Edinburgh, Scotland

Edinburgh is a fantastic place to visit. There are two parts - Old Town and New Town. Right now, I'm standing in between the two, taking a picture of Edinburgh Castle high up on the hill in Old Town. It looks like something you would see in Disneywold - "The Haunted Castle of Edinburgh"...but it's real.

Here is another view of Old Town from further down the street.

This part is very reminiscent of a renaissance fair - but again, it's real.

In comparison, here is a view of the New Town from the top of the castle:

The castle is quite a hike up hills from New Town, but is certainly worth it. If we were to do it again, we would start the day with a cab or bus to the castle, conserving our energy for the rest of the day.

A winding road in Edinburgh Castle

Scott after buying his Nicholson family tartan scarf at Edinburgh Castle

The view from the top of Edinburgh Castle. You can see the replica of the Parthenon on the hill known as Arthur's Seat.

Another view from the top of the castle. The large black structure on the left is the Scott monument, which was erected upon my birth.. err.. commemorates Sir Walter Scott. The long building in front is the National Gallery of Scotland.

We started there, and walked down the "Royal Mile" to Holyrood Palace. The Royal Mile is full of Scottish shops, restaurants, and other Scottish tourist things.

I hated to break it to them that they left out the H in Nicholson. :)

At the other end of the Royal Mile is Palace of Holyroodhouse, which is the Scottish home for the British royal family. It was built in several parts, as you can see if you look at the picture below. The courtyard and tower on the right were added later to give symmetry to the Palace's exterior. Mary Queen of Scots lived in Holyrood, and her secretary, David Rizzo, was brutally murdered in her private apartments. Some say you can still see the bloodstains despite hundreds of years of cleaning.

They did not allow pictures inside, but we were able to take a picture of the Abbey ruins (originally constructed in 1153) behind the palace.

This area was a little eerie, as there were no docents; you were allowed to wander around the tombs alone.

The New Town had more traditional stores:

I'd like some advice, please..

Aye, laddie, that would be a true Mac-Donalds...

By the way - when we checked into the hotel, we noted that under 'Entertainment,' there was a listing for Tattoo. We thought this was odd, as we didn't see a Tattoo parlor as being entertainment. However, we later realized that Tattoo referred to the Edinburgh Military Tattoo - a large presentation of bagpipe and drum corps.

We left from Edinburgh on EasyJet to go to Amsterdam. EasyJet is a small airline that is quite inexpensive. You can book flights at easyjet.com, and I would gladly fly EasyJet again.

Off to Amsterdam!

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