Off to Edinburgh

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We packed and loaded up the car this morning, aiming the gps for the Edinburgh airport area to return our rented car. The roads got better the closer we got, and it was raining lightly most of the trip. Leaving the main highway in Edinburgh, we quickly found ourselves in a traffic jam full of people going to the Edinburgh Royal Fair (the Queen herself, went yesterday). This combined with lots of construction, led to a rather convoluted route as we tried to find a gas station to fill the car and also find the car lot. At one point we ended up in the short term parking and had to pay 1 ½ pounds to get out !

With the car returned, we opted for a taxi into town and were quickly at our downtown hotel, just off the Royal Mile. After eating our packed lunch in our hotel room, we headed off to explore the town.

As we have bought our train tickets online, our first stop was the train station where we picked up the actual tickets. Next we headed up to the Edinburgh Castle, which we had seen from our taxi on the way in.

The castle is very expensive to go inside, and being sort of “castled out” we settled ourselves with just seeing the outside of it. After the castle, we went to a tarten shop close by where they had good displays of how the tarten cloth is weaved as well as every imaginable item that can be made from the cloth.

We worked our way down the Royal Mile, shamelessly visiting the souvenir shops (there may always be something to buy) before walking over to Princes Street so that Benjamin could check out the bookstores. After walking back towards our hotel, Evy and I parted company with the boys, who headed back to our hotel.

Evy and I continued on, looking for the Greyfriars church yard and the statue of Greyfriars bobby. Greyfriars bobby, is, of course, the loyal dog that was so attached to his master that he slept on his masters grave after his death and live in the graveyard.

We found the statue without too much trouble, and after taking some photographs, explored the graveyard a bit (which ironically has a sign saying no dogs) before walking back towards the hotel. On our way back to the hotel, we passed a restaurant where J.K. Rowling used to frequent and where she wrote much of the book Harry Potter, while looking out over the Edinburgh Castle.

Back at the hotel, we opted to eat in the hotel restaurant and then spent the evening catching up on international news with Sky TV.

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