in Europe at the time of the chapel's construction and was not grown in Europe until hundreds of years later. Does this mean others traveled to America before Columbus?

When we got back to Edinburgh, we did some walking around. We walked through the Princes Gardens, with views of Edinburgh castle and the Royal Mile in the background:

Later in the afternoon, we walked down to the Royal Botanic Gardens:

For our last dinner in Scotland, we ate at a nice restaurant nearby our hotel, Iris. For fun afterwards we found a nearby "dive" bar called The Black Rose. We were definitely way over dressed compared to the rest of the clientele, but we didn't care, and had a great time rocking to some 80s hair band music!

Since our flight home the next day was on the 10th anniversary of 9/11, we were really hoping security would be enhanced at the Edinburgh airport. Well, we obviously made it home safely, and we can't wait to travel back to Scotland again!