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Published: September 4th 2006
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Edinburgh Castle from New Town
This picture is taken from New Town within Edinburgh of the Castle across the Princess Gardens. The castle absolutely dominents the skyline. Well we have finally arrived at the last destination of Edinburgh, Scotland on my initial road trip through England and Scotland. Now I have so badly wanted to come back here ever since I spent sometime here all the way back in 2001. This city made such an incredible impression on me all that time ago; it was simply a must to return. I am writing this a few days after my return from Edinburgh and having a slight case of writers block. I am currently staying with my stepbrother, Stephen and this girlfriend, Angela in the suburb of Streatham Hill. I have been staying here for a couple of days before I move on to my travels in mainland Europe.
Be aware when traveling to Edinburgh during the month of August, it is near impossible to find a reasonably priced Hotel. This is all due to a month long festival called the
Edinburgh Military Tattoo (http://www.edintattoo.co.uk/) that ended the just about the same week we arrived. So we ended up staying in a little town about 8 miles out, called Penicuik. One of the nicest things about our last stop was that it took us only two hours to
The Royal Mile
This is the picture taken about half way up the Royal Mile, towards the Castle. The remains of the festival are still evident throughout the city. get there. We stayed at the Swallow Craigiebield House Hotel and it was very good, we had a massive room with a large bathroom. However it was a little expensive.
I will give you all a run quick run down of what Felicia and I got up in the couple of days that had in Edinburgh and then tell you why its not that great an idea to fly with a low cost airline within Europe. We were able to get the bus into Edinburgh, which dropped us off right in the middle of town on the Royal Mile. Now the Royal Mile stretches for 1 mile from Holyrood Palace at the bottom to Edinburgh Castle at the top. This area accounts for a large majority of all the attractions within the city. We decide to go the tourist route and for only 12 pounds were able to use 4 different tour companies, this covered the entire city and down to the coastal area. We spend a large majority of the day sight seeing; it’s best to use the bus service that has the live tour guide, as they are full of great stories of old. On the conclusion
Entrance of Edinburgh Castle
Here I am at the entrance to the Edinburgh Castle, where there is a plack honoring William Wallace (Braveheart) at the entrance. of our day in the city, we decide to do what any dedicated tourist should do, go on a pub-crawl of all the pubs down the Royal Mile. This turned in to an incredible amount of fun and it is so much easier walking downhill of a few great Scottish beers (So I simply cannot drink Whisky).
As we had spent most of previous day in the Old Town, we decided to spend some time exploring new town, around the Princess Str. area. Been that we were both nursing a little bit of a hang over, we the start was not nearly as early as the previous day. Now the views from Princess Str across Princess Str Gardens are simply the best in Edinburgh. The new town area is where all the shopping and the more chic restaurants are found. We did eventually make it around to seeing the inside of Edinburgh Castle which is an absolute must and make sure you do the guided tour, which is free of charge. To my dismay, Felicia had picked up a haunted graveyard tour pamphlet during our trip into town. Now if anyone no me, there is simply no bigger woes
View from the Castle
Another reason to go to the castle is to see the incredible views of the area surrounding Edinburgh. This is incredible on a clear day, when it comes to ghosts and would never be caught dead in a graveyard at night. So what do we end up doing, going on a haunted graveyard tour? We the night could not have been more perfect, it rained the whole time, I was soaking wet, you could not see your hand in front of your eyes. The tour guide was brilliant, the pure fear she installed within us, had the entire group petrified by the end, that we were all basically ran from the graveyard. It went so far that one girl fainted while within our group, this is not for the light hearted and I had to throw my underwear away afterwards.
After that experience I went back to the hotel room and slept with the light on. The following day we were off to the airport, oh what an experience, to all those flying in Europe this year, it’s better to drive if you can. The situation here makes USA airports look like bastions of efficiency. And to make matters worse, you are charged for every bag you take on and you are only allowed 20 kg per person, not per bag. Then you pay money for every additional kilogram that you are over. Be sure to read to fine print. Flying so far in the UK has not been a good experience.
Felicia, my girlfriend, has left for the Dallas on Sunday. I will miss her terribly, we had a great time together and I look forward to seeing you very soon. Lastly to all my friends and family, who keep up with this blog, miss you all and look forward to seeing you when I return.
Cheers from Edinburgh, Scotland
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