There's a roadside sign on the border of Scotland and England that orders "Haste ye back" as you leave Scotland behind; I saw it on my last visit to the UK. I don't know if two years is really "haste," but nevertheless, here I am in Edinburgh once again! The minute I could see the town from the plane I remembered how much I love this small city on the Scottish coast. As opposed to the hustle and bustle of London, Edinburgh (pronounced Ed-in-bur-ah) has a much more leisurely pace, and more space to find your own place in the city. Plus, the scenery of Edinburgh is absolutely gorgeous--hills and mountains everywhere! As Mom took over most of the planning of our London adventure, I handled the Edinburgh. Let it be a warning to anyone thinking of letting me plan a trip for them: Prepare to climb things. Our first stop after the hotel was Edinburgh Castle, which sits at one end of the main drag known as the Royal Mile. Storming this castle is quite a feat, as it sits up on an extinct volcano after a long uphill climb just to the entrance. Once inside, we took a quick tour and checked out the fabulous views from the ramparts. Attractions include the Scottish crown jewels, which aren't as elaborate as the English ones but still pretty hardcore, and the Stone of Scone, which is the stone that all Scottish kings were crowned upon. It was stolen by the English for the coronation chair, which is displayed in Westminster Abbey, but then returned as a sign of good will. It will be used for all future coronations, but its permanent home is now in Scotland. There's also a very nice monument to Scottish war veterans at the highest point of the castle. We took a good amount of time to explore the castle and then headed out and down the hill to the Princes Street Gardens, which in addition to lots of flowers and nice views of the castle, have a fully functional floral clock. I can affirm that it is indeed working and on time. Making our way down the Royal Mile, we popped into the High Kirk of St. Giles. The Edinburgh skyline is full of church steeples, St. Giles being just one of them. The church was simpler than ones we visited in London, but still quite spectacular. I couldn't find anyone really exciting that was memorialized there, but there was a plaque that said "Thank God for James Young Simpson's discovery of chloroform anaesthesia in 1847." Thank God, indeed. Our further exploration took us to the North Bridge, "just to see what the view was like." From the bridge, we spotted a series of monuments up on a hill. Following in my need to climb every mountain, up we went! We thus found the Old Calton Graveyard, where David Hume is buried and there is a large Washington Monument-type obelisk erected. But we weren't done yet--we then climbed up what we later identified as Calton Hill. The views up here were incredible, especially since we were up there just as the sun was beginning to set, casting great shadows across all the buildings below. Definitely worth the trek up. There are some interesting monuments up there, including a structure that looks like the Parthenon.
By the time we got off the hill, we were ready to eat, but first we had to find the food. Mom's iPhone located a potato place called the Tempting Tattie, but it proved a challenge to find it. In my defense, it was on a street that was no accessible from the bridge. After much wandering, we finally found it. It was no Spudhouse, but the food was filling and cheap--so essentially perfect. We made our way back to the hotel and crashed, hoping for a good night's sleep before more conquering tomorrow.
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