Great Britain Road Trip, Part IV

We arrived in Edinburgh on Friday evening, with enough time to walk around town a little bit before dinner.  Our hotel was just off the Royal Mile, so we walked up to the main drag to get our bearings and poke into some shops.  The Royal Mile is a stretch of road between Edinburgh Castle and the Palace of Holyrood House, where the queen lives when she is in Edinburgh (Incidentally, she was in, so the palace was closed to visitors.)  It is lined with shops, restaurants, historic buildings, and statues. It is also full of seagulls, which are as abundant and pesky as pigeons. We saw several tearing open trash bags by the side of the road, and their screeching went on throughout the daylight hours-- about 4:00 AM to 10:00 PM up that far north.

Statue of Adam Smith (with a seagull on his head) in front of St. Giles Cathedral, the Scottish mother church (Presbyterian)

Looking down the Royal Mile

We bought some tartan scarves for the boys (Malcolm plaid for Malcolm, Mitchell plaid for Soren Mitchell), and I gleefully found the latest issue of People magazine in a newsstand.  We were hungry, but most of the restaurants nearby were either no-kids-allowed pubs, lunchtime cafes, or super touristy places.  Malcolm asked to eat in an American restaurant, and since there weren't a lot of other options in the vicinity, we agreed, though we were a little embarrassed to be that kind of tourist-- the ones who eat at McDonald's when they travel abroad, rather than enjoying the local cuisine.  The food was actually delicious, and it turned out to be the best meal we had all week.  After dinner, we snuck back down the "close" or alley (these abound in Edinburgh) to our hotel and did our best to block out the sunlight so the kids could sleep.

The close

Saturday morning, we woke to the sound of torrential rain.  We've gotten used to rainy days, but usually it is more a sprinkle than a downpour.  Since we had just one full day in Edinburgh, we suited up in raincoats, wellies, and umbrellas, and decided to carry on with our sightseeing plans.  Edinburgh Castle was on the top of our list of sights to see, and it was only about a half mile walk from our hotel.

On our way to the castle

Castle gate

"No one can harm me unpunished"

Rainy walk through the gate to the castle

We kept expecting the rain to die down or maybe even come and go, but it was relentless. We walked up the hill to the castle in the pouring rain, waited in the ticket line in the pouring rain, and started sightseeing in the pouring rain. The view of Edinburgh from the castle is supposed to be spectacular.  This is what we saw.

"View" from the castle

Not much to see

The kids did enjoy seeing the One O'Clock Gun, which fires every day at 1:00 PM to let sailors know the time. After that, their good humor ran out, and a meltdown led us into the cafe to warm up and regroup.  

This pretty much sums up our day.

The famous One O'Clock Gun

We decided to make a quick tour of the inside parts of the castle, but even that proved to be a challenge.  Everyone else wanted to be inside, too, so every room was packed.  Many areas had stairs that our stroller couldn't get through, so we tried to leave the stroller in a corridor.  It was nearly confiscated by a guard, because apparently you cannot separate yourself from any of your possessions even momentarily "on an army base", which apparently the castle is.  It became clear that it was time to abort mission.  Everyone was soaked and shivery, and frankly none of us was having any fun.  

Swords inside the castle

Malcolm and a suit of armor

Malcolm and a bagpiper, who appeared to be there just for photo ops.  Note the water on the lens and Malcolm's soaked pants.

Inside the castle walls

The castle is built into the rocks.

After lunch, Soren took his first nap of the trip.  At all our other stops, we figured we wouldn't bother with an afternoon nap when there was so much to see, but nothing is nicer than a nap on a rainy day.  Malcolm and Erik watched Serena Williams win the women's final at Wimbledon from the hotel bar, while Soren and I rested in a dark room.  The rain was still coming down post-nap, so we got on a double-decker tour bus and saw the sites from inside.  Unfortunately, the windows were so foggy that we couldn't see well, and we didn't even bother trying to take pictures.  I will say that what we saw was lovely.  Edinburgh is beautiful, and even reminds me of Paris in some ways.  We will try to return some day, though I don't think you can ever count on good weather in Scotland.

And that was Edinburgh.  On Sunday morning, we got back on the road, heading south in search of some sunshine.