City Built on a Rock & Sunset at 11 ...

SCOTLAND — Yes, I’m talking about Edinburgh, specifically, and maybe 11:00 is stretching it a bit...but not by much! It’s light forever here!! Made for days to soak up all the wonder that we could in our short time here. And we all agree that this country deserves another trip all by itself!!
We hit all the high spots in the Old City and enjoyed a day in St. Andrew’s, too. Our apartment “home” was fantastic—on the Royal Mile basically, within 500 feet of Edinburgh Castle, 200 yr old building, tall ceilings, huge generally, full kitchen, and several stories above Victoria St. down below in Grassmarket area, believed to have inspired Diagon Alley of “Harry Potter” fame! So cool! I told the family to expect decidedly smaller digs in Paris.
Our take-aways from the sights:
The Castle—

• The big cannon, Mons Meg, is taller than India!
• St. Margaret’s Chapel is small, peaceful, and beautiful amidst the huge grounds
• The war museum and its tributes to soldiers lost is solemn and reverent
• The views looking out over the city are expansive and gorgeous —we had surprising and atypical weather for Scotland...sun and 70’s! Who says it rains here?!
• The Crown Jewels are not quite as lustrous as those at the Tower in London but exquisite nonetheless!
• The prison spaces, especially the solitary confinement area, is creepy to see
• Seeing the braziers lit at night (which we did our last night on a walk, not while touring it) made us imagine what it would’ve looked like with torches lit so long ago. Very cool!!

 St. Gile’s Cathedral—

• Lovely to see the birthplace of Presbyterianism from the Scots
• Beautiful architecture. 
• Not as grand as Westminster Abbey, though Chapel of the Thistle inside is pretty ornate
• John Knox’s influence and that of the whole church on independence for the nation apart from England really influenced us as a nation historically—that was interesting in seeing/reading the history as displayed there and at...

John Knox House—

• I loved this place. Though history debated about actual residents and occupation, the house itself holds fascinating history, artifacts, story, and remains largely intact. So neat!
• And the exhibits are easy to view and enjoy. Even clothes to don as Knox, himself! 
• The rancor between Mary Queen of Scots and Knox became overwhelming, as neither would yield. Of course, Mary has to face her own problems in the South, and ultimately finds herself beheaded!

Palace at Holyrood House—

• Henry VIII’s Hampton Court Palace more impressive, BUT Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s  wedding attire (and the children’s bridal party outfits) just arrived on special exhibit, so that was fun to see! 
• AND the ruins of the Abbey here—WOW...ancient feeling with a haunting beauty almost
• Lovely gardens, too

Greyfriars Cemetery is cool, where a part of the city’s original Flodden Wall still stands. The church at Greyfriars is the oldest church still operating, post-Reformation. And a place we ate—the Last Drop—has been a pub at least a few 100 years! India was intrigued by the gorgeous and soft cashmere peddled all over, and Eli wanted to explore for a comic-book store. It was funny, for you GoT fans...he found one (or thought so) on-line called Wolf and Dragon, and we found our way there; it was all the “Game of Thrones” merchandise you could ever want or need!! Or not!! Too funny because he is currently reading the series.

So—sorry this is so long, but boy, we just loved everything ...and we really got lucky with weather—it truly was sunny and 70’s pretty much the whole time except our arrival with a little drizzle.

St. Andrew’s—

• The Cathedral: it’s ruins more than an actual building..and it’s wondrous. Talk about haunting...in the sense of holding about 900 years of history in its literal foundation...and the stones/tombs among it
• St. Rule’s Tower: remains intact, and we went up it—a building 960 years old! OMDL!! Curvy staircase to a view of this charming town, where golf was born, and the North Sea slams into the shore, at points calmly rolling up and at others, hitting harder, breaking onto the rocky shelf edge it meets. The climb was 166 steps and remarkable to think they built this all those years ago. 
• The Castle: it’s ruins, too, but more remains than the Cathedral...cool because it’s right on the Sea...up a bit high from it, and neat heights of the various parts to it
• Balgove Larder: Sometimes social media is pretty great—a college friend, Kim Bean, posted a couple weeks before we left that she was at this place and how good it was. So, I looked it up. Made a note. Well, off we went. Farm, butcher, cafe, steak barn, flower shop...we ate our big meal at the Steak Barn there. WOW! Josiah said best burger of his life! It was a beef pattie, lamb pattie, bacon, blue murder cheese, cheddar, and mozzarella. OMDL! India and I had lamb burgers with a sheep cheese and avocado, and Clark and Eli had steaks. Really fantastic!! My Uncle John (who was a beef specialist/prof at Va Tech) would’ve approved, for sure.
• The Old Course of golf — a tourist site indeed but where golfers go on about game, too; a course that defines “links” golf and has when it began it! The tradition is thick here.
• The North Sea: we walked down to touch the Sea and found it less cold than expected, the beach quite wide (was low tide), and the sand squishy. 

After returning to Edinburgh, our adventures ended with a different kind of tour — one of Mary King’s Close. The “closes” or “wynds” are the alleyways that spoke off from the main street, i.e. the Royal Mile. We went underground a story or two and were guided through how people lived in these spaces some 300-400 years ago. And they did so 10 stories high! Amazing! Our guide was great. 

And that’s more than you probably wanted to know. But we loved it and happy to share!