There's nothing like being welcomed to Scotland by a man in a kilt playing bagpipes. It sounds extremely cliché, but it was the first sight (and sound) that Rabia and I experienced when we came out of Waverley Station in Edinburgh.
(The welcome party)
I had an excellent first impression of the city: the sun was shining, the views were spectacular, and Scottish national pride was contagious. After some navigation difficulties, Rabia and I checked into the Roxburgh Hotel in the New Town area of Edinburgh. We quickly left our belongings in our room and went out to explore the city.
(View of Edinburgh Castle from New Town)
We were pleasantly surprised to discover that Edinburgh was a walk-able city - we could get everywhere we needed to on foot. The most famous site, the Edinburgh Castle, loomed in the distance on top of a small mountain. This must have been some sort of optical illusion because it only took Rabia and me twenty minutes to get from our hotel in New Town to the Castle in Old Town.
We walked along the Royal Mile, the main road in Old Town full of tourist shops, churches, and museums. We stopped at St. Giles Cathedral, a beautiful gothic structure that dominated the street. John Knox, the Scottish founder of Presbyterianism served as a minister here in 16th century.
(St. Giles Cathedral)
We soon discovered that this small capital city had it all: beautiful architecture (a mix of modern and gothic), pretty mountains, great museums and sites, lots of shops and wonderful pubs and restaurants.
We had a lovely Scottish meal at our hotel where I learned that the salmon here is fantastic! If you ever come to Scotland, you shouldn't skip out on the Scottish salmon.
We did another waking tour of the city and felt less like tourists because we were starting to know our way around. The streets are mostly empty late at night because the tourists stay in and the locals hang out in the pubs. We loved a quaint little street called Rose Street, which had a lot of pubs and was nice to walk along.
The next morning, we bought tickets from our concierge for Edinburgh Tour, a company that has several Hop-On/Hop-off buses that drive around Edinburgh which pickup and drop-off tourists at various sites. A 24-hour ticket for these buses is only £12, so we figured it would be worthwhile. Our friendly concierge Jack advised us to bring jackets with us because it is "a wee bit nippy" at the top of the bus. I think I've found my new catchphrase.
(Tour bus)
While waiting in line to get on one of the green tour buses, we met some fellow Pittsburghers - it's a small world after all! We sat on the top of the open-air bus for the whole driving tour before hopping off at different sites. We drove past Charlotte Square, The Mound, Lawnmarket, Grassmarket, Scottish Parliament buildings, Holyrood Palace, and Canongate Kirk before we hopped on another green bus to go back to Edinburgh Castle in the Lawnmarket area. The best part of going on the tour buses was hearing all about Edinburgh and its history from different tour guides - each guide added his own special touch to his stories, which was nice and kept the tours interesting.
(Grassmarket)
My favorite parts of Edinburgh Castle were the Royal Apartments and Scottish National War Memorial. In the former, we saw the crowned jewels and the room where Mary Queen of Scots gave birth to her son James VI of Scotland. James grew up and became James I of England after Elizabeth I died in 1603. His reign marked the end of Tudor rule in England and the beginning of the Stuarts' line of rule. A cool thing I learned in the Royal Apartments as I looked at portraits of James VI/I, Mary Queen of Scots, Charles II and more was that it was standard for royals and other wealthy people to exchange portraits when arranging marriages. Usually the couples had never met, so it gave each person the chance to see what the other looked like.
(Royal Apartments)
Edinburgh Castle eventually became a military fortress (though its mountain-top location was always ideal for storing weapons and safeguarding people) instead of a place of royal residence. Technically it is still a military base. For this reason, Edinburgh Castle has The Scottish National War Memorial that I mentioned earlier within its walls. The memorial is beautiful, but what really moved me was that so many young people lost their lives fighting in wars. Of course I've studied wars in history class, but seeing lists and lists of names saddened me and made me realize just how destructive war is. A quotation engraved on one of the walls that really stood out to me was: "Though lost to us they are written in the books of God." Sad...but powerful.
(Outside the memorial)
At one o'clock, a kilt-bearing guard fired a cannon, which was exciting. All of the other tourists gathered outside, fighting over spots to see. Rabia and I outsmarted all of them by sitting in Argyle Tower, which offered a perfect view of the cannon. Go us!
(A view over a cannon at Edinburgh Castle)
(Tourists waiting to see the cannon)
After wandering through the entire castle (including its drafty dungeons), Rabia and I went back to the Royal Mile. We stopped for lunch at Deacon Brodie's Tavern, which is famous in Edinburgh because it is where the author of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde found his inspiration. The service was incredibly slow, but the food was amazing. Once again, I had salmon because it is SO good in Scotland. It was served with potatoes and salad and came on a delicious pastry, which was really interesting.
(Deacon Brodie's Tavern)
(My Scottish meal at Deacon Brodie's)
We hopped onto another green tour bus after lunch to get to the Palace of Holyroodhouse, which is where the Queen lives over the summer (June and July). Unfortunately, the palace was closed to the public because there was a church convention there. It was a shame, but we still got to see the exterior, which is in the Baroque style and resembles a French château. Outside the palace is a mountain called the Salisbury Crags, which provides a really nice view. Rabia wanted to climb the Crags, but we weren't well-equipped (aka we were only wearing flip-flops), so we headed in the other direction instead.
(Palace of Holyroodhouse)
(Salisbury Crags)
(Salisbury Crags again)
Right by Holyrood (which means Holy Cross) is the Scottish Parliament Building, which is a controversial building because its modern architecture does not match the city's predominate gothic architecture and also because it went way over budget. A cool feature of this building are the thinking pods, structures jutting out of the building where MSPs (Members of Scottish Parliament) can think. The Scottish Parliament has control over some aspects of government such as health and education, but the British Parliament in London is still in charge of national security and more large-scale national controls. The dominant political party today is the Scottish Nationalist Party, which hopes to hold a referendum in 2014 on whether Scotland should break way from the UK to become an independent nation. Clearly, exciting things are going on in Scotland.
(Scottish Parliament Building)
(Thinking pods)
Rabia and I went up a steep hill opposite the Crags to visit several cemeteries. We were searching for Adam Smith's grave - he was the founder of capitalism, so it would have been exciting to see his grave - we didn't find it though. We did, however, find philosopher David Hume's grave. Next, we wandered past Edinburgh's parthenon, governor's house, and observatory. Fatigued and dehydrated, we were relieved to find ourselves back in New Town - we had somehow traveled in a big loop.
(Churchyard by Holyroodhouse Palace)
(St. Margaret's Chapel)
(Cemetery)
(Memorial for Robert Burns)
(David Hume's grave)
(Statue of David Hume in Old Town - its apparently good luck to rub his toe)
We walked through East Princes Street Garden (which is beautiful and lies in the valley between the Old and New Towns) to get to the National Gallery of Scotland, which I was just itching to get to. We only had 45 minutes in the museum before it closed, but I still managed to get lost in several landscapes by Scottish painters.
(Me in the park)
(View from the Park)
(Scottish National Gallery)
After a full day of walking, Rabia and I rested a bit before heading back to Old Town for dinner. Before we ate, I wanted to find the statue of Greyfriars Bobby, an adorable Skye terrier who sat on the grave if his late master every night for 14 years (1858-1872). The people of Edinburgh cared for and loved this little loyal dog so much that they buried him in a human cemetery when he died.
(Pub named after the famous dog)
Rabia and I didn't have too much trouble finding the cemetery (Greyfriars Kirkyard) where he was buried, but we had a lot of trouble finding the statue. We had our eyes peeled for a large statue of the dog and used a picture from our tourist book as a guide. When we looked on the map, we saw that we kept walking past it, but still couldn't find it. Finally, Rabia noticed that there was a sign for a pizzeria behind Bobby the dog in the photo we had. We easily located the pizzeria and then saw that the statue of Bobby the dog was absolutely tiny. I was really happy we found it though - it is so cute! No wonder it is the most popular statue in Edinburgh.
(Statue of Greyfriars Bobby)
We walked along Chambers Street by the statue of Greyfriars Bobby in search of a restaurant. We stumbled upon Elephant House, the café where J.K. Rowling wrote Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. We excitedly took some pictures, thrilled that we actually found the place until I realized that it actually had a really good dinner menu. I had the best vegetable lasagna there. Afterwards, Rabia and I had hot drinks, just as J.K. Rowling used to. The café was adorable and the bathroom was filled with graffiti praising J.K. Rowling and Harry Potter - it was definitely the perfect restaurant for us! We later learned that her children attended the George Harriet school in Edinburgh, which was supposedly the inspiration for Hogwarts. How exciting!
We took a long walk back to hotel - Edinburgh is so beautiful at night when all of the buildings are lit up.
The next morning, we woke up early, so we could go on a green bus tour around the city one more time before our tickets expired. We went back to the Grassmarket area where I bought a cute dress that I had been eyeing in the window throughout our stay in Edinburgh. Rabia and I walked down the Royal Mile one last time, stopping at a church called Canongate Kirk. A royal wedding was held there last summer for the queen's granddaughter Tara Phillips. We also discovered that Adam Smith was buried in the adjoining cemetery. I got a picture of John Knox's house, the oldest building on the Royal Mile too. After hitting the tourist shops, we caught our last bus to New Town.
(Church of Scotland)
We split up at this point - Rabia hit the shops while I went back to the National Gallery. I had the best time seeing the works of so many talented artists. Some of these artists were: the Scottish painter (and poet) Allan Ramsay, Turner, Raphael, Watteau, Boucher, da Vinci, Constable, Courbet, Monet, Cezanne, Sargeant, Gaugin, Seurat, and van Gogh. I was excited when I could recognize the artist by his style before I read that the work was by him. A found a painting that I somehow knew, but couldn't remember how - it was 'Pas Mèche' by Julien Bastien-Lepage. I thought it was a really nice painting. Some of the other paintings actually made me have visceral reactions - I've always been told that art does this, but have just started feeling it for myself, which is awesome.
('Pas Mèche' by Julien Bastien-Lepage)
We went back to our hotel, grabbed our bags, and had a Pret à Manger picnic lunch in the park before we left. I'm on the train back to London right now and have so far spent the entire journey writing this. We have about 2 hours to go, but I'd better stop now because Rabia wants to watch "The Notebook" with me.
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