Wandering Around Edinburgh
Trip Start
May 02, 2008
1
6
28
Trip End
May 31, 2008
Edinburgh,
Scotland,
United Kingdom
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Walked into town from Jim & Louisa's place in Roseburn Maltings - it's quicker to walk in rather than drive or catch the bus as the whole city centre is being dug-up for one reason or another - mostly to put in a tram line to help ease congestion on the congested streets. Let's take away some space on the streets 'cos that'll help congestion!
Walked around Princes St gardens and bought some fairy floss. How is it that spun sugar tastes different in another country?
Went to The Elephant Cafe where JK Rowling wrote Harry Potter, looking for some inspiration to write clever witty things in our blog ..
Princes St Gardens Looking up at Ed Castle
. but only came up with some boring idea about a kid with a lightning tattoo on his head. Oh well.Some similarities between Hogwarts and the Edinburgh castle though: both are high on a hill, both have a train running past the bottom, both are really old, both are near a street lined with shops and little tiny alleys ("Closes" in Edinburgh), there's a street nearby called "Potterwell" ... hmmm ... coincidence? I think not!
Went on the Mary King's Close underground tour which was really interesting: you go down 5 stories below street level and the tour guide takes you around what used to be poor people's houses, some with original wood from 250-300 years ago! Lots of good opportunities for the tour guide to scare the poop out of even the most suspecting tourist! Really cool!
Continued walking down the Royal Mile, the street between Edinburgh Castle and Holyrood ("Holly-rude") Castle that's lined with 1,000 kak shops.
Went on a tour through Holyrood Castle, the place the Queen stays when she's in Edinburgh for the summer - apparently she's coming soon as they mentioned the palace wouldn't be open from Saturday onwards
Lots of very posh stuff, old paintings of royalty and famous people of the day, tapestries that would have taken decades to do, and more ornate stuff than you could fill a palace with (well, nearly).
Princes St Gardens
Met up with Tim Carter (from Sherry's work) and his partner Julie. Tim is currently working here on a project for about 6 months (back in August). We also met Jim & Lou Lou then all decided to be very energetic and go for a walk up Arthur's Seat (or "Arthur's Head" as Sherry kept wanting to call it).
Arthur's Seat is a big hill at the back of Holyrood castle and provides beautiful views across all of Edinburgh. Jeff, Jim, Tim and Julie went all the way to the top (because they're nutters who will climb anything) while Sherry and Louisa stayed at the bottom, like sensible people ready to call ambulances when the nutters fell off the cliff face!
Sherry did go for a walk ... along the granny track! :-)
All made it up and down with only minor aching muscles to show for it, despite their best efforts to cause serious head injuries on steep rocky bits that were miles off the path.
Headed for Mamma's Pizza shop in the Grassmarket area (not related to Amsterdam) for dinner and Julie was delighted to find they did wheat and gluten-free pizza since she hadn't had pizza in ages because all the other ones she'd found had these ingredients in them.
