This one is sort of a roundup of visiting Perth. The museums are just the bits I mentioned in the title.
I came here for no particular reason, other than it being on the same train line as Stirling, finding a cheap hotel, and having been to the other, more Australian, Perth, so wanting to complete the set.
Seems like at least some of the humour is about the same, because I think this’d play well in Australian Perth too.
My hotel was a Travelodge, for some reason the Isle Of Skye Hotel, even though I’m pretty sure it’s a long way away from Skye. It’s a weirdly low-service hotel, even for a Travelodge, unless I’ve got the wrong idea about how they operate from staying at ones that’re overdoing it; No bar, no cafe, reception not staffed a bunch of the time, if you want more tea/coffee just grab it from the container in the lobby … There’s nothing bad about it, it didn’t affect me, but it seemed odd. Then again, maybe that’s why it’s a cheap option?
Both Perths are on a river, though I suspect the Tay is a great deal more ‘exciting’ than the Swan, based on the interpretation panels about river crossings & ferrymen. Having seen the currents around the little islands, it makes sense; Saw a chunk of floating foliage get dragged under in a whirlpool, then pop up further away, turning out to be a small tree because I’d misjudged the scale.
Both Perths have light-controlled intersections where the phasing seems to have been designed by someone who absolutely hates pedestrians.
My walking route to work when I lived in Australian Perth was specifically chosen to avoid as many road crossings as possible, even if it made the route much longer, because of how much longer those crossings made the total walking time. Even when there was no traffic, the lights wouldn’t change, and parts which should have been integrated just weren’t, so you’d end up stranded on a traffic island for a while waiting for the opportunity to cross to the next island.
Scotland Perth is much the same, except it wants to strand you on a traffic island in the rain.
I turned up in time for a guided tour, and was the only visitor on said tour, so it was pretty relaxed. I get the impression that most visitors are doing so because of a personal connection to the Watch, based on the number of times I was asked about it, so the idea that I was there out of general interest, with no specific link or area of historical focus, seemed to strike them as unusual. The tour guide was an Australian volunteer, whose connection turned out to be that his regiment in the Australian army was associated with the Black Watch because they had the same number.
I got the potted history tour, essentially.
Probably the funniest bit was the name, because they don’t know why it’s called that. There are theories, some more plausible than others, but nobody actually knows. The most plausible one to me is the idea that they started as combined Anti-Jacobite & General Lawkeeping units, so the watch bit at least could come from there. Also, having learned that, it’s hard to avoid making Green Lantern Corps references.
I also visited Perth Museum, which I’d not realised contains the Stone of Scone. Which you’re not allowed to photograph, but you can go through the Stone Of Destiny bit in the middle of the museum for some context, then look at the thing in it’s protective case.
It’s another “don’t know” exercise of history. There are historical records of it’s use in the coronation of Alexander III, but before that it’s conjecture at best; Might be the stone, might not. It probably wasn’t the pillow of Jacob, brought to Scotland by the Prophet Jeremiah, because it’s local stone.
It’s a nice museum, covering a lot of history. They have a 3000 year old logboat found in the river, sections on the music scene, & the POWs housed in the area during WW2 ( including a story about one of them being smuggled out of the area they were allowed to be in because the locals discovered that he’d never seen a movie, so they took him to the theater )
In a first for me, there was also a gallery all about the stuff they had which was a bit problematic. By which I mean, it was stuff they had that belonged to other people from other cultures and had come to them by sometimes less than legitimate means. There was a sign on an exhibit of Chinese artifacts pointing out that everybody who worked on that display was a westerner, and asking that anybody with better knowledge who was willing to work with them get in touch.
The only link to Australian Perth that I spotted was a collaborative exercise to do with Queer Youth, which is the photo in the top left.
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