Day Four - It's About Time We Went Inside That Bloody Castle

---

I'm sort of looking forward to getting out of Edinburgh and into the Bed and Breakfasts we booked for the remainder of the trip. It's too easy to sleep in when you're not worried about getting downstairs to breakfast before they close it up. Once again we slept in a little longer than we normally would. This has helped us adjust more easily to the time difference, but it also makes me feel like we are being lazy and wasting precious vacation time.

There wasn't too much left over for us to eat this morning. We had done a nice job of wiping out most of our supplies. Instead of loading up on more stuff for breakfast in my room, we decided we'd stop at Starbucks instead. Today was Gail's birthday. There was nothing she wanted more than American coffee. The girls got their coffee and scones. I'm not a coffee drinker and I was a little tired of high carb breakfasts so I just sat down on a sofa and tried to check my e-mail. When Tyler and I discovered that our laptops didn't work in Starbucks' supposed "free" Wi-Fi zone, we walked a few doors up the street where we had seen a sign advertising an "authentic" Scottish breakfast. Next to the deep-fried snickers joint was the Royal McGregor restaurant. With a name like that we knew it was gonna be good.

For a mere £6.25 Tyler and I got the delicious traditional Scottish breakfast of sausage, egg, bacon, black pudding, haggis, mushrooms, tomato, a tattie scone, beans and toast, and tea/coffee. Feeling like Andrew Zimmern and Anthony Bourdain we dived into our heavily laden breakfast plates. I tried the black pudding (yecch) and ate my whole haggis, but Andrew Zimmern I'm not. I felt no need to try either again. Tony, I mean Tyler, absolutely loved his haggis and ordered it every breakfast thereafter when it was offered. My tea was fabulous as was everything else. The British bacon is more like Canadian bacon or even a slice of ham. I could eat a whole plate of just that. The sausage was very unlike our heavily spiced and/or smoked breakfast sausages we have here in the US. It was closer to the taste of a German Würst. The tattie scone was their version of hash browns. Why they have broiled tomato and baked beans for breakfast is beyond me, but I certainly enjoyed them.

When we finished our breakfasts we took the now all too familiar route up the Royal Mile to Edinburgh Castle. On our first day in Edinburgh a heavy snow engulfed us throughout the day. The next day it was sunny but frigid. Next we had an overcast and cold day. On this day it was as miserable as it could get. A misty rain fell throughout the day. Temperatures were actually a bit warmer than the previous days - hovering around freezing, but visibility was horrible. As we walked through the huge gates into the castle I wondered how safely we were going to navigate our way up the steep cobblestone path. The rain showed no sign of easing as we ducked into the tourist information office.

All along I had set-up our schedule so that we could take maximum advantage of the Scottish Heritage Pass. This pass entitled the holder to make unlimited visits to a substantial number of historic sites over a given period of time. I wanted to get the 5 Day Pass and start at Edinburgh Castle on Sunday so that 5 days later we could use it again at Jedburgh Abbey on the day we were leaving Scotland. As is often the case in my advancing years, I confused some of my facts. The information I was reading about online listed a pass that would allow us to see Edinburgh Castle, Jedburgh Abbey, Stirling Castle, and also Holyrood Palace here in Edinburgh. That pass was called the "Scottish Heritage Pass". When we walked into the information office to buy our passes we bought the "Scottish Explorer Pass". The former cost £40 for 4 days, while the one we actually bought was £16.80 for use over 3 days in a 5 day period. It never dawned on me that there was a difference.

From here to the sights of the castle we had to hike up a somewhat steep hill. I was concerned for Grandma, especially in the slick conditions, but like one of the troopers heading back to his barracks inside she hiked up the incline and refused a ride to the top from a well-meaning guard. By the time we marched through a second gate (the Portcullis Gate) and reached the relatively flat ground where the main cannon battery was placed, the rain was mixed with wet snow. Even though we were subjected to a steady light rain/sleet all day it never soaked through our coats. It was just annoying rather than uncomfortable. Although it didn't affect us too much it ruined a lot of my photos. Big drops of rain/sleet continually landed on my lens and left me with funky ugly shots. I guess that's why the camera includes a lens hood. I should've been using it.

I was very excited about revisiting the castle because I expected Tyler to really enjoy it as much as I would. On my previous tour I was quite impressed by the Scottish National War Memorial , a big building within the castle complex which housed numerous alcoves or chapels dedicated to the various Scottish military units of the British Army. As I mentioned before, Tyler and I are very interested in the Napoleonic Wars by virtue of our reading of all of Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe novels. Unlike the US military where the military units are primarily known by a number (like the 7th Cavalry, 82nd Airborne, 1st Marine Divison, or 17th Infantry Regiment) the Brits give their formations colorful, fear-inspiring names like "The Life Guards", "The Royal Welch Fusiliers", "The Queen’s Royal Hussars", "Grenadier Guards" and "The Prince of Wales’s Own Regiment of Yorkshire". I remembered having only a short period of time to look around inside the memorial on my earlier visit, but I thought I recalled seeing large bound volumes listing the names of soldiers serving in each regiment from all of England's wars. Everyone was happy to head inside just to get away from the cold and damp. But it wasn't exactly warm inside. Tyler and I immediately walked over to the first alcove, examined the many battle flags and insignia of the Royal Scots. A huge book sat on the altar. When I flipped it open I expected to see hundreds of years of names but instead the history began with World War I. This was true with all the other units inside. It was still awe-inspiring to see the pages upon pages of names of those who gave their lives in the First (over a hundred-fifty thousand deaths) and Second World War (close to fifty thousand) as well as in other 20th Century actions such as the Falklands and Iraq, but I was a little disappointed to not find names from the American Revolution and Waterloo. I was expecting to spend hours in here reading through all the units' histories. For the sake of the others traveling with us it was probably a very good thing. As it was, I still spent a good 45 minutes checking-out all the decorations earned by units such as the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, the Seaforth Highlanders, the Royal Scots Greys, the Black Watch, the Gordon Highlanders, and the Queen's Own Cameroon Highlanders. Such great distinguished names, many of whom can trace their history back to before the American Revolution.

Unfortunately photography was banned inside the memorial. It was also forbidden in some of the other buildings we explored after that. We stayed out of the rain by walking through the Royal Palace featuring Mary Queen of Scots apartments. We checked-out an interesting exhibit devoted to the line of Stuart kings then walked into a small room with the Crown Jewels of Scotland. Inside a display case we could see old swords, scepters and the famed Stone of Scone. No photos allowed here for some reason. Our self-guided tour brought us past the souvenir shop a couple of times. Each time we passed we stopped in to look and contemplated purchasing things we didn't need. It wasn't until the final pass that we bought a couple trinkets. I found a book about British military history that looked like a surefire winner, but when I saw the price tag on the cover I decided I'd try to find it cheaper on the internet.

After that we visited the Great Hall, the dungeons (we took a wrong turn and missed most of the exhibit) and the Regimental Museum of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards. The latter was exactly what I had hoped to see - lots of mementos from the distinguished units' deployments and battles around the world. Tyler and I could've spent all day in there examining the various dioramas of battles, uniforms over the years and captured battle flags. This was/is Scotland's only cavalry regiment with a history dating back to 1678.

Unfortunately for Tyler and me, and luckily for the girls, the Royals Scots Regimental Museum wasn't open. That would've distracted us for another hour at least. By now even I was getting a bit cold as the wind atop the castle mount grew stronger. (If you'd like to take the next best thing to an actual tour of Edinburgh Castle, check out this website .)

Since I had also planned to use our passes to visit Holyrood, we began the walk downhill to the opposite end of the Royal Mile. After our big filling breakfast a few hours earlier none of us even considered stopping for lunch or even noshing.

We reached the entrance to Holyrood Palace just before 3:00. We proceeded to walk up to the main entrance and presented our Explorer Passes. To our horror and dismay we were informed that the Palace was not included on this pass. I had confused the "Heritage Pass" which included Holyrood, with the "Explorer Pass" which we actually bought. When we found out that entrance would cost us £10 each and that the Palace would be closing in just an hour, Gail and I said "forget it". Cassie was all for leaving also. Tyler and Grandma wanted to go inside so they paid the fee and walked in. The three of us amused ourselves by looking at every single item in the kitschy gift shop, taking photos of the Palace through the fence, looking around the Scottish Parliament across the street and finally sitting down at a computer inside the visitor center where we took an online tour of the photos and costumes of the Royal residents through the years.

In the brief amount of time we had been in Edinburgh we had already noticed that sundown was inching later and later each day. As the sun finally began to set close to 4:30 we saw the gift shop closing and guards locking the Palace gates. Yet nowhere to be seen were Gail's mother and our son. We walked all around the grounds looking for them. When the lights started to go out in the snack bar and there weren't any other souls about, we gave up our search and started up the Royal Mile. Halfway to the Ibis we ran into Tyler coming back down the street. It seems that they couldn't find us when they had to leave the Palace. Tyler had taken Grandma back to the hotel when they assumed we had gone back instead of waiting for them. When he couldn't find us there he returned down the street to look for us and to find souvenirs. We slowly made our way back to the hotel with him while taking time to peer onto every shop window along the way. To my surprise, even after 5:00 on a Sunday evening, the souvenir stores on the Royal Mile were still open for business. I found my "Red Hot Chili Pipers" CD for only £10. Tyler found scarves for Gen and Gail.

Back at the hotel we took some time to freshen-up before looking for supper. As usual, that short time in their room made the kids lazy. While the adults waited for them down in the hotel lobby the kids took their time watching TV and dozing. It took us over an hour to get ourselves together enough to cross the street and walk down Cockburn to the "Malt Shovel". Like me, Birthday Girl Gail had walked past this place so many times over the past four days in Edinburgh that she decided this was where we had to eat our last dinner in Edinburgh.

This time we could see that they were serving food because we stared through the big windows at the gaggle of people inside. Even though it looked crowded we were determined to eat at this establishment whether the food was good or not. Once we got inside and past the crowd congregated around the bar, we walked into the first of the side rooms emanating off the central barroom. We found a vacant table right near the window. Just as we made ourselves comfortable and picked-up the menus, a young guy came to our table and asked to see Cassie's ID. In Scotland the drinking age is 16 for a child accompanied by parents and 18 otherwise. Cassie was now 20! And of course she didn't have her ID with her. Rather than leave the "Malt Shovel" a second time without getting fed, I volunteered to sprint back up the street to the hotel to get Cassie's purse. I must say I was rather quick since my crew hadn't been kicked-out when I returned. Naturally Cassie had no picture ID but somehow she convinced the guy who looked younger than her that she was legal. And once again she decided not to order a drink. Tyler and I walked up to the bar to order our drinks and our food then returned to the table. While we waited for our dinner to be brought out, we played with our cameras taking all kinds of ridiculous pictures and experimenting with the settings. Thank God for digital photography where you can delete all the junk you loaded on the memory card at dinner.

The one thing we didn't take a photo of was our food. Normally I irritate everyone with my picture-taking of every item brought to our table. On this trip I was so famished I instantly dug-in without thoughts of photographing anything until after it was all gone. All I remember of that meal was that Gail got her fish and chips and Cassie had a salad. I seem to remember having had a hamburger that tasted much like a meatloaf. And that's not a bad thing.

Following dinner we weren't ready for bed yet so we returned to the hotel lobby where we sat down and imbibed a few more draughts. We were entertained most of the night by an extremely obnoxious American from New York who sat at the hotel's internet computer all night with her dorky son. She ordered a pizza for her kid and when it came out she said Junior couldn't eat it because it had tomato sauce on it. How else would you make a pizza? When she started to bug the desk clerk about getting help in setting the alarm on her cellphone, I was ready to renounce my citizenship. When she finally left, the show was over in the lobby. We retired upstairs and watched Tyler's favorite new game show on BBC-TV, "Big Fat Quiz of the Year". Throughout the rest of the trip, whenever he had a chance to sit in front of a TV, Tyler could be found watching this show. Most nights he stayed up late watching, then instead of navigating for me the next day in the car, he would nap.

---

Photos

The View from Edinburgh Castle, Yet Again
It really is an amazing view from the top of the Castle Mount. Even on an obviously crappy day like this the lights of the shops on Princes Street look pretty. Seeing this picture again reminds me of just how cold and damp it was that day. Maybe the worst weather day all trip.

I Can't Imagine Anyone Ever Sitting at this Picnic Table
We couldn't even find the path leading to this dining area. To the far left you can just about see the muzzle of the modern cannon that is shot every day to mark 1:00 pm. We missed it when we were inside the buildings at the center of the castle.

Russian Troops on Guard
Vladimir the Incontinent poses before the Portcullis or Second Gate of Edinburgh Castle. This portion of the way was a little steep and with those cobblestones it could've been dangerous had the rain turned to ice.

This Should've Been a Better Picture
The fact that Cassie actually posed for a shot kind of threw me. Right around this moment a big raindrop landed on the lens without my knowledge and pretty well blurred the next twenty or so pictures. Using a Photoshop-like retouching program I manipulated this to death and ended-up with a sort of artsy effect.

An Imposing Fortress
It is pretty amazing how they ever found a way to turn this rocky peak into a somewhat level plain to house this big castle. Everywhere you look you see big black rocks jutting out of the sides of the castle walls. Actually, the walls had to be built around the rocks. Note how blurry the lower left quarter of this picture is due to the raindrop.

Another Messed-up Opportunity
This picture was also ruined by the rain. I cropped it and zoomed in to eliminate the water damage on the left side of the picture. Otherwise you would've seen another view of downtown Edinburgh dangling below this precipice. This is the special graveyard for the military dogs that lived within the castle while it was utilized as an army barracks.

The Northern or Argyle Battery
This is really the only remaining battery of cannons still mounted inside the castle walls.

Approaching the Royal Palace
After stopping in to look at the tiny St. Margaret's Chapel (the oldest and smallest part of the castle grounds) we made our way toward the center of the castle complex, Crown Square. In front of us is the Royal Palace which was where the apartments of the royal folks were located.

The Scottish National War Memorial
This was the main reason I wanted to return to the castle. I had found the memorial awe-inspiring and interesting on my previous visit. Inside, where no photos are permited, are little chapels with altars decorated with memorablia of Scotland's many famous military regiments.

Inside the Royal Apartments
There wasn't much furniture or original equipment to be found in the home of the old Scottish kings and queens, but the walls and floors have been lovingly restored. I don't know this to be fact, but I suspect that most of the original furnishings were probably "borrowed" by English monarchs. Knowing the Scots they probably expect to get it back sometime in the future so they're leaving room for it, just like the eventual return of the Stone of Scone.

The King's Dining Room, Methinks
We were allowed to wander around in this section of the palace and it was ver nice at first because I was alone in the room for the first 5 minutes. About the time that I decided I should take a few pictures, a crowd of people walked in and kept getting in my picture. I had to wait about ten minutes for all of them to leave me alone.

The Pretty Blue Room
Sorry, but I can't find any explanation of what this particular room was called. I like the color though and the paintings might be considered nice by someone who has a clue about art.

Jimmy Stuart's Birthplace
In this room Mary Queen of Scots gave birth to James VI of Scotland who went on to become James I of England. Twenty quid to the bloke that can decipher what this says.

Crown Square
To the left and barely visible is the Great Hall, on the right is the Scottish National War Memorial and directly in front is the Queen Anne Building which was once where the kitchens for the palace were located. Later it became officers' barracks, then a military museum and now it's and administrative area and educational center. Behind me was the Royal Palace. And no, that is not Cassie in the picture. Not unless she has a Scottish-Asian boyfriend taking her picture that we don't know about.

Beautiful Light Fixture...
...too bad they ruined it with one of those stupid new lightbulbs. I hate these eco-friendly bulbs - they take a full second or two to go on, seem very dim to me and burn-out just as quickly as the old bulbs these are supposed to be an improvement over.

Royal Water Collector
This fancy dodad is part of the gutter system on the Royal Palace roof. Looks much more impressive than what it actually is.

Inside the Great Hall
After spending way too much time in the souvenir shop inside the Royal Palace, we moved on into the Great Hall. The interior was basically lots of rich wood adorned with plenty of weapons on each wall.

This Should've Been a Work of Art
I had such high hopes for this photo. I blew it by only taking one blurry shot instead of taking my time and making multiple exposures. This was actually the real lunch of the security guard inside the Hall.

Warmth at Last
The most welcoming spot in the Great Hall was cordoned off and unavailable for our needs.

They Should Be Playing Basketball in Here
Because the Great Hall was so big it was as cold inside as out in the icestorm. A very manly room with lots of "guy's stuff" on the walls. Very nicely decorated for the Holidays however.