Day 240 - Edinburgh

Holyrood Palace

I really like Edinburgh. As cities go, it seems to have all I admire: proximity to the sea, rolling hills, tons of history, old mixed with new architecture, and a youthful vibe. One of my earliest visits here was with my sister where it was the starting point for our tour of Scotland by car. We had a great room in the Renaissance Hotel replete with dark wood, plaid, tea, shortbread and views over the rooftops of the city. While wandering after dinner on our first night, we were walking by a pub across from the hotel and poked our noses in the door. A singer/guitar player waved us in to join the party, which we did. It was a fantastic start to our adventure and left me with a great feeling about the place. I always look forward to going back.

Phil at the entrance to Fleshmarket
Close, which is the name of a book
by one of his favourite authors,
Ian Rankin, who writes extensively
about Edinburgh.

Today, Phil and I decided to walk the Royal Mile and have a look around, before spending a few hours meandering through the National Museum of Scotland. The Mile has Edinburgh Castle at one end and Holyrood Palace (the Queen's official residence in Scotland) at the other, with lots of interesting historical bits in between.

Across from Holyrood is the modern (read: ugly) building that is the Scottish Parliament. We wanted to get Alex a lapel pin from here, and to do so required that we head into the main entrance past the semi-automatic carrying guards and go through airport-level security. Everyone along the way was very friendly, however. Alex: if you're reading this, you better appreciate this pin when you get it!

At Edinburgh Castle, they were setting up the huge stadium seats used for the annual Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo...something I have never been to...yet! Note to those who may attend: the seats overhang the walls of the castle in a sort of cantilevered manner, so your are hanging very high in the air, although you may never realize it.

Edinburgh Castle

The Lewis chessmen are a group of  12th-century chess
and other gaming pieces, most of which are carved
from walrus ivory, which were discovered on the
Island of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides.

The museum was really quite interesting. Huge, so we focused on the areas dealing with political history for the most part...although we did see some early versions of golf and curling equipment, to Phil's delight.

After having lunch in the balcony area of the museum, we went to see the film Edie at an arthouse cinema called the Filmhouse. The film is about an 83-year-old woman who decides she is going to climb a mountain in Scotland. She meets up with a young man who has a business selling mountaineering equipment and agrees to "train" her for the climb when he can't talk her out of doing it. It's a bit predictable, and a good idea poorly written.

Oh, and Mom, if you are reading this, don't get any ideas about climbing a mountain. The one thing about this woman was she never had a hair out of place or a sweat mark despite doing that last part of the climb on her hands and knees! It would hurt a lot more than she made it look.

Ah, the magic of film.