Where do I begin?

Edinburgh, Scotland Today we explored more of the National Museum of Scotland, to see what could top Dolly. We were most interested in our friends the Vikings, but ended up starting a little earlier in history — with prehistory.

This museum took a very thorough look at the evolution of all the rock formations that eventually created Scotland, which, of course, was fascinating. I was most interested in their representation of early Scots. Who knew the race was descended from one of the galaxies in Star Wars?

Some artifacts from earliest days have been recovered, but nothing was arranged chronologically, so the Roman remains kept popping up with Christian imagery next to much earlier religious signs. Don even found a young Roman soldier looking for information.

No rhyme or reason to the collection, but some interesting things.

But let us be serious. We then entered “The Kingdom of the Scots,” which made sense if you were already well-versed in centuries of its history. As a special treat, I am calling on Don to give a capsule history for you as a guide:

Don discusses the history of Scotland:

Or you can skip over to the next section.

Piecing together the chronological history of Scotland was difficult in this museum’s display of artifacts. Rather than presenting them in chronological order, items were grouped thematically across all time periods. For example, items relating to horses from the Picts to the Romans to the Vikings to the Anglo-Saxons to the Anglo-Normans all the way through the Kingdoms of the Scots and on to the Stewarts were all grouped together in the same area. You had to know the time periods of each of these historic eras before you started. Happily, I’d been studying some of this over the last several months and could kind of sort it out. But it gave me a headache, and a few dizzy spells.

It was particularly difficult when looking at all the differing periods of religious practices. I can hardly keep track of how recognition of Catholics vs. Protestants shifted back and forth over the centuries since Henry VIII first tried to make the break with the Roman Catholic Church, let alone all the varying styles of pagan worship interspersed with periods of Christianity going in and out of favor before Christianity became the dominant religion. Whew.

If you are still with me, here is a summary, as far as I understand it beginning with the Picts, the original native peoples of the lands now considered Scotland, having been so named by the Romans. The Romans actually tried to occupy what is today Scotland before retreating permanently behind the line drawn by Hadrian’s Wall. After the fall of the Roman empire, the Angles and later the Anglo-Saxons tried to move in before those people were also beaten back by the Scots.

The Vikings were next. But again, the Scots got rid of them and started the Kingdom of Scotland with Robert the Bruce, followed by successive Kings, variously named David or James until Mary Queen of Scots came along and her son James VI became the English King James I, uniting Scotland and England truly for the first time.

That was the Stewart house (or in England spelled Stuart) until the suspected Catholic James II was deposed in favor of Protestant rule by William and Mary. Later, the Jacobite movement tried to restore the Catholic Stewart rule with strong support of the Scots (even though by that time Scotland was fanatically Protestant, as defined by John Knox).

Each of these periods was heavily represented at the National Museum of Scotland. All of the exhibits constantly underlined Scotland’s unique — and independent — national character.

For now, just sit back and enjoy the goodies from those eras, ending with James I’s cradle.

We next spent some time at the National Galleries of Scotland, mostly having tea, inspecting the gift shop, and browsing through a special exhibit of Scottish art, where a few things caught our eyes.

Don’s Food Corner

Let’s start with today’s scone. I ordered it at the cafe at the National Gallery. It was about as perfect as I had hoped. It was warm. The outside was a little crispy. The interior was dense yet light at the same time. Not crumbly. It was as close to an A+ as I’ve had. The negative here was that the jam was runny. It actually ran down my hand when I picked up the scone piece I had loaded with clotted cream and jam. I don’t like sicky hands. Thus, the “plus” has been removed and it scores a simple (but solid) A.

This evening’s adventure was tracking down the jacket potato joint. And a joint it was, kind of a hole-in-the-wall place that was packed with jacket potato aficionados. People were throwing themselves at the counter to order, both takeaway and eat-in. The eat-in facilities were primitive, with considerable jockeying to get a stool to sit on at communal tables. The focus, however, was on devouring jacket potatoes and not camaraderie.

This was not just a place serving plain potatoes. There were umpteen versions to choose from, with a decided slant toward Indian-food variations. I had what was called a Tartan Tikka potato. It featured hot (and fairly spicy) chicken tikka masala, three cheeses and a ton of chopped red onion. The potato that all this rested on was huge. I don’t think Madhur Jaffrey would approve, but I loved it.

Jo stayed with a plain potato with just butter and cheese. I’m not sure the potato and the unrefined atmosphere was what she was hoping for. It was all rather raucous.

We haven’t ventured out much at night. But I’d say that this town is really funky, with all sorts of little places like the potato shop serving a lively crowd. I guess that if anyone has read any of the mystery books that take place in Edinburgh, you already sense that Edinburgh has a complex profile. All those alleys can brew some spooky stuff.

Try the Netflix series Dept Q. for a taste.