We woke up around 9 am this morning, and each of us took turns meeting with Mary and her family while the other showered and packed. Erin’s cousin Natalie met up with us, as well as John, Natalie’s father, who was kind enough to drive us to the Croy station for the train. Mary gave us a lovely parting gift, and we gave her an assortment of chocolates to thank her for her exceptional hospitality. Once we arrived at the station and marveled at the high speed trains whizzing past, we caught our connection without a problem and were off (finally!) to Edinburgh.
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| On the Scotrail train from Glasgow to Edinburgh. |
Once we arrived, we walked from the train station to the bus station, and for only £5, we were able to place our backpacks in a locker and begin our walking tour of the city. We started in the local grocery store, a Sainsbury’s, and after picking up lunch, headed back to St. Andrew’s Square for an open-air picnic. From St. Andrew’s, we made our way South, heading down Princess Street to the National Gallery of Scotland. At the National Gallery, we absorbed the sights of some of Scotland’s artistic treasures, and James was scolded twice! Once, for taking a photo (in James’s defense, there were no signs) and the other when a guard was concerned that James’s bag might hit a painting. That certainly would have been an embarrassing end to our Scotland adventure.
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| Eating our picnic lunch - rice cakes and hummus. Yum! |
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| The National Gallery of Scotland, which housed paintings by famous artists such as Monet, Degas, and Rembrandt. |
After finishing up the Gallery, we headed further south - but much higher in elevation. We made our way up Ramsay Lane to the outskirts of Edinburgh Castle, easily the largest castle we have seen thus far on our trip. Because we were (now) proud holders of Scottish Explorers Passes, we were able to bypass the (rather short at this point in the day) ticket line and quickly joined a tour. Our guide began by explaining that it was her very first day on the job, but we thought she did a serviceable job.
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| Just inside the entrance gate at Edinburgh Castle. |
The high points (no pun intended) of our Castle tour were the Great Hall, where we saw our second “hammer beam” roof, constructed without nails in the form of an upside-down ship. The first was in the Stirling Castle. We also enjoyed our tour of the Scottish Crown Jewels, where we saw someone else get in trouble for taking photos for a change. James liked the “Dog Cemetery,” where the Castle’s former mascots were buried with full military tombstones, and “Mon Meg,” a present to James II of an enormous canon that could shoot stones over a distance of 2 miles. We also toured the National War Museum, the Prisons of War Exhibition, the Royal Scots Regimental Museum, the Dragoon Guards Regimental Museum, and the Scottish National War Memorial. At this point, we had reached our quota of war-related exhibits.
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| The Great Hall of the castle with the hammer beam roof, lined with swords and armor. |
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| The dog cemetery at the castle. |
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| Mon Meg, the record-setting cannon used at the castle. |
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| The prison, which was in the dark, cold basement of the castle. The prisoners slept in hammocks or lined the beds below. |
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| A recruiting poster for the Scottish Army. |
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| One of the rooms in the castle - the decor was all very ornate, just as you would imagine a castle to be. |
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| An outside view of part of the castle. We couldn't fit the entire castle in one photo because it was so large! |
To change up the pace, we finished our Castle tour and headed down High Street/Cannongate roads, otherwise known as the “Royal Mile” on our way to the Palace of Holyrood, stopping only briefly at St. Giles Cathedral. Not 6 hours earlier, the Queen of England had hosted the Pope at Holyrood, but at this point most of the tourists had cleared out, and nearly everything was back to normal. We explored the town, but once we made it to the Palace, it was closing. However, from the Palace of Holyrood’s gates, one can see the majestic Salisbury Crags towering above Holyrood Park to the southwest. James immediately wanted to climb up, but Erin was skeptical as it looked like it would take quite a long time and she was afraid it might be dark out when we finished. But, after hearing from a local storeowner that it would take little more than an hour to climb, Erin agreed.
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| Salisbury Crags, the site of our climb. |
We took a path called the “Weaver’s Mile” up the mount, and The views from the top of the path up the Crags were nothing short of breathtaking. This was in part due to the unimpeded views out across Edinburgh, to far-off cities and to the Firth of Forth far to the north. By the time we came back down off of the Crags, it was starting to get late. We headed back into downtown Edinburgh by way of a Starbucks visit for tea, and after spending an additional bit of time in a Burger King to use their free wifi, we walked down Rose Street, a pedestrian-only street festooned with restaurants, bars, boutiques, and lots of Scots heading out for their Friday night activities. Our night led in a different direction, and we headed back to St. Andrew’s Square to board our overnight bus down to London.
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| We stopped to catch our breath and to take a few photos about halfway up the mountain. |
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| Finally at the top! We met some Americans on the mountain who offered to take our picture. |
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| Looking appropriately "nackered" on the bus from Edinburgh to London - mid-way through our overnight journey. |
