United Kingdom - Culture

Visit Salford keys and the Lowry gallery! It is free but a donation for the museum is welcome and really worth it!

Anyone interested in beer and ale shoud definately go to Edinburgh (or anywhere in Scotland) to try a few good pints of this yellow/brownish/black drink! During my time there I found some very tasty ones. Wasn't even that fond of beer before I got to Edinburgh. Some local goodies are:BELHAVENS BEST (Mmmm!!!)Based just thirty miles east of Edinburgh in the coastal town of Dunbar, Belhaven Brewery is the largest regional brewer in Scotland. The beers: BestBest Extra ColdSt. Andrews Ale80 ShillingCALEDONIAN 80 (YUM!!!)The sole survivor of 40 or more breweries in Edinburgh is the Caledonian Brewery. The beers:Deuchars IPACaledonian 80Caledonian XPAGolden Promise (the 1st organically brewed beer)MCEWAN'S 80This fine ale used to be brewed in the heart of Edinburgh but closed in late 2004. Building still stands in Fountainbridge.The beers (still available at some pubs)80's70'sDOMNHUL DUBHMcCowan's brewhouse Edinburgh. Started in December 1999, owned by Scottish Courage. According to a member of the bar staff it ceased brewing at the end of May 2003 but restarted brewing in spring 2004.The beersArctic StoutAlexander's strong aleAuld summer shinerIPAMillennium aleDomnhul dubh

EDINBURGH CASTLECastle Rock is where Edinburgh began. Much damaged and often changing hands in the long and punishing wars of independence against England, Edinburgh Castle began to assume its present appearance in 1356.In the fifteenth century King James III began using the Castle as an ordnance factory - which must have dramatically reduced its desirability as a residence! It was sacked for the last time in 1573, falling to the English after Mary Queen of Scots was brought down. (Her son, King James IV, was born in Edinburgh Castle. He later reunited the crowns of Scotland and England as James VI of Scotland and I of England.Repaired and strengthened, the Castle became an even more formidable fortress, resisting all major assaults until 1745.In 1753 began the construction of the esplanade, the ceremonial parade ground in front of the Castle where the Tattoo now takes place. Sixty years later the esplanade was broadened and prettified with walls and railings, the Castle's function as a fortress had ended.The Castle remains the headquarters of the 52nd Infantry Brigade and houses several regimental headquarters. It is home to a number of military museums and contains the Scottish National War Memorial. Members of the Royal Artillery fire the famous one O'Clock gun at Edinburgh Castle. It is Britain's second most popular tourist attraction and rises magnificently each year to the occasion of the Tattoo. All its atmosphere, power and majesty affirm that this was the proudest and mightiest fortress in the land, a residence and stronghold of kings.

BURN'S NIGHTEach year on January 25, the great man's presumed birthday, Scots everywhere take time out to honour a national icon. Whether it's a full-blown Burns Supper or a quiet night of reading poetry, Burns Night is a night for all Scots.Burns Night SupperThe Burns Supper is an institution of Scottish life, a night to celebrate the life and genius of the national Bard. Suppers can be everything from an informal gathering of friends to a huge, formal dinner full of pomp and circumstance. This running order covers all the key elements you need to plan and structure a Burns Supper that suits your intentions. For more info:http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/history/burnsnight/suppers/index.shtmlWho was Robert Burns then?Robert Burns was born on January 25, 1759 in the village of Alloway near Ayr. He came from a relatively poor, tenant-farmer background, although he received a good education and read avidly as a youngster. It is during his years as a teenager and young man working on farms that he developed some of the passions that would colour the rest of his life - poetry, nature, women and drink.Fame, but not necessarily fortune, followed in the wake of Burns’s first publication: "Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect" (Kilmarnock Edition). The collection contains many of his best loved poems, including "The Cotter’s Saturday Night", "To a Mouse" and "To a Louse". Burns’s poetry at this time chopped and changed between English and Scots and this perhaps reflected his own ambivalent feelings towards the Edinburgh bourgeoisie. It was on his return to farming near Dumfries in 1788 that he penned his masterpiece in the Scots vernacular, "Tam O’Shanter" (1790).In 1795 he sent his publisher "For a’ that and a’ that", a song which vocalised his support for the political radicalism which was beginning to infiltrate British society, especially through Thomas Paine’s controversial work, "The Rights of Man".The Bard should always be seen in his national context: as the champion of the underdog in an underdog country.