Scotland: Culzean Castle

Perhaps now that I am on summer break I can finish up my Scotland posts!

Andrew celebrated his 11th birthday about ten days after we arrived in Scotland (August 31, 2013). We started the day with a special breakfast and some presents.

 Then we headed southwest to Culzean Castle to a military reenactment, which seemed an appropriate activity for a boy's birthday!

Here are the World War I soldiers:

 The weather that day was gorgeous!

Then we talked with a man from the Napoleonic Wars.

After that the World War I soldiers wanted to dress the boys up in uniform! 

Absolutely too cute!!! (Their jeans were rolled up under the kilts!! ha ha!)

Perfect outfit for a few birthday photos. :)

Moving along we came to the Vietnam War and this soldier was re-enacting an American unit! Now that was something to get our heads around -- a British person faking an American accent and pretending to be American -- normally I find it the other way around.

Andrew wasn't going to turn down another chance for some military dress!

Or pretending to use real weapons!

I had to grab a picture of the outdoor kitchen.

My favorite part was the World War II tea tent where they were really serving the re-enactors. (This is what I would want to do if I was a re-enactor!)

It was fun to see equipment and personnel in "real life" that I often read about in books.

Sometime in the afternoon we made our way over to the castle itself.

Such a beautiful setting! Of course, no pictures are allowed inside the castle so this is all we get!

The castle is built right on the cliffs above the water of the Atlantic Ocean.

The front entrance with a view toward the stables:

More of the outer buildings which contained a used bookstore, gift shop, and cafeteria:

Just look at all that beautiful plaid/tartan wool!

And aren't these tea cozies fun?!!

I chose one of their enormous scones for my tea-time treat.

The birthday boy (who, incidentally, was born in Scotland) was patriotic and chose Irn Bru.

I can hardly stand looking at all the sugar David must have been ingesting between a flake cupcake and Irn Bru!

One of my most favorite things in life: afternoon tea with my husband.

However, all this touring and taking of tea took a lot of time and when we headed over to the walled gardens this is what we found:

The gardens closed at 5 p.m. and I think it was 5:10 p.m. Heartbreak! Because look how gorgeous they are!!! It took me awhile to accept the fact that I wasn't going in.

What beauty!

That meant we could head to the play park. Culzean Castle and Country Park, as it is known, is a huge tract of land and everything is spread out.

Zip lines were in play parks all over Scotland and the kids loved them.

Early evening meant time to head home, enjoying the country towns and landscape as we went.

I never tire of this type of architecture.

And just look at the colors in this "painting": grays, blues, greens of every shade. So peaceful and restful.

And that was our visit to Culzean Castle!