Linlithgow Palace

For St. Andrew's Day, we decided to view Linlithgow Palace, birthplace of Mary, Queen of Scots and home to the Royal Stewarts. It has some lovely sculptural decoration still extant and most of the walls are still intact. You can climb to the top of the watchtower and see stunning views of Linlithgow Loch which stretches beside the castle.

Unfortunately, I had problems with my camera, so the photos I have all came from my phone, a poor substitute at the best of times. Several of these also came from the phone of my partner, so I cannot claim credit for the entire series.

The entranceway to the Palace

Windows of the Banquet Hall as seen from the courtyard

The courtyard fountain

Detail from the fountain

Detail from the fountain

Detail from the fountain

Admiring the view

The loch as seen from the palace

The palace and town from the watchtower, including St. Michael's Kirk tower (rt)

The palace from the peel

The cobbled road leading to the palace

Leaving the palace and entering the town

Leeds and York

Recently, I took a trip south to visit my partner's family in Leeds and on the way back we stopped in York. While in Leeds, we visited the Leeds City Market, an amazing market that has been running since the Victorian times, the Corn Exchange, now an upscale boutique mall, and the Leeds Museum. In York, we wandered the Shambles, saw the Minster, and just generally ambled through the streets. We went on the Jorvic Viking Village attraction, which is a rather unique approach to presenting history and archeology.  It vaguely reminded me of the train around Disneyland, but rather than passing the Grand Canyon and such, you're travelling through a Viking Village.

Anyway, if I stop to comment on all the photos, I'll be here all day and never actually get around to posting them, so here they are, without comment, photos from a trip to Leeds and York. Naturally, the first and last few photos were taken from the train...