July 15th and 16th , 2008 Today the ship docked in Edinburgh, Scotland for two days. We had a fantastic day exploring Edinburgh Castle. At 1:00 we heard the cannon blast. We saw the crown jewels of Scotland and had lunch in the Castle. Then later that evening we had a private ghost tour. Edinburgh is home to the show Ghost Hunters. Our guide was a very good story teller and took us all over Edinburgh telling us of the haunting and then took us under the city to the underground vaults and tried to scare us some more. I didn’t [View Full Entry]

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On the boys' last day in Edinburgh, we decided to attempt to “summit” Arthur's Seat, a forbidding mountain that looms menacingly over Edinburgh. Maria declined to go, citing "shopping fever", and calling our attempt "sheer madness." 11:13 am: We depart base camp, catching the #27 bus downtown, and switching to the #35 to Holyrood after securing provisions. We opt not to bring oxygen, as the summit is only about 1000 feet above sea level. I would come to regret that decision. 11:43am: We begin our ascent using the traditional "western route" along Salisbury Crags. However, in our first setback, we find [View Full Entry]

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Here are some videos from street performers on the royal mile and some videos from Camera Obscura. The street performer was an American magician. The second one put a sword next to my neck, shook my hand, patted me on the head, and saluted me. Camera Obscura is a place with lots of optical illusions. [View Full Entry]

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On Tuesday, we traveled by train to North Berwick, a seaside town about 25 minutes east of Edinburgh. The boys enjoyed the train ride, and we immediately headed for "The Law," a large volcanic hill east of town. You can see it from Edinburgh and we had never climbed it before, despite numerous visits to North Berwick. It was a rigorous but short climb, one that took about a half an hour. The weather was perfect, mostly sunny but brisk and the view was beautiful. We met some very nice people from Glasgow at the top (along with their collie, Sasha). [View Full Entry]

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Almost every year we go to Frankenstein's Pub. It is an old Gothic church turned into a restaurant based on Frankenstein's monster. They usually show some short movies, but this time they didn't. They brought the Frankenstein's monster down from the ceiling. It was exactly like the movies. He was lowered down from the ceiling, slowly sat up and then looked to one side, then slowly lay back down. It was realy cool! [View Full Entry]

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Enjoy a short video of some Highland Dancers performing at the Royal Museum of Scotland. [View Full Entry]

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The boys and I went in search of Craigmillar Castle's ruins (off the main tourist path, but only a short bus ride from the city center). This castle's L-shaped tower dates from 1374, and in 1427 its defenses were strengthened with the curtain wall you see in the photo. It has corner towers, gunports, projecting parapets, walls up to 13 ft thick in certain places, a courtyard and gardens. It is remarkably well preserved and therefore it's easy to imagine how hard daily life must have been-- and these are the wealthy folks! It was the most strongly fortified castle outside [View Full Entry]

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Early the next morning I woke up and we went to the train station to catch the train to Edinburgh which is the capital of Scotland. We had breakfast on the train. It took about five hours to get to Edinburgh. When we got there in the afternoon we walked on the Royal Mile which is a medieval street leading to the castle. My Dad went to collect the rental car and me and Jude waited and had something to eat. When my Dad came back with the car, we drove to the coast, to a fishing village called St. Abbs [View Full Entry]

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Wow, Edinburgh is an amazing city. We rolled in about 6:30pm. The sun has actually been shining all day. Awesome, but am I really in Britannia? Found a fabulous hotel/converted Manor house, only a half mile from the Castle. The trip here was more or less uneventful. Chad was driving like a madman. He thought we were traveling at 100 kmh, but in fact we were doing 100 mph. Just a little difference. I wondered how we were making such good time . The countryside is beautiful. As we began to ascend into the Midlands the temperature began to drop and [View Full Entry]

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