Day Two In Edinburgh - Visiting the Holyrood Palace and other sites . . .

Today we got a bit of a late start. We are definitely over our jet lag now -- can't hurt that we've slept 12 hours two nights in a row!

This morning we had another great breakfast at our B&B and then headed out to the Palace of Holyroodhouse, which, we learned, is the official residence of the British monarch in Scotland. Located at the bottom of the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, at the opposite end to Edinburgh Castle, Holyrood Palace has served as the principal residence of the Kings and Queens of Scots since the 16th century, and is a setting for state occasions and official entertaining. We understand that the Queen of England still spends time at this palace every summer. It's an impressive place for sure. Here is a picture from the Internet and below are my photos from today:

One of the great innovations in museum tours these days is the handheld audio guides. These enable you to go at your own pace and learn about specific items in the museum. Even the kids were interested in this mode of learning. And when we got to the Art Gallery, they had hand held audio guides that looked like iPhones with images you could touch to start the audio for each art piece.

After the tour of the Holyrood Palace, we toured the Holyrood Abbey. They are more like ruins, actually, as  it dates back to the 12th century.

After the Abbey, we were, of course, hungry! It was 2:30 pm at that point, so it was time for 3 pm "tea." So we took a cab back toward the central part of the city and found a great restaurant for a late afternoon snack:

We found a great spot near St. Andrews Square for 'lunch' called 'The Royal Cafe.' Austin (above) is enjoying a Guinness -- his second one ever, and he even got to experience his first ever . . . OYSTER! The Oysters were fantastic. We learned that this particular restaurant was featured in the movie "Chariots of Fire." It turns out we were sitting in the very spot where the main characters were having lunch in the movie! Hard to believe that Chariots of Fire was released 33 years ago (1981)!

Note Austin displaying his first raw Oyster in the photo above . . . . .

After 'lunch' we searched for a sports store as Palmer and Susan have learned that there is a 50 METER POOL here in Edinburgh -- and we are going to swim first thing Monday morning. So we found our goggles at Sports Direct. We'll see how that goes . . . .

For dinner (yes, food is the constant theme), Susan had booked us at the Edinburgh Castle Witchery for dinner. The building is said to be haunted by one of the thousand people who were burned for witchcraft on Castlehill in 15th and 16th centuries. The eight bedroom suites are furnished in a gothic style with oak panelling, tapestries and antique features. Palmer was last in Edinburgh for the Cate School soccer trip in the summer of 1980 . . . and he still remembers the Edinburgh Military Tattoo that takes place right near the castle. That event takes place in August and they are just now setting up the bleachers for it. The dinner at The Withchery was fantastic . . .

That's it for our second full day in Edinburgh. Tomorrow we will meet up with some friends and go deeper into the city of Edinburgh before departing for Loch Ness and other, more remote, parts of Scotland. I have to say that the sound of bagpipes throughout the city today and yesterday is really evocative. What a great country!