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on guard
on guard Got up as early as I have in a while today in order to give us proper time to check out Edinburgh (apparently pronounced Edinburr - and lop off the rest just like Scots do with most words) today. Took the hour long train out there around 11am. The train pulls in to Edinburgh in just the absoutlely dead center of the touristy part of town. It's practically right at the base of the hill that the famous Edinburgh Castle sits on. Coincidentally that was our first stop.
We walked up the steep and curvy Edinburgh roads to the Royal Mile, the street that stretches from Holyrood Palace (Scotish home of Queen) to the castle, and has the majority of the tourist attractions in the city. Walked up that road to the castle which sits on a cliff overlooking the rest of the city. Quite a sight. We ended up just walking around the grounds and not entering the castle to check out the displays due to a pretty steep entrance fee which I couldn't really justify. Just being up there and checking out the outer facade was definitely worth the walk up there though.
Grabbed a small lunch
view from arthurs seat
view from arthurs seat at a nice outdoor cafe before heading down to check out the Greyfriars Bobby statue (statue of a Scotish Terrier who apparently was the most loyal dog ever or something like that) which is some what of a landmark in the city. From there we headed to the Museum of Scotish History (no admission, what! what!) which is much much cooler than it sounds. Walked around there for an hour or so and checked out one of my favorite exhibits, the stuffed remnants of Dolly the famous cloned sheep.
I should interject here and mention that the weather in Scotland has been amazing, especially after Ireland. The weather today is 70-75 degrees and sunny with hardly a cloud in the sky and it's been almost as nice the last few days as well. Anyways, we headed over to Arthur's Seat. This set of hills/mountains sit right in the middle of the city. It's kind of like Central Park, just more mountainous. Which is awesome since you can walk into the hills for 5-10 minutes and it's like you completely left the city. Of course, that feeling disappears when you get to the top and peer around and get incredible
castle
castle 360 degrees views of all of Edinburgh. Probably the coolest thing I have seen so far this trip, that and the Cliffs of Moher. After that we made the long walk back to the station to catch our ride back. I have to say I was quite impressed with Edinburgh, and with Scotland as well. Whoever designed the city did a great job of using the beautiful natural scenery to mix in with the Gothic architecture.
So as of now I am writing this out on Adam's balcony on a perfect night here in Glasgow. Just hanging around catching up and talking traveling as our Haggis boils in the kitchen inside. That's right, haggis. It's happening. I'm pretty sure Adam will read this so big ups to Adam for having me here the last 4/5 days. The hospitality was great and I loved my time here in Scotland. Also props to Niall and the rest of the crew. Tomorrow: PORTUGAL!
----On the bonnie bonnie banks of loch lomond...
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