Guid ol' Scotland

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"In Scotland there is no such thing as bad weather.....only the wrong clothes!"

Ha so true! Always, always take a jacket whilst travelling in Scotland. The weather may have been typical but the Edinburgh city was the most amazing place to see when you popped up on the street from Waverly Railway Station so this overshadowed the drizzle. The Scott Monument was the first thing we saw which was so impressive then to our left was the Edinburgh Castle and the edge of the old town, we were right smack bang in the middle of it all. To meet our friends who we would be staying with we walked through the Princes Street gardens with our luggage using our trusty GPS, up hills, down hills, up stairs, down stairs, through streets, across streets but don't worry I had my jacket and handbag......Vaughn had a hoody and large suitcase, such a gentleman. I was pleased to see they had named a street after me, Lady Lawson Street, so thought I would gift the city with a picture of me standing by the sign. On collecting the keys from Calum we continued our journey to the apartment and obviously looking very lost a very kind Scotsman came to our rescue, turning his car around, getting out of his car and offering directions, IN THE RAIN, then after helping us, turning his car back round again and carrying on - I like Scots!

I had my first experience in a "apartment building" just like on the movies, with a buzzer and everything! The apartment was very spacious and overlooked a lovely church garden right in the middle of Edinburgh. When Gemma & Calum finished work they took us on a night tour of Edinburgh City so we could get our bearings. We walked up to Green Mile and because it was the last week of the Fringe Festivan there were heaps of buskers and people around. I loved the way the buildings curved around the street leading up the hill, such amazing architecture everywhere, not one building would have been under 200 years old. I loved the atmosphere as we walked around, all the different types of music playing and heaps of pubs and restaurants full with people. We went to a really cool restaurant that served two pizzas for 5 pound. They had recently upgraded it and had dug into the old building walls creating a 'cosy' curved stone roof. That was one of the things I loved most about the buildings in Edinburgh is that they were all unique and they were kept as original as possible with a modernised twist. Gemma told us about all the streets and why they were named that way; for instance Cow Gate was a long down hill street slightly below the main city, which is where cows used to be herded to the markets. All the streets in the old city are cobbled, giving a real sense of what it would have been like. From the main streets, e.g. Royal Mile (leading upto Edinburgh Castle) there are numerous 'closes' which are kinda like alleyways that often lead to steps going down to the next 'level' of the town. There are multiple levels to the city and once you learn about the history of the place you realise why it was built this way and the different classes of people that lived in each area. Closes were named after what they were used for, e.g. Fishmarket Close was where the fish market was; Fleshmarket Close was home to the butchers and all the sluce and debris were washed down the closed to the level below.....needless to say if you lived below all of this it would have been delightful! Alot of the closes lead down to the large Nor Loch which was later drained and is now the Princes Street Gardens.....it would have been disgusting back in the day with all the sewage from the city, so called witches were also drowned in there.....mmm. Speaking of witches, Edinburgh has a really dark history with thousands of suspected witches hung in the town, we saw the stone in the middle of the Green Mile where this happened. Before they were hung it is said they were also put in barrels and pushed down the Royal Mile before being trialled....no wonder they appeared loopy. On the way back home we walked through The Meadows park, which is a bit like Hagley Park in Christchurch, but not as big, the soccer fields also undulate with wee mounds hills up and down. Half way through walking in the park (in the dark) Gemma tells me the reason why the park was so uneven is because alot of the plague victims were buried here in a mass grave........hmmm nice thought before bedtime.

The Edinburgh Museum is a must see. They have recently upgraded it and you could spend days in there......I preferred the coffee lounge after a while....Vaughn however made his way around most of it. I was more interested in seeing the everyday stuff about how the old town worked and how people lived, then as soon as we moved on the 1800's got a bit bored....as I am such a history buff....move aside NZ history, tell me more when you are 1000 years old. We spent the next coupld of days wandering around the city, eating, drinking LOTS of coffee (there was even vanilla latte for Vaughn) and shopping. We bought a bit of tartan and looked around the shop that sells all the family tartan including the kilts, sporran (little hairy purses ha!), bagpipes and what not. The rest of the shopping was amazing, alot of clothing shops to keep me (and as it happened metro Vaughn....starting to get a little concerned). We caught up with cuzziebros, Naomi, Dricus and Zoe in the evening and then met up with Dan at one of the Fringe Venues to see a 'Fast Fringe' show which was an hour long show with about 10 comedians who had 3 minutes to convince us to buy tickets to their main show. Some were good....others not so good. We then grabbed some pizza at one of the temporary outdoor foodcourt areas set up for the Fringe Festival, called the Udderbelly (aptly named for the huge blow up purple upside down cow beside it....it's the fringe you go with it), before we had to start lining up for the Military Tattoo.

The Edinburgh Military Tattoo was definitely a highlight of our trip. Photos and Videos just don't do it justice! The Castle in the background creates an awesome backdrop and lighting and images change on the castle depending on the performance. The opening was wicked with all the big pipe bands playing together then each performance flowed on throughout the two hours. The best performances would have been the Norwegian Armed Forces who did an amazing display with rifles and marching in formation, very very clever; the Switzerland Top Secret Drum Corps were brilliant and so talented, they were just playing drums but it was incredible what they did with different rhythms, illusions and special effects including glow in the dark...oooohhhh. Vaughn's favourite bit was the lone bagpiper up on top of the castle...very eiry. The only thing that let the whole performance was the bloody Auzzies who insisted on singing two Kylie Minogue songs.......in the middle of a MILITARY tattoo.....I don't know what they were thinking! Having said that they did kinda keep to the theme with their girls in hotpants and sparkly bits highland dancing at one point....I think they had the wrong place....it RAINS in Scotland, wear some clothes! The whole thing finished off with a bang, literally with the cannons firing and fireworks galore. Highly recommended.

Heading home to our new temporary place at the Moore's ( a lovely apartment about 20mins drive out of the city) we caught some welcomed shut eye. And after a good sleep in.....(by Moore's standards who are crazy and exercise in the mornings!) bused back into Edinburgh all set to see Mary King's Close (thanks Dan and Zoe for the recommendation). Mary King's Close is one of the underground closes which was originally the very Old Town of Edinburgh. As different events have happened (e.g. the Plague) they have simply built ontop of the city to create the new one. They think there is about 11 layers down there including the existing town! So down we went underground with our guide who talked about how they lived back in the day. It was incredible the houses are still all there, shops, workshops the streets everything and they have done it up to tell the story. ie there was a Plague Room which was charming...and a Animal house where they both kept and slaughtered the animals. The houses were more like rooms and would have only been about 5 metres by 7 metres? Apparently these 'houses' would have had about 15 people living inthem....they would light fires to cook food and when it had to come out the other end again they had the bucket in the corner......mmm. When it was full they would literally chuck out the contents of the bucket out onto the close which went down hill, the same close that people had to walk through to get anywhere and the same close that had market stalls selling food......yummy. Was quite a spooky place really, but a must do I think while there, gives you are real sense of what life was like.

Our last day in Edinburgh finished off with a must see - the Edinburgh Castle...however of course it was raining! The castle is huge! We had limited time as Anna needed to get to the train station (in the end she missed her train anyway!). There is a massive military museum within the castle which is a day trip in inself. Looking around Queen Mary's private chambers where King James was born; the Great Hall, seeing the Crown Jewels and the dungeons beneath the castle were a highlight

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Photos

Princes Street Gardens
Used to be the sewage pond at the bottom of the old town....

Comments

[Heather]

Awesome photos
Your photos are incredible. You'll be glad you got that new camera. I feel like I've been to Scotland with you. I need to go again because I didn't see half of what you've done. Love you.