Edinburgh 2018

Ed In Burr Ah.  I think everyone but us knew how to say it. Well, we know now.  We spent four night there.  Great place to visit.  Doesn't look like anywhere else.

Edinburgh

The "Royal Mile" is the main drag through town and a tourist mecca.  It runs from the Castle down hill to Holyrood Palace. at the bottom of the hill.  A bit more than a mile.

We stayed in an AirBnB on east end.  It was great place to stay, but anywhere within a few blocks of the Royal Mile or even down in New Town would work as well.  

First morning out:  Sandeman walking tour

A top notch tour guide for this one.

Mercat cross - the center of the market

unicorn on top

countries of the UK on the sides

Scottish king Charles II in Roman garb - because.

John Knox grave - behind St. Giles. He wasn't to be moved. 

Edinburgh's most famous dog.  Greyfriar's Bobby.  Loyal beyond the end, he slept on his master's grave for over a decade.

Rub the nose for luck!

The old part of Edinburgh is a mish-mach of building styles and ages all made of the same grey-brown stone.  Laid out on hills, the streets twist and turn and pass over and under each other.

the tail sticks out around the corner, at a right angle.  Why? Who knows...

Every one of these building had multiple hearths - coal for heating and cooking.  Must have been a murky, sooty mess back in the day.

 Grassmarket is where you used to by grass...for your animals.  It is also where they had gallows.  Now just pubs and restaurants.

Half hanged Maggies.  Maggie was hanged, but survived, couldn't be hanged again by law.

Adam Smith - wrote "Wealth of Nations" and basically founded modern economics

After lunch, we headed down to Waverly Station and took the train up to North Queensferry to see the famous Firth of Forth bridge.

Waverly

Firth of Forth railway bridge

Old lighthouse

The bridge dwarfs its surroundings

...and the trains on it.

North Queensferry

Just over the span

Day two, we purchased the combination ticket for the bus loops plus the Castle, Holyrood, and Royal Yacht.  Step one was to ride the live narrated loop.

Burns Monument

Authur's Seat in Holyrood Park - looks like large throne

Castle - more later!

University

The Hub - performing arts building

King George IV loved all things Scottish.  Visited.  Wore a kilt.  It didn't fit his rotundness - which was much greater than shown here.  He should have been embarrassed.  He wasn't.

Sir Walter Scott monument

 New Town scenes

The Castle:  A collection of buildings of various ages at the top of a hill behind a fortified wall.

The main gate

Robert the Bruce and William Wallace.  Robert the Bruce was actually "Braveheart"

The view from the castle with New Town on the left

The one-o'clock gun.  Boom!  Every day at one o'clock - one shot.  Legend:  It's one o'clock and not noon because Scots are cheap and don't want to waste shells.

Guard

Old barracks now military museum

The view to the west

Governor's house - still in use

 

POW barracks - as it existed in the18th century.  Some "pro-American" graffiti  here from captured sailors.

Scottish National War Memorial

Mons Meg - a really big, nearly useless

St. Margaret's Chapel 

Castle defense - do you really need a gun aimed at the train station?  That's cruel.

...in case the ghost of Sir Walter Scott attacks?

The palace and Scottish crown jewels

Inside the palace

Great Hall - not that old, but made to look that way.

"Don't waste your time with football!  Take up archery!"

Britania:  the last royal yacht.  Commissioned in 1954 and retired in 1997.

Small harbor at New Haven

The Bridge - removed from ship

Aft lounge on main deck

Queen's room

Prince Phillips 

Wardroom Wombat used for "tennis"

One of many fine things - many were gifts 

Officers' Ward Room - compare to...

...the main dining room

Living room.  Forward on the main deck

NCO's get beer and wine

Yacht's Launch 

Spotless engine room

Built for comfort, not for speed

Still an active Royal Palace. The Palace of Holyroodhouse.  Used at least once a year, it used to be a stopover on the way to Balmoral. No pictures of the interior allowed, so here's the exterior. 

On the grounds are the ruins of Holyrood Abbey

St. Giles.  The home of the Church of Scotland where the Presbyterian church got it's foundation.

Fairly rare crown-style spire

Random Edinburgh scenes

Pub stop

I tipped him.  Couldn't get out of Scotland without on bagpipe guy pic.

She actually did write some of it here.

Wonder if they sell underwear?

Adam Smith's grave is around here somewhere

Old parliament building up on the hill

New Parliament building

John Knox's house - maybe...

Old town hall

HP is everywhere in Edinburgh.  It's easy to see where the inspiration for Hogwarts came from.

Skeleton keys.  Really.

One of our favorite things about the UK

 Courts and alleys come off the Royal Mile.  It's worth poking your head through each one. You never know what you'll find.

One last comment on tours. On the Viking Star, most tours used the Audio Vox headsets, but were live narration and varied from okay to excellent.  The hop-on, hop-off buses used canned narration on two loops, and live narration on one loops.  The live narration guys were really good (Green loop in Edinburgh). The "free" walking tours were generally very good, some excellent.  Most of the tours in the UK featured audio tours with recorded commentary that you keyed in by number, depending where you were. There was even enriched commentary in places if you had more interest in one particular thing.  These were generally very good and easy to use.  

On to Canterbury!