Day 4 - Edinburgh Castle

Today we hiked around the city a bit more and then went up to Edinburgh Castle.

View of Edinburgh Castle from outside our hotel

Edinburgh Castle from right below

Once again, the weather has been amazing-- sunny and about 72-75 degrees. We are completely comfortable in shorts and tee shirts. In fact, it's a bit hot! This is unexpected as we thought it would be cold, windy and rainy. Surprise!

We learned a bit more about the interesting and unusual geology of Edinburgh. Apparently, Edinburgh represents a unique combination of extinct volcanoes and 'glaciation.' The glaciers cut a path through the volcanic rock, but left several prominent hills about 12,000 years ago. The volcanoes have been dormant for millions of years. The city is perched atop seven different hills, including Arthur's Seat. I would hike up Arthur's seat if my hip wasn't so bad -- I will have to come back when I have a new one. We walked about 3 miles of hilly terrain today and my hiking poles made a huge difference once again . . . that and some Aleve.

The people of Edinburgh are really friendly. Much friendlier, we are told, than the Londoners. There are a huge number of non-natives here in Edinburgh. We've met a taxi driver from Poland, who was hilarious -- we are convinced he is the Polish version of American comedian/actor, Seth Rogen. One of our waiters was also from Poland. We understand that nearly half of the population of Edinburgh is non-Scottish. Granted, many of those are probably in University as there are four major universities here, including The University of Edinburgh, which was founded in the late 16th century (much older than my Alma mater, Yale, founded in 1701).

OK, now about that Castle . . . .

To be honest, it's a lot like every other castle you see in Europe. It certainly has a fantastic view of the city and we had such a clear day that you could see for a very long way:

View from the Edinburgh Castle North toward St. Andrews

The most interesting thing about the castle is the fact that there has been some sort of structure there for 3,000 years. These castles have been built and destroyed over and over again through the years. Lots of wars with England, of course. There's a gun that goes off every day at the castle at 1:00 pm and the locals can set their watches by it -- and they do. It's kind of funny as it's this big Howitzer sitting nearly at the top of the Castle and it's pointed out toward the ocean.

Below is a picture of the oldest building up on the Castle rock and it is called St. Margaret's Chapel.

The boys have been great. It can be a bit tough for Bryce at times as museums are really not his thing . . yet. But they've been troopers:

OK, here are a couple more shots from Susan's camera and that's pretty much it for today. Tomorrow, we head to St. Andrews.

Day 3 in Edinburgh - Transition from the B&B to a Downtown Hotel

We awoke to our first morning of bright sunshine today. In fact, today the weather has been more like Santa Barbara than Scotland. Here are a few shots that show how clear and sunny it was today:

This is known as 'Arthur's Seat -- it's a great hike up from the base near Holyrood House.

The photo above was taken at 7:00 pm this evening. Of course, it's now 9:15 pm and still light out. It seems like it doesn't get dark until about 10:30 and it gets light again at 3:30 am.

An International Swim . . .
This morning Susan and I went to swim at the Commonwealth Pool (they call it 'The Commie Pool' for short). Wow! What an amazing facility. It's not too often you get to swim in an INDOOR 50 Meter swimming pool. It must have been renovated recently because it is absolutely gorgeous. We got in about 10 am and swam for an hour. I didn't want to get out. I swam in the 'fast' lane and there were only 3 or 4 other swimmers in my lane, so there was plenty of room. I took a photo and was then told 'no cameras allowed!' Not sure why:

The Commonwealth Pool in Edinburgh -- a beautiful facility.

Here's a photo from their website that's a bit clearer:

One thing they do here that you don't see in the states is how they set up the swimming lanes and the way swimmers circle. They alternate clockwise and counter-clockwise by lane. This is a great set up because you are never swimming towards somebody in the next lane, which means you never hit somebody else's arm across the lane line. That happens to me all the time back home. This was a great start to our day and my first ever international swim.

After our swim we moved out of our B&B, the Mayfield Gardens, and into the Parliament House downtown. This hotel is situated nicely for our tour of the Edinburgh Castle tomorrow. I still can't believe the weather today. It was about 72 degrees and sunny all day -- this is unusual here. Tomorrow I will add a few more shots from Susan's camera that show how gorgeous the day was.

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!

Our Arrival in the UK and first day in Edinburgh

TRAVEL DAY - JUNE 12TH AND 13TH

We arrived in Edinburgh on the afternoon of June 13th, 2014. Our flight from Los Angeles had been remarkably smooth and the flight from London to Edinburgh was also without incident. We left LA at 4:00 pm, California time and arrived in Edinburgh at about 1:00 pm local time (which correlates to 5 am our time). I slept maybe 3 hours on the flight, which is actually good for me as I typically don't sleep at all on flights. Trey and Bryce didn't sleep at all. Susan slept maybe 3 hours and Austin about the same.

From the Edinburgh airport we took the tram to St. Andrews and then a taxi to the B&B where we're staying, which is called "23 Mayfield," which corresponds to its address. It's a quaint little B&B and we are on the third floor -- all of us in ONE room . . . yikes! We are in the southern part of the city.

Upon arrival, we, of course, felt like zombies! But it worked out well because we had some time to change and then head out for dinner. We went to a local pub called 'The Salisbury Arms.' The food was decent and the beer was even better. The drinking age here in Scotland is 18, so, of course, Austin was interested in taking advantage! We all collapsed after dinner at about 7 pm. Since it's light out so late this time of year, I woke up briefly at 9:30 pm and thought it was morning . . . but no, we had 11 more hours to sleep!

OUR FIRST DAY IN EDINBURGH

Susan had arranged a two hour walking tour with John Stewart-Young, a local. We covered a lot of ground in two hours. Being the cripple that I am these days with a bad left hip, I was especially pleased with my new REI hiking poles! They made a HUGE difference. We started out hiking up Calton Hill, where we got to see the Nelson Memorial and many other interesting sites. Lots of great views of the city from the top of this hill.

With Austin, Trey and Bryce being 19, 17 and 12, we are finally at a stage where nobody complains about these kinds of tours and everybody can keep up. John was full of all kinds of interesting stories about Scotland's history. One of my favorite anecdotes was the fact that, throughout history, Scotland often allied with France against England. John said that even to this day when he travels to France, he gets a warmer welcome as a Scot than he would as a Brit.

The challenges with England continue today and we learned that there is a referendum on Scotland's independence this coming September. Our tour guide had a Scottish father and an English mother and called himself a 'Unionist,' meaning that he prefers to be connected to England.

We learned that Adam Smith lived in Edinburgh and is buried here. Being fans of Free Market Economics, we had to take a photo with Adam! 

We ended the tour in the heart of the city near the Royal Mile. We learned that JK Rowling wrote the first Harry Potter book here in Edinburgh in her brother's pub, The Elephant Cafe, and she received much of her inspiration for the story from various landmarks throughout the city.

Lunch at a traditional Scottish pub was a must:

Here are a few more photos. The weather has been fantastic . . . mostly sunny with a few clouds and about 66 - 68 degrees.