Day 5 - Part 2, Edinburgh, Abbotsford and Melrose Abbey

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The tour of Edinburgh continues plus two optional excursions.

On the way to Edinburgh Castle is a local café called "The Elephant Café". This is the site where JK Rowling wrote the first books of Harry Potter while she waited for her children to be excused from school. Their school below the castle was also the inspiration for Hogworts.

Between the café and going towreds the castle is Greyfriars Kirk (church). This is where a Skye Terrier named Bobby spent 14 years guarding his master's grave. each evenibg when the graveyard would be closed, he would enter and lay down beside his master. When Bobby died in 1872 he was buried just inside the gates not far from his master's grave.

It is said the JK Rowling got many of the names for the characters in her books from the graveyard of Greyfriars. Also an Edinburgh street appears to be an inspiration for Diagon Alley.

Abbotsford House is the historic country home of Scottish novelist and poet, Sir Walter Scott. It is located in the Scottish Borders on the south bank of the River Tweed. Originally it was built as a villa, then Scott built additions developing it into a mansion. Built into the walls are many sculptured stones from ruined castles and abbeys of Scotland.

In it, Scott gathered an extensive library (to die for, many of the volumes as the only ones in existence). it also contains ancient furniture, arms and armour and other relics especially connected with Scottish history.

Electricity was not installed until 1962. The last direct descendent to live in Abbotsford House was Scott's great-great-great granddaughter, who died on my birthday in 2004.

Melrose Abbey is a partly ruined monastery of the Cistercian order. It was founded in 1136 at the request of King David I of Scotland and the chief house for the order until the reformation.

Alexnder II and other Scottish kings and nobles are buried at the abbey. A lead container believed to hold the embalmed heart of Robert the Bruce was found in 1921. The rest of his body is buried in Dumfermline Abbey

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