This weekend we had gone to two places for sightseeing, one was the Edinburgh castle and the St.Giles Cathedral.
I’ll start with the St.Giles Cathedral coz it touched me a lot. Before I begin though, let me confess here that while we were there, Shaiwal had asked me what is the difference between a Cathedral, a church and a chapel? Being an MBA I refused to not raise to the challenge so i answered with logic and I did manage to quench his curiosity too but then I came back and did a google search just to be sure, turned out I wasn’t so off the mark that I thought I may be, here goes -
A chapel is the smallest unit, the church its superset and the cathedral the super-est set (if such a word exists) :)
Anyways we, a group of four, Shaiwal, his friend and wife and I, went up to what is known as the royal mile. It starts from the Edinburgh castle and it ends at the holyrood palace and contrary to what the name indicates it is more than a mile long by 107 yards. What is so special or royal about this mile is that this was set up as the high street by King David I somewhere in 1124 or after. It used to be the market place then and today it continues to be a marketplace for tourists. The place is quite quaint with cobbled stones and buildings of architecture of the old days. The place is also dotted with roadside café’s and pubs, so you find loads of people just sitting out with their glass of whisky or beer mug or coffee cup as takes their whim.
So we stepped out onto the royal mile and decided on lunch, first we saw this place called the World's End and we were wondering why the name when we stumbled on the reason. There on the corner of the building it was inscribed as to why the place was called World's End. Quickly clicked a snap of that but we decided to move on since the place stunk of fish inside and it was very dungy. The next place we went to had awesome food and a whole array of alchoholic drinks. It suddenly struck me that Scotland was the land of Scotch whiskey and a well earned name that is. There was an entire wall of alchohol bottles top to bottom and not once repeating. Not that i am a master of alchohol but never in my life had i seen such a wide ranging collection and this in an ordinary roadside restaurant. What would it be like in one of those places boasting alchohol as its super speciality?
Oh and another thing, here in the restaurants, the waitress or waiter, initially come for the drinks order and if you say nothing they give you a look over that says "Weirdo" and then to top it off if you request for a glass of water then its the "Beyond redemption" look. Beer i am told here is milder than water and everyone drinks, i guess the weather is such that drinking is essential. Well, all in all a nice day spent wandering around in history and good weather and religion. :)
A church can be of any Christian religion, whether it be non-denomiational, Protosant, Catholic, etc.
A cathedral, on the other hand is the (usually) the biggest church in the diocese and which contains the seat of the bishop.
A chapel is a place of worship that has its own altar and may or may not be part of a larger institution like a church, a college, hospital, etc.
Walking through the royal mile actually sort of transports you to another era. We saw the St Giles Cathedral on our right and we entered it. The first thing that strikes you is the high ceilings and then the painted windows. The windows depict multiple stories and are so distinct and vibrant. Just when I was getting all dewy eyed and sighing and all that, I saw this huge thing that I just couldn’t make out what it was. It was all steel and good wood but then looked kinda new and it was almost as tall as the church which is some 22 -25 ft or more!!! Well I sort of nodded at it and walked past it without a clue as to what it was. Luckily I went into the cathedral shop to get some postcards and there on one of the postcards was a picture of this “Thing” and its description given behind.
It was a musical organ, gifted to the cathedral in 1992 and I decided then and there that I am going back there during a mass time to hear this one being played…..!!!! It seriously looked like some heavy duty artillery but then that didn’t make sense coz it was inside a cathedral, after reading about it when I went back to look at it, it kinda looked like long steel whistles hung upside down. :)
To tell you the truth I could have spent a few hours there easily, just looking at the different wood work and paintings. As it is I think I would have taken in only a part of the cathedral but the group was getting restless and I decided that I would go back again.
So we stepped out onto the royal mile and decided on lunch, first we saw this place called the World's End and we were wondering why the name when we stumbled on the reason. There on the corner of the building it was inscribed as to why the place was called World's End. Quickly clicked a snap of that but we decided to move on since the place stunk of fish inside and it was very dungy. The next place we went to had awesome food and a whole array of alchoholic drinks. It suddenly struck me that Scotland was the land of Scotch whiskey and a well earned name that is. There was an entire wall of alchohol bottles top to bottom and not once repeating. Not that i am a master of alchohol but never in my life had i seen such a wide ranging collection and this in an ordinary roadside restaurant. What would it be like in one of those places boasting alchohol as its super speciality?
Oh and another thing, here in the restaurants, the waitress or waiter, initially come for the drinks order and if you say nothing they give you a look over that says "Weirdo" and then to top it off if you request for a glass of water then its the "Beyond redemption" look. Beer i am told here is milder than water and everyone drinks, i guess the weather is such that drinking is essential. Well, all in all a nice day spent wandering around in history and good weather and religion. :) 
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