Jul 24

Edinburgh

by in Places we've been, Things we've seen

We planned just 3 days here, ended up being 4, could have used a week.

Edinburgh is fascinating, old, and  captivating. There are 3 seperate bus tours and we took them all, some more than once. There is so much to see its hard to know where to start but we did start with the Royal Mile – this is as the name suggests is a strip of roadway in the middle of the old city starting at Edinburgh Castle and travelling down to Holyroodhouse and the new Scottish Parliament. As we didn’t in all our time here manage to get to the latter two places please feel free to Google them as I believe they are worth a look and they are on our list to visit first up next time. By the time we took one of the bus tours around the perimeter of the city and walked the Mile got some cash from a phone booth, inspected one of the most beautiful cathedrals we have seen so far, watched/observed the street performers (the one juggling the knives was from Sydney and bloody entertaining too) the day was done…

and we hadn’t yet walked the Mile.

We stayed in a hotel well out of town and by pure arse it turned out to be a gem – reasonably priced reasonable quality, good food – a Best Western brand. Took the train into the city, a 25 minute journey and it deposited us virtually in the centre of the city –

The guide book suggests spending a couple of hours visiting the Castle, moving on to various other things for an hour or two here and there, but we didn’t see everything in the Castle in 6 hours. Crowds were definitely a problem but there is so much to see you’ve just got to bear with the masses. Unfortunately there are certain photo restricted areas not the least of which is the Scottish regalia display. Whilst not as impressive as the Queens display in the Tower of London it is still worth a look. We managed to be there for the firing of the one o’clock gun. This concurs with the dropping of the time ball, the same procedure as is adopted at the Greenwich Observatory in London but it scared the s… outa me and the photo shot went astray…

and you can just make out the ball up the pole, then not as it turns 1.00pm.

Just to get position to observe all of this  took the best part of 1/2 an hour.

We got to have lunch in what was once part of the officers quarters….

with magical people appearing overhead ( just workers fixing something or talking about fixing something).

The castle is really something. Built on the top of a volcanic noll it is an engineering masterpiece that in part dates back to the early 1300’s. Like most of these places, it has evolved. There are additions as late as the 20th century and its a bit hard to get a handle on all of this. As an example the Scottish National War Memorial Hall was built in the 20th century….

whereas

dates back to about 1130, apparently the oldest remaining building in Edinburgh.

For the record some more shots of the Castle…

Google or Wikipedia Edinburgh Castle and you will find an incredible history of change, useage, development. It is of course the backdrop to The Edinburgh Military Tattoo each year and this was being set up for whilst we were there, adding to the chaos.

We spent a bit more time on the Royal Mile, deigned to eat in town this evening and then back on the train to the hotel in Whitburn.

Next day took in Brittania..

the Royal “Yatch” retired in ’97 I think. Something of an insight into the indulgences the top end of town although not as lavish as we would have expected. The Queens and Prince Phillips individual bedrooms (staterooms?) feature single beds whereas Charlie had a double bed put in for his honeymoon – Wow!

Thence on to Rosslyn Chapel, a little out of town….

and another place where inside shots are not allowed. This place is extraodinary – the detail is unbelievable, dating back to 1456. It remains the property of the 7th Earl of Rosslyn, carrying on the family ownership since inception. It also featured in The Da Vinci Code, Dan Browns novel of Knights Templar tales which has led to its increased tourism interest. Oh and Yes – I hit the pigeon (the target).

Back to Edinburgh for a look at three engineering marvels – the new bridge over the Forth…

the next oldest….

and the oldest – 1893…

We sat and ate overlooking this bridge and marvelled at its beauty this evening, watching the endless railway activity.

This had to conclude Edinburgh. Parts more southern were calling and inevitably the end of our UK trip, but we’re still a week or so off that so more to follow. There are also a few more things so far unreported up North but I’ll get back to that in due course.

For now, Good Evening.

 

Leave a Reply