Edinburgh

When we arrived in Edinburgh, it was raining pretty hard. After taking a shuttle into the city, we hauled bags up and down a hill to our hostel. We then realized that in British hostels, unlike Italian hostels, you are required to pay up front. So we went to an ATM, were directed by a helpful mendicant to another ATM which did not charge a fee, and finally got checked in. The hostel was really nice. Definitely the nicest hostel we've stayed in during all of our travels. After checking in, we went to dinner.

Caitlin had fish and chips and I had haggis with vegetable mash and mashed potatoes on top. For some reason I am making a face of utter disgust in the picture. I don't really know why, because I liked the haggis. It was kind of like spicy ground beef. As you may or may not know, haggis is the national food of Scotland. It became so after the great poet and writer Sir Walter Scott (who Scotland's most famous writer) wrote a poem praising haggis as the "noblest of puddings."

The next day we got up early and went up to Edinburgh castle. It was a pretty nice day, and it had stopped raining. We got to Edinburgh castle before it opened, so we peered in some souvenir stores on the Royal Mile. We also took pictures in a red telephone booth. Caitlin was excited about; me, not so much.

After that we went inside Edinburgh Castle.

Edinburgh Castle is on a big hill in the middle of Edinburgh. In this way Edinburgh sort of reminded me of Pittsburgh, with the changing elevations. Because of the hill, there are some fantastic views from the castle. That body of water out there is the Firth of Forth.

Edinburgh Castle had tons to see inside. There was a museum to Scottish soldiers, starting from the 18th century on. I was a little disappointed that they didn't have anything from earlier, but oh well. There was also a chapel dedicated to St. Margaret. It was very small inside, but gorgeous in its simplicity. They had some cool stained glass windows. One of these windows had William Wallace on it, which I thought was kinda cool. This window wasn't of William Wallace; I think it was St. Mary or St. Andrew or Jesus. It is hard to tell in the picture.

They also have an artillery gun at the castle that they fire every day at 1:00 pm, much like a clock tower. They creatively call it the One O'clock Gun. After eating lunch we went to watch it. An artilleryman comes out and marches around the gun in dress uniform getting it all set. There were a bunch of people watching, so I took roughly 300 pictures of what was going on so Caitlin could see. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of the gun blast itself. But it was loud! The artillery gun is right below the big window, if you have a hard time noticing it in the picture.

After leaving Edinburgh castle, we went to a Tartan Weaving Mill. This was a very interesting building. On the bottom floor were the weaving machines, as seen below. These very quickly and loudly made sheets of tartan. Above that was a shopping area where you could buy all kinds of tartan items, from scarves to blankets to kilts. They also had an area to buy fine woolen suits. Above that there were some more gift shop merchandise available, like cups and other miscellany. There was also a heraldry expert who could look up your family name and send you a sheet about the history of your family and its coat of arms for the not-so-low price of 58 pounds. If you wanted the coat of arms in color, it was only a pound more! What a steal. On the same level was an area where you could buy real swords and armor for Renaissance fair type stuff. Above that was a rooftop restaurant. Although I may have made it sound like there was order to all of this, it didn't really make sense. Also, the stairs that connected the levels were not clear, and often each level had sub-levels between them.Definitely the most confusing store/tourist attraction I have been in.

After the weaving mill, we walked around the Royal Mile and other parts of Edinburgh for a little while. We stopped in Mark's and Spencer's, a British department store, to buy some breakfast for the next morning before we took our 8:00 flight. Caitlin was very excited about the food hall, or grocery store. In fact, we somehow ended up going to Mark's and Spencer's about five times during our trip. It may have gotten a little out of hand.

While in Edinburgh Castle, a map of the panoramic view had directed me to a hill called Arthur's Seat just outside the city. I thought it had a cool name, so we decided to go climb part of the way up. We stopped in the tourist office and they assured us it was not too far away. Plus, we would be able to pass by Holyrood Palace.

This is the Queen's Scottish residence. If she is there, they fly her flag over the palace. Otherwise, it is the regular U.K. flag. She wasn't there today. We never saw her flag at Buckingham Palace either.

After passing by the palace, we spent some time walking around Holyrood Park, where Arthur's Seat is located. There was interesting ruin of a 12th century church in the park. Only the facade was left standing. The park felt very much like the Scottish highlands (I thought so at least, not that I am an expert), with its lack of trees and windiness. After walking around for a bit, we headed back into the city for dinner. It was an excellent day overall. I wish we could have a bit more time in Edinburgh; Caitlin and I were both surprised at how much there was to do. Maybe next time.

P.S. Happy Birthday Alex!!