Well day two stated out with us waking up like we were on our normal schedule at home - 6am but local time here. So we dozed a bit more then got up and ready and had a spot of breakfast here at the flat - bagels and yogurt we purchased yesterday. Then we walked up to Edinburgh Castle it wasn't far from where we are staying. On the way we passed St. Giles Cathedral so popped in for a look. There was so much to see - the organ was playing, the stain glass windows on every side and the etching/sculpting...it was something else.
This handrail is leading up to the pulpit
Me for scale
Then we walked up the Royal mile and into the castle itself. I had previously purchased the Historic Scotland pass online which included Edinburgh Castle so we went right up. The castle is still used as a military headquarters but much of the castle was tourable. We arrived just as a guided tour was starting so took that.
The following 3 pictures are the War Memorial which was a tribute to every Scottish solider that has ever died. They had books and books with names that you can flip through.
The next 2 pictures are the great hall. The ceiling is the hull of one of the Prince's ships - he had it installed in the great hall so he could boast he had the largest navy. The suits of armor and weapons were not in the hall when it was in use as "you don't want weapons near drinking Scotsmen" according to our guide.
We were able to go and view the Scottish crown jewels and the Stone of Destiny - which was basically just a big unimpressive block of stone but has been used symbolically for crownings to signify the connecting of the crown and the land for centuries.
After we went up to St. Margaret's chapel which was TINY - it only holds about 25 people. There's quite the history as the chapel was not destroyed with the rest of the castle so it is the oldest intact building in Edinburgh.
There was only two trees within the courtyard of the castle. They were big and beautiful.
View from the top
We popped into a pub for some lunch before we went onto our next tour. First first and chips and a pint. Beer tastes different here. Better different. Alot better.
Our next tour we had booked tickets for was the Real Mary King's Close. We weren't allowed to take pictures but the following is an example along with a little of the history. So there are these small side "streets" (more like tin alley's in my opinion) and there are quite a few of them that are called closes. In the 16th century, Edinburgh had prominent citizens but not many women prominent citizen's. Mary King's husband passed and willed her a burgess (burgess originally meant a freeman of a borough or burgh. It later came to mean an elected or unelected official of a municipality, or the representative of a borough in the English House of Commons). Mary became the later so this particular close became her's and was named after her. Our tour took us into the bowls of Edinburgh. These tiny streets had what was originally the world's first high rises. Sometimes there were 9 stories with residences and work places. May King's close was considered the second widest close after the Royal Mile. There were vendor's on one side and tiny winding staircases on the other. With not much space people had to file down the street single file. A lot of these buildings had a couple of lower levels where laymen lived basically with tiny rooms with no windows. Essentially the poorest of the poor. Whereas the upper levels were your richer class. In the early 1900's Edinburgh started building over these closes and Mary King's is now directly under the money exchange. Thus why no pictures are allowed. It was very interesting being down there and learning the history. At one point Mary Queen of Scots spent here last days here as well.
Afterward we went back up the Royal Mile into the tartan mills and we felt and looked at scarves and blankets and tams. There were buskers and of course the Fringe festival is on right now so there were tons of people.
Biggest St. Bernard I've ever seen in my life with his whisky barrel!!
We then got an ice cream (wowza was it creamy and amazing!) and got on our hop on hop off bus tour of the city.
The statue on top of this building is Elizabeth I and when it was commissioned apparently she didn't care for it so donated it to Scotland and here it now stands.
We tried a little Italian place on the way home and it turns out it's only been in business for 3 days! Their pizza was made in a wood burning fire place and it was absolutely amazing.
Pretty exciting first day with lots seen.
Up tomorrow: Bridge of Allan Highland Games, Stirling Castle, Wallace Monument and onto Glasgow!
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