Craigmillar castle is just a bus ride away, though we had to take the "bus from hell," as Steve calls it. It's not a very direct route. And the bus driver is Satan. Okay, not really on that last bit.
That long horizontal wall? Curtain wall. The purpose of the curtain wall was to protect the interior of the castle. They were often connected by flanking towers which housed castle defenders. These towers even had latrines for the defenders. This concludes your castle lesson.
Laird for a day
Another reason Steve warned us Craigmillar was not the most user-friendly castle is because the bus does not take you to the castle entrance. Where the bus drops off, you have to walk nearly a mile along a road that has no footpath and can get dangerous with the traffic. But we soldiered on.
The bus driver was very un-Satan-like and told us where to get off for the castle. He reiterated to be careful because there was no footpath.
The walk got slightly nerve-wracking in a few spots. Definitely could use a sidewalk. Even trooping single-file, you have no choice but to walk in the road at times, and around some blind corners at that. But we made it to the castle, which has the most intact curtain wall of any castle in Scotland. In other words, it's one of the most castle-y looking castles.
On the way back to the bus stop, we noticed a paved path in the woods on the side opposite the side we'd walked on. "I wonder if that goes to the bus stop?" We wondered. It did. Turns out, we discovered the Craigmillar park walking path, a nice paved path wide enough for bikes, walking dogs, and joggers, and far from the dangerous road. Steve obviously didn't know, nor did the bus driver. So if you go to Craigmillar castle, the path is on the right side.
Near the bus stop, a shady looking guy looked us over before crossing the street before the green man appeared (the Danes would be outraged). A kind old lady waiting for the green man with us leaned towards me and said quietly "Excuse me, but I'd be careful with that camera here if I were you." (You have to say that voice in your head with a thick Scottish accent.) I zipped my jacket up to cover the camera around my neck, the green man came, and we got to our bus stop.
At home, I told Steve about the lady. He said, "Oh yeah, I meant to tell you Craigmillar is kind of rough."
Steve and I prepped for our rehearsal. Steve had booked a couple of hours at the rehearsal hall where he practices music with friends. It's great because the place has amps and mics, even a sound board. You just bring your instruments and practice away without worrying if you're disturbing the neighbors. There were a few songs we planned to play together, and Steve had backing tracks of drums.
I posed this one with the timer while Steve was still fooling around with the backing tracks
Totally staged, but the essence of what we did for two hours
It took about half an hour to get set up, but Steve soon had the backing tracks playing through his iPhone and he recorded our attempts on his laptop. We did Crystal (an original that we wrote about a year ago), then Band on the Run (Wings cover), A Forest (Cure cover), and Hurts the Most (an original we wrote about 20 years ago, though it has evolved heavily over the years). It was a blast. Neither of us had practiced singing the songs and playing guitar at the same time enough to make it really good, but hey, it was a rehearsal, not a gig. I especially liked playing a couple of our own songs together that we had written via the digital magic of Garageband from across our respective sides of the ocean. First time we'd ever played them together live. Band on the Run got the most laughs. Steve took the main vocals. He was using a little book of chords and lyrics, but he couldn't turn the pages while playing, so he faked the lyrics he couldn't remember. We were cracking up. Some may scoff at a couple of forty-somethings stumbling their way through an old Wings song, but darn it, it's a fun song, and best of times to butcher it with my musical-partner and best buddy.
The two hours went by way too fast. Listening back to what Steve recorded made us laugh even more. Want to hear? Follow this link to hear Hurts the Most.
For dinner, Steve cooked his second signature dish: fish and chips (the first was homemade pizza). He breaded the fish in oats, which was a nice twist. The chips were handcut: regular potatoes and sweet potatoes. Delicious.
After Bella went to sleep, Cristina, Steve, and I walked to the 24-hour Tesco to get fixings for lasagna. I guess one of my signature dishes is spinach lasagna. (Any dish that is requested for a birthday dinner from someone in the family qualifies as a signature dish.) It can take some time to assemble, so I decided to do it in the morning before we started our day.
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