Edinburgh, Scotland

[March 22 - 24]

We arrived in downtown Edinburgh at 11:30 pm to catch the last bus to our hostel. It was a magical view as we waited in the cold. The city's old buildings were lit up and every building seemed to look like a castle. I knew we'd have fun visiting in the next few days.

In the morning we found some baked goods and headed out to figure out the city. Dean demonstrates how we look most days with guide book, searching for the cool places. It was so windy this day that his jacket hood was blown up around his ears.



The city itself was blooming with daffodils everywhere and it made a nice contrast on the green expanses. Everyone told us that we were lucky to experience the sudden display of nice weather.



Our visits included a necessary trip to the Edinburgh Castle, a highly priced tourist attraction that was still really great despite a nearly $18 entrance fee. We spent serveral hours here seeing the old buildings; the royal jewels, and this "Stone of Destiny" that was stolen by the British 700 years ago and returned only a few years ago.

Another feature of the castle was the one o'clock gun, fired everyday for the last hundreds of years so that people could synchronize their clocks. Otherwise, they had many train crashes as the conductors didn't all have the same time. For those who care, read more about it here. Dean demonstrates what it must sound like from up close.




The name Dean seemed to be quite popular. There was the Dean Village, Dean Steet, and Dean Gallery. We made the most of this with some photo sessions.



One day we hiked up on Arthur's seat, a big cliff face/hill that provides excellent views of the city. We brought a take-away lunch (cheap) and decided to picnic up there. However, it was really quite cold and Dean had fun taking my picture as I was eating and slowly freezing.

I am being a good sport to let this get posted - I think I look like an old lady in this picture but Dean says I always look like this. Hey!



Near this spot we happened upon an old abbey, which they know little about. But I can assure you that it was old and made of stone. It was cool to see what remained and enjoy the open space.



During our visit, we rode around in the public bus a lot, which we often double deckers. From there, we could see lots of good views and snapped this shots of the Edinburgh Portrait Gallery.



We would glady return to this city on any of the nice weather days. Our last day was so burdened with fog and cold that we really appreciated the initial weather!