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Grassmarket Street
Grassmarket Street Today our two main goals are a free walking tour of Edinburgh and possibly a tour of Edinburgh Castle. After a short but fairly decent night's sleep, we woke up around 8am, and after a confusing shower, we headed out to join a free walking tour that started in front of Starbucks at 10am. Okay, the confusing part of the shower was figuring out where to put what while taking a shower in a mini-shower, and not parading around naked, since it was a co-ed bathroom. Now, back to the tour. The tour is offered by Sandeman's New Europe and is free because the guides work only for tips. Supposedly, that makes them work harder to earn your tip. Our guide, David Maitland, was from the Highlands of Scotland, had a definite Scottish accent, but was easily understood. Besides being friendly and informative, he was also very passionate and excited about the stories he told, often doing wild pantomimes to illustrate the stories. Very entertaining! We thought the tour was supposed to be 2 hours, but turned out to be more like 3. We heard about the famous Scots from days gone by like Robert the Bruce, about the King trying
Crazy Dave
Our free tour guide, Dave Maitland to force his acceptance as the leader of the Protestant Church in Scotland, Deacon Brodie (the basis for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hide), and Margaret the prostitute who was hanged but wouldn't die. We also walked around quite a bit of older Edinburgh and took a break in a pub to warm up. Did I mention how cold it was all day? All in all a very worthwhile tour, especially since it was basically free. We did of course tip our guide, as did just about everyone else.
After a quick tour through one of the local supermarkets to satisfy my wife's passion for browsing foreign supermarkets, we headed back up to the Royal Mile for a hearty lunch. We ended up in the Royal Mile Tavern which the hostel had recommended for local fare. Manoli gave the famous, traditional haggis a try, and I tried the Highland Chicken which the guy at the hostel had recommended. Haggis, in case you didn't know, is made from sheep offal. That's the parts that they don't normally sell as meat, such as lungs, kidneys, ears, etc, all ground up and stuffed in a sheep's stomach and boiled. It is much better
Edinburgh Castle
Looking way up to the Edinburgh Castle than it sounds, and they don't use a sheep's stomach any more. Manoli loved it, with mashed potatoes and turnips. My Highland Chicken was chicken fillets stuffed with haggis and served with mashed potatoes and gravy, along with some vegetables such as cauliflower, broccoli and carrots. Mine was also quite good, and I can say I ate haggis and liked it too. You just have to forget what it is made out of. Also, because we were staying at the Castle Rock Hostel, we got a 20 percent discount, so it was even better. The Royal Mile Tavern is quite typical of a Scottish pub or tavern and really had a good atmosphere.
Having had our filling lunch, we headed back to the hostel to drop off our water and cheese from the supermarket, and warm up. Around 3:30 or so, we climbed up to Edinburgh Castle to take a tour, if it wasn't too expensive. We'd heard from our guide how large it really is, contrary to how it looks from below, and also how much cool stuff there was to see, so we were ready to pay a bit more. It turned out to cost 16.50 Pounds,
Edinburgh Castle 2
Edinburgh Castle from the Grassmarket except I got a concession for my old age and only paid a 13.20 Pounds. The castle was quite extensive, with a large variety of buildings, rooms, and ornaments, including suits of armor, medieval weapons, the Scottish Queen's official crown, sword and scepter, and the Stone of Destiny referred to often my our tour guide... with an ominous voice.
After the castle tour and a brief walk around, we returned to the hostel to get ready for our tour tomorrow. We have to pack everything we'll need for the next 5 days in our backpacks. Tomorrow morning we are off on a 5-day Highland Fling bus tour, probably with a bunch of young kids. My granddaughter took the same tour last year and it sounded cool, so we decided to give it a try.
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