Ricky was going to a play at 14:30 so I just bought one ticket for myself and would go into the castle once he left for the show. We got food at the Southern Cross Cafe next door to the hostel because we could get a 15% off our check with our hostel card. Ricky got blueberry pancakes and I got the Full Scottish Breakfast, which included bacon, sausage, a sunny-side up egg on toast, hash browns, beans, and haggis.
We hung out in the hostel lounge until 13:00. We checked back in and got our new room.
Then I left for the Castle. I was glad to see it was far less crowded in the afternoon. The castle had a lot to see and many exhibits inside.
There was a military museum and a Scottish Royal Guard Museum that told the history of the Scots' military. The castle had been fought over for control many times for centuries between the Scottish and the English. The view from the top was incredible. You could seein every direction of the city including Arthur's Seat, a nearby "mountain" or large hill.
Apparently, it was at Arthur's Seat that someone proved that the Church's assumption of the world being 5000 years old was wrong. Inside of one of the buildings was the Scottish Crown Jewels and they were breathtaking.
After the castle, I had just enough time to visit St. Cecilia's Hall Museum of Instruments. The lady at the desk had to unlock the door for me because it was after 16:30 when they said they let the last admittance inside. It was 16:45, but thankfully, she allowed me to go inside. I looked at the hall on the bottom floor and it was filled with instruments. Many of which were stringed instruments such as guitars and lutes.
They had ones that dated back to the 17th & 18th centuries. Some of the fretwork was very impressive. I went upstairs and found two long halls filled with very old pianos, harpsichords, and clavichords.
The second upstairs hall had some instruments with amazing artwork on the side.
I was admiring one of the harpsichords that had a classical artwork on the underside of the top piece and oriental artwork lining the sides, when the gentleman who was playing one of the instruments noticed I was in the room.
There was only a couple people besides us in the building. He was very amiable and immediately started talking to me about the instruments. His name was John Raymond, which I found out in a later conservation as I was leaving.
He hold me that harpsichord I was looking at was very typical of painted harpsichords because during that time there was a lot of classical and Asian influences for instrumental artwork. He tried to play something on it but he didn't know any music that would fit its style. He walked over to the harpsichord right beside it and began playing a baroque-sounding piece that fit the style. He told me that he got interested in old Medieval, Baroque and Classical era instruments when he was a teenager and in his 20s, he started working with them. He has played piano for a while, but he admitted that he did not practice as seriously and as often as he would have liked due to the fact that he was more interested in repair and upkeep. He had been working at the museum for 30 years and only had 2 employees who currently worked under him. One of them was a younger man who was a luthier, who he was starting to teach about the harpsichord, clavichords and piano so he could take over for him when he retires.
John showed me many different instruments and played many of them for me. He had a wealth of knowledge about the instruments. He showed me one of the harpsichords he was in the process of repairing. The black keys needed to be replaced so he would look at the instrument for clues on how to repair them. They were made from pear wood. He pulled a white key out and showed me that there was black ink from the black key on top of it. He used that color to try and get the right color when stained the new keys black. He said he tried to add dark brown to the staining process since just black stain gave the keys too much of a charcoal black appearance.
The instruments John repaired were all unique so when he fixed them, he would have to tinker with the parts to get the right feel or action on the keyboards so that it played evenly. The museum closed when we were still talking so he walked me out 5 or 10 minutes past 17:00. I told him my brother and later my parents would definitely come here and visit. When I told him my last name was Drummond, he told me about how a Drummond helped development the area where the museum was back in the 19th century, which I remember reading something about when I visited the Museum of Edinburgh.
I walked back to the hostel lounge and met up with Ricky, who absolutely loved the play he saw. He said it was hilarious and that he was laughing the whole time.
Alex Canty came to the hostel and we went out to eat Indian food. I ordered the lamb curry with chicken and vegetables with a side of rice and garlic nan. I really like Indian food now. After dinner, we got a mini bottle of whiskey and started off our night of drinking. We bar hopped and eventually found some of the other people from Canty's group. After hanging out, Ricky and I headed back to the hostel. We fell asleep very quickly, after sorting everything out for the morning since we had to check out by 10:00. It was our last night together.
We woke up in the morning and got ready. We said our goodbyes and safe travels to each other. Those 3 weeks had gone by so quickly and we had the most fun together. It was so great to be able to spend time with Ricky since college had separated us from seeing each other often. We are even closer as brothers and I'm sure we will have many more adventures in the future. I couldn't ask for a better little brother.
I bought a bus ticket for Inverness that departed at 10:30. I slept a good amount on the bus and now I'm just waiting for my room at the Glen Mhor Hotel. It literally just got ready for me to go into as I wrote this sentence. Good timing.
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