Day 12

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The beds at the Parliament House Hotel are absolutely divine. SO comfortable that it's hard to get out in the morning. I rose at around 8 and went for a walk. I passed another old cemetery and, being a sucker for old cemeteries, I had to go in! I found an Alexander MacKenzie which was exciting as that was the name of my grandfather. It wasn't him but it was still a thrill to see his name. I must be getting a bit daft in my old age! I also found a old monument with a skull and crossbones. Seemed a bit macabre but who knows what the prevailing attitudes were in the 1700s.

I continued my walk up to Hollyrood Palace which is where the Queen stays when she is in Edinburgh. I bet she likes it way more than Buckingham Palace! It's much prettier. Unfortunately it was too early for me to go in but I walked around the fence and took a few photos. Along the fence line there is a little stone building alleged to be Mary, Queen of Scot's bath house. Very cute wee building but I can't really see that she would have used it for bathing!

I continued past the Scottish Parliament Buildings. Hmm. Very... umm. unexpected. Carried on walking and found a public garden containing the Stones of Scotland, that had come from and represented all the areas of Scotland. It was really nice and I spent a bit of time going round looking at all the different stones.

I headed back to the hotel at about 9.30am. Kristy and I went for breakfast which was delicious again. After breakfast I asked the reception where the nearest internet cafe was located. It turned out to be the St James Shopping Mall which was just down the road. I dropped Kristy off there and went for another walk for an hour.

Edinburgh is such a lovely city. It feels just like home except the buildings are so much older. I guess you become immune to the effects when you live in a city but I just felt so delighted and contented and privileged to be able to spend time there. During my walk I had a look in a shop called Romanes & Paterson. They had a TV with a kind of rock band playing but, instead of singing, they had bagpipes. They were absolutely fantastic so I asked a woman at the counter who they were. She told me it was the "Red Hot Chilli Pipers". I couldn't resist and immediately purchased a DVD copy of their concert. Can't wait to see it when we get home.

I went back for Kristy at about 11 and we set off to look at some of the shops in the mall. Kristy found a cute little skirt. I found a real estate brochure and thoroughly enjoyed reading it (and let's be honest - dreaming about being able to live in Edinburgh!) I was surprised at the prices though - it seems you can get a modest dwelling for 150,000 to 200,000 pounds. I thought it would be more.

We left the St James and walked along to another mall which was beside the tourist office. We stopped there for lunch at the O'Briens sandwich bar. We had a very yummy basil pesto, tomato and mozarella cheese sandwich. Kristy had a mango smoothie and I had hot chocolate. It was really good just sitting and listening to the Scottish accents all around us.

After lunch we decided to visit the Camera Obscura and World of Illusions. It was a bit of a trudge up the hill but what a cool place. It has been a tourist attraction since the 1850s! I doubt if there are many tourist attractions in the world that could claim that. They have some sort of light/mirrors thing. It comes out a wiggly hose and the man pointed it down towards a white saucer shaped table. As he twisted it we could see Edinburgh in amazing detail. You could see all the streets and people walking along the streets. One old building had really small windows and the guide said it was because the person who built it didn't want tourists to be able to easily see in his windows! Fair enough. I think I would have done the same.

After that we spent a bit of time on the roof looking at Edinburgh through all the various magnification devices they had. We then worked our way down the floors. Each floor had various exhibits such as holographs, visual tricks and illusions, computers which morphed you into different ages and species, a room which made you feel as though you were in infinite space, mirrors and plasma balls etc etc. The holographs were awesome. At one point Kristy and I sat opposite looking at each other through strips of mirror. The effect was to make a new person which was an amalgam of both of us. Very eerie.

The weirdest thing for me though, was 'walking' across a bridge inside a rapidly revolving drum. Even though you know you are not moving, the motion of the drum convinces you that you are. Witin seconds of entering, I made a shameful display of myself clinging desperately to the hand rails, absolutely convinced I was falling and the only reason I wasn't sick was because I dragged myself along the rail so rapidly to the other end! Very embarrassing. It was incredibly disconcerting and it took me several minutes to regain my equilibrium. I had thought myself to be fairly practical and logical - another one of my illusions about myself shot to pieces!
I wonder if they have a camera set up in there. The staff would fair cry with laughter seeing people like me sauntering casually on to the bridge and then, within milliseconds, becoming green, making desperate dives for the hand rail and lurching violently across! (It makes me laugh just thinking about it now)

We had a wonderful afternoon there and left at about 5. We walked down the Royal Mile towards the hotel but stopped at a really nice souvenir shop where I bought a pure wool scarf complete with thistle decoration and a tiny bottle of whiskey for Mac. Kristy bought herself a lovely white sweatshirt with the word Scotland across the front.

We finally headed back to the hotel, rather despondent at the prospect of leaving Edinburgh tomorrow.

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Photos

Hollyrood Palace
the home of Mary, Queen of Scots. Now the Scottish residence of Queen Elizabeth. If I was her I would live there all year!

Mary Queen of Scot's bath house!
It was once attached to a boundary wall enclosing the King's garden.

Scottish Parliament
I think we could learn a lot from the Scots about the best way to manage politicians!

Camera Obscura
An eerie amalgamation of the two of us