{"id":10301,"date":"1998-07-01T22:20:05","date_gmt":"1998-07-01T19:20:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/?p=10301"},"modified":"2016-09-05T09:04:21","modified_gmt":"2016-09-05T06:04:21","slug":"stirling-to-melrose","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/stirling-to-melrose\/","title":{"rendered":"Stirling to Melrose"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"map\"<\/a><\/p>\n

11:29\u00a0am<\/p>\n

I\u2019m on a bus waiting to depart. Destination: Melrose. Yep. I\u2019ve had luck today. Here\u2019s how it\u2019s gone :<\/p>\n

1) Huge breakfast with extra bread and jam to eat for lunch\u00a0with peanut butter<\/p>\n

2) Walk to bus stop. Told bus to Edinburgh 2hrs. Train: 50 min. (travelling time)<\/p>\n

3) Go to train station. Fare to Edinburgh very similar (few p. difference at most. Less than \u00a35). Next train leaves in 10 min.<\/p>\n

4) Get to Edinburgh. Told to go to bus station. Get there on my own with no detours.<\/p>\n

5) Find bus to Melrose. Less than \u00a36. Leaves in 15 min. Time to get bed booked and buy a snack!<\/p>\n

6) I\u2019m on my way. Cost: a lot less than the train to Berwick!!!<\/p>\n

6:06 pm<\/p>\n

I\u2019m in the absolutely lovely Melrose youth hostel, a Victorian mansion. From the common room, I have a view of the abbey, which is even better from the dining room! I cannot believe just how different the Lowlands are from the Highlands. I slightly regret not bringing home some Highland dirt and a thistle when I had the chance. Oh, well. Scottish dirt is Scottish dirt!<\/p>\n

The Abbey was great and included an audio tour. I gave my last respects to Robert the Bruce at the site where his heart is buried. Yup, it made its way back!!! This is on thing I\u2019ve been most lucky with. (When the heart was found the second time, a year or so ago, I think, it was taken to Edinburgh for tests. There were incredible delays with getting it back to Melrose. I missed the burial by only day or two, but at least the heart was home when I went to Melrose, and not lying in some scientist\u2019s office.) It was like visiting a grave — I guess it was a grave. It was most moving, to say the least.<\/p>\n

So, I plan on two nights here, perhaps one in Dumfries (if I find a cheap place), two in Ayr, and one very near the airport ! Melrose is great in that everything is very nearby and the hills aren\u2019t very high! My trip is just about over and I don\u2019t feel that I\u2019ve wasted my time. It\u2019s a good feeling.<\/p>\n

8:16 pm<\/p>\n

I have not felt such peace and pure contentment since Colorado. I mean, I\u2019m sitting this close to ancient (okay early medieval to 19th century) ruins. Melrose is such a beautiful abbey, mostly red and yellow ochre, but there are other colours as well, best seen inside. Digress.<\/p>\n

I think I\u2019ve invented a new sport! The sport\u2019s name ? Mud skiing. It involves going hill walking in inappropriate attire such as worn down sneakers that\u00a0won\u2019t adhere to anything and light coloured jeans. Now, find a steep, slippery, muddy hill (you have to be at the top). Now, carefully pick your way down to the first muddy and slippery patch you can\u2019t see. Allow yourself to slip down it, gaining momentum. Once you\u2019ve stopped sliding, KEEP MOVING VERY QUICKLY until you reach the next muddy and slippery spot you can\u2019t see. Allow yourself to go full speed down that one, gaining more momentum. You should end up literally barrelling down the hill. The point of the exercise is to get to the bottom on your own two feet, without falling, without dirtying your clothes, and with a very minimal amount of mud on your shoes. Impossible ? Hell, I did it !<\/p>\n

10:20 pm<\/p>\n

Everything is just fine and perfect and wonderful. I feel such peace. I wish I could feel like this in the \u2018real\u2019 world. I called home and actually got (my mother). She\u2019s going to put some money in my account. Turns out I had a whole \u00a3100 left, but for some reason I was unable to extract half of it. Oh well, Friday I\u2019ll have the extra cash, so I\u2019m going to enjoy my weekend. Horseback riding, perhaps?! (I can\u2019t explain the frame of mind I was in as I wrote this entry. It was like I was floating on clouds. I had no worries, no stress, no negativity. It was pure bliss, I suppose.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

11:29\u00a0am I\u2019m on a bus waiting to depart. Destination: Melrose. Yep. I\u2019ve had luck today. Here\u2019s how it\u2019s gone : 1) Huge breakfast with extra bread and jam to eat for lunch\u00a0with peanut butter 2) Walk to bus stop. Told bus to Edinburgh 2hrs. Train: 50 min. (travelling time) 3) Go to train station. Fare […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[646,636,701,18,3,56],"tags":[853,792],"class_list":["post-10301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-edinburgh","category-europe","category-melrose","category-scotland","category-travel","category-uk","tag-accommodation","tag-religious-sitescemeteries"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10301\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}