Our previous wedding anniversary was in Hawaii, so we thought we would go to the other end of the spectrum and go to Edinburgh for our 6th anniversary. As you do.
Edinburgh is a fabulous city, built on many hills and basically a rabbit warren of snickets and alleys. Needless to say we walked the soles off our shoes for a few days. Then we were spared as the last day it rained too much to wander about.
Because it was raining, we thought we would take an earlier train so we enquired at the ticket office as to the cost to change our tickets. "Oooh," he said in a Scottish accent, "that will be expensive." Or something to that effect as I can't understand the Scots most of the time. Kirsty was doing the talking for us as she speaks many languages, including Scottish. I know Scottish really isn't a language, but it might as well be. Anyhoo, he said it would be £89 per person and Kirsty said, "thank you, no" in her best Scottish. We walked away, and as we passed a ticket machine, we decided to see how much a new ticket was. It was £53 per ticket (still way to much to save a few hours). We originally paid £16 for each ticket, so even adding the £53 to the £16, it would still be less than the cost of changing our ticket times. Maybe I don't understand the new math. Luckily the strange folks coming and going kept us amused for most of the time.
Here are some pictures to keep you amused:
Saw this very cool steam train as we were waiting for our train in York.
We kept getting looks from the passengers next to us as we tucked into lunch on the train. Salmon, cream cheese, home made pickled cucumber, bagels, avocado and a bit of vino. The lady next to me ate a whole box of chocolate cookies. So there's that.
The old and the new as Edinburgh reinvents itself.
It has been 7 years since we were first at Artisan Roast coffee shop in Edinburgh. We went back to taste the flat white we have been judging all our flat whites against to see if it was still the best. Alas and alack it was not! They got rid of their manual pull espresso machine and had a couple of young posers running the show. So we slunk out of there and went to The Milkman on the recommendation of Kirsty's sister Kerry. She was right and it is our favorite now in Edinburgh. Our number one is
Truth, in Capetown.
We were a little surprised to see Abe in a graveyard here.
This is a monument to Sir Walter Scott, a Scottish writer. It is the tallest monument (200' 6") to a writer in the world.
This is Arthur's Seat, an extinct volcano in Holyrood Park. There is an ancient hill fort up there dating back about 2000 years. If we had walked up there, I could have shown you some pictures.
Young lad strangling a cat, or playing the bagpipes, depending on your tastes in music. As we walked by, a large husky was howling mightily at him as he played.
Interesting architecture in Edinburgh.
Ditto.
Edinburgh Castle.
A working clock made of flowers in Princes Street Gardens.
There are many of these large phallic structures in the city.
Look, here's another one. This is for Sir Horatio Nelson, hero of the motherland. Since 1852, a ball has been raised to the top of the monument every day and then dropped at precisely 1pm so that ships in the harbour can set their time pieces. Because it is cloudy on occasion in Edinburgh, a canon fires at the same time from Edinburgh castle.
Looks like Austria!
The Caledonian hotel, built in 1903 as part of the Caledonian Railways Princes Street railway station.
Leak and potetoe. Told you Scottish was a foreign language!
For you fans of Ian Rankin's Inspector Rebus novels. The Oxford Bar is where Ian spends a good part of his time. When Rebus is having a pint, he is usually in here.
As Kirsty says: "A proper pub."
Slainte!
