Edinburgh - Perfect one day, gloomy the next
Having not been put off by our last coach escapade to Paris, we booked in another weekend getaway to Edinburgh. Good news in relation to Paris though as I managed to complain enough to get us a £20 refund each from that shocker Paris return coach trip. Now the only part of the UK we haven't been to yet is Northern Ireland. Guess we'll just have to come back again one day to visit Lucy & Brian in Belfast.
We caught the overnight coach from Victoria to Edinburgh and arrived at 6:30am in the morning. Unlike Paris, the coach station in Edinburgh is conveniently located right in the centre of town. Anyway, perhaps we've just been watching Little Britain too much, but the image I had of Scotland was wet and rainy. However, we arrived and it was a brilliant blue sunny day. Well, it was still early and not that bright but you could tell straight away it was going to be a good day.
This is the Scott Monument. Looks like a rocket ship ready to blast off.
Edinburgh does have a very charming old world feel to it and it is very green.
This the view from Princes Street of Edinburgh Old Town overlooking Waverley Train Station.
We headed off from the main street down the Royal Mile towards Arthur's Seat, an extinct volcano you can climb up that offers excellent views of Edinburgh. This is the The World's End pub, where we were served by one of the many Aussies working in the hospitality industry there. Can't really complain as some of the locals have the thickest Scottish accents making communication with them harder than getting our tax back from the UK Government.
Further down the road we encountered this unfortunate statue outside the Canongate Kirk. Someone (presumably someone on the drink) had managed to wedge this metal pipe up between his thighs.
At the end of the Royal Mile is Spanish-designed (and 800% over budget) Scottish Parliament Buildings. On the wall here is a scratchy picture of Edinburgh based on a sketch the architect made of the view from his hotel room. On the right is a funky (not) rock collection.
It's a very interesting set of buildings to look at and also very weird. Tam and I both didn't think it was appropriate for the Scottish Parliament (probably more apt for a museum), but maybe that's their sense of humour shining through. To me, it seemed as if the Jetsons had landed at Bedrock and decided to help Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble upgrade their stone mansions with futuristic Gaudi-ish extensions.
Still, it's not bad to look at. More impressive was the apparently individual weird metal rings (on the bottom-right of the photo under the dark green tree) that served as bike racks. From this angle they form the image of a bicycle. OOOooo clever.
Opposite the Scottish Parliament and at the end of the Royal Mile is The Queen's Gallery and Holyrood Palace. We went into the Queen's Gallery and found a gift shop full of all things Queen-related (that's HM Queen Elizabeth II, not the Freddie Mercury one). As you can tell, it's very cold.
Just on the right of Holyrood Palace is Arthur's Seat and Salisbury Crags. Being such a nice day, we decided to get all the tiring touristy things done first so we could just laze about drinking and checking out the shops later on. And as it was still early morning, it was a perfect time to climb and avoid the scorching (ha ha) midday sun. There's our destination, way up that way.
Looking back over our trail towards Edinburgh.
Old houses and chimneys over in Leith.
After trailing and losing a bunny rabbit and mistaking a dog for a bear, we make it to the top.
It's a good thing Tam was wearing her Puma rockclimbing shoes.
Views from the top.
That's Tops!
The pretty little (artificially-formed) Dunsapie Loch on the other side of Holyrood Park away from the main town. Full of swans and other birdys. There were lots of swans all around there as well. Some (presumably Chinese) tourists walked through a trio of them taking photos and trying to stroke their necks. Guess they didn't hear about the swan that died from bird flu.
We then made the trek back into town towards Edinburgh Castle, stopping along the way to visit St Gile's Cathedral. I was very impressed by the fantastic crown spire - it looks like another rocket ship parked on the roof of the tower.
Views from inside.
And another shot of the outside.
Then we crossed and found ourselves at The Hub, home of the Edinburgh International Festival, which is housed in a tall, gothic cathedral-like building. They have a cafe in there too (as well as a clown cow) and we had some yummy breakfast and coffee there.
Just outside the castle looking back down the Royal Mile. The lighthouse shaped building is the Camera Obscura building, with its funny carnival mirrors along the sidewalk (making you look tall and lanky or like a little teapot short and stout - no difference in my case, ok, maybe just shorter), and the gothic Hub on the right.
Edinburgh Castle, with the impending swarms of cash-loaded tourists lining up to get in. Now, we've done castles (and churches, cathedrals, etc.) and after a while, although still a novelty, they just get a bit same-ish. We couldn't be bothered lining up or fronting up the £10.30 to get in (especially when our guide books say that the entry fee used to be £7 not so long ago - what a rort!!).
Robert the Bruce
Mel Gibson
William Wallace freaking out the tourists and begging for spare change for leukemia patients - "the real Bravehearts" (oh bless)
Old Town and Edinburgh Castle.
Thus concluded our documented touristic activities for the weekend. All the rest is a blur of drink and food in various pubs around town. No really, we caught the shuttle bus to our hostel (The Globetrotter Inn) near the Firth of Forth. This happened to be our first real dorm-style backpacking experience. According to the SMH, we're in the Flashpacker category. We dropped off our daypacks and freshened up before having a nice little stroll along the water. We then jumped back onto the shuttle bus to get into town where we visited a couple of pubs and divey student pubs before settling in at the busy, but charming Clever Dick's pub on the Royal Mile, which is filled with all manner of interesting bric-a-brac.
The reason our touristic meanderings sort of ended there on the Saturday was due to the fact that we woke up on Sunday and the weather had turned shite. Sunday was taken up by a bit of windowshopping and whatever else we felt like doing, which wasn't much considering it was standard Scottish crap weather. We did end up back down the other end of the Royal Mile on our quest for a decent fridge magnet and decided to have a look inside the Scottish Parliament building. We found out that you have to pay for the guided tour and that access is restricted to the foyer, cafe and gift shop - even though they still make you go through security to enter the building. After that we just headed back up through the shops and souvenir shops escaping from the rain every now and then into the pub.
We also went to find the Water of Leith, a stream flowing through the city. Nothing spectacular. 'Nuff said. We then headed back into Clever Dick's where we chilled out and sampled a "Wee Taste of Scotland", a traditional dish of Haggis (a mix of sheep's heart, liver, and lungs, minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt, mixed with stock, and boiled in the animal's stomach for approximately an hour - mmm tasty), neeps (turnips) and tatties (potatoes)! The haggis wasn't too bad. One of the Aussie bartenders at the World's End pub was describing haggis to some American girls who'd never heard of haggis before. He said it was similar to a sausage or meat pie, but much tastier and much more healthier. Well, it does go down well with some Belhaven Best bitter.
This is one of our final views of Edinburgh. Foggy, wet and eerie. Just what I thought London would be like (but, it isn't). That's Jenner's there on the right. That's right ladies, the world's first department store. We did have a look inside, and I don't think they've made any improvements to it at all. It's no Galeries LaFayette. 'Nuff said.
We caught the overnight coach from Victoria to Edinburgh and arrived at 6:30am in the morning. Unlike Paris, the coach station in Edinburgh is conveniently located right in the centre of town. Anyway, perhaps we've just been watching Little Britain too much, but the image I had of Scotland was wet and rainy. However, we arrived and it was a brilliant blue sunny day. Well, it was still early and not that bright but you could tell straight away it was going to be a good day.
This is the Scott Monument. Looks like a rocket ship ready to blast off.
Edinburgh does have a very charming old world feel to it and it is very green.
This the view from Princes Street of Edinburgh Old Town overlooking Waverley Train Station.
We headed off from the main street down the Royal Mile towards Arthur's Seat, an extinct volcano you can climb up that offers excellent views of Edinburgh. This is the The World's End pub, where we were served by one of the many Aussies working in the hospitality industry there. Can't really complain as some of the locals have the thickest Scottish accents making communication with them harder than getting our tax back from the UK Government.
Further down the road we encountered this unfortunate statue outside the Canongate Kirk. Someone (presumably someone on the drink) had managed to wedge this metal pipe up between his thighs.
At the end of the Royal Mile is Spanish-designed (and 800% over budget) Scottish Parliament Buildings. On the wall here is a scratchy picture of Edinburgh based on a sketch the architect made of the view from his hotel room. On the right is a funky (not) rock collection.
It's a very interesting set of buildings to look at and also very weird. Tam and I both didn't think it was appropriate for the Scottish Parliament (probably more apt for a museum), but maybe that's their sense of humour shining through. To me, it seemed as if the Jetsons had landed at Bedrock and decided to help Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble upgrade their stone mansions with futuristic Gaudi-ish extensions.
Still, it's not bad to look at. More impressive was the apparently individual weird metal rings (on the bottom-right of the photo under the dark green tree) that served as bike racks. From this angle they form the image of a bicycle. OOOooo clever.
Opposite the Scottish Parliament and at the end of the Royal Mile is The Queen's Gallery and Holyrood Palace. We went into the Queen's Gallery and found a gift shop full of all things Queen-related (that's HM Queen Elizabeth II, not the Freddie Mercury one). As you can tell, it's very cold.
Just on the right of Holyrood Palace is Arthur's Seat and Salisbury Crags. Being such a nice day, we decided to get all the tiring touristy things done first so we could just laze about drinking and checking out the shops later on. And as it was still early morning, it was a perfect time to climb and avoid the scorching (ha ha) midday sun. There's our destination, way up that way.
Looking back over our trail towards Edinburgh.
Old houses and chimneys over in Leith.
After trailing and losing a bunny rabbit and mistaking a dog for a bear, we make it to the top.
It's a good thing Tam was wearing her Puma rockclimbing shoes.
Views from the top.
That's Tops!
The pretty little (artificially-formed) Dunsapie Loch on the other side of Holyrood Park away from the main town. Full of swans and other birdys. There were lots of swans all around there as well. Some (presumably Chinese) tourists walked through a trio of them taking photos and trying to stroke their necks. Guess they didn't hear about the swan that died from bird flu.
We then made the trek back into town towards Edinburgh Castle, stopping along the way to visit St Gile's Cathedral. I was very impressed by the fantastic crown spire - it looks like another rocket ship parked on the roof of the tower.
Views from inside.
And another shot of the outside.
Then we crossed and found ourselves at The Hub, home of the Edinburgh International Festival, which is housed in a tall, gothic cathedral-like building. They have a cafe in there too (as well as a clown cow) and we had some yummy breakfast and coffee there.
Just outside the castle looking back down the Royal Mile. The lighthouse shaped building is the Camera Obscura building, with its funny carnival mirrors along the sidewalk (making you look tall and lanky or like a little teapot short and stout - no difference in my case, ok, maybe just shorter), and the gothic Hub on the right.
Edinburgh Castle, with the impending swarms of cash-loaded tourists lining up to get in. Now, we've done castles (and churches, cathedrals, etc.) and after a while, although still a novelty, they just get a bit same-ish. We couldn't be bothered lining up or fronting up the £10.30 to get in (especially when our guide books say that the entry fee used to be £7 not so long ago - what a rort!!).
Robert the Bruce
Mel Gibson
William Wallace freaking out the tourists and begging for spare change for leukemia patients - "the real Bravehearts" (oh bless)
Old Town and Edinburgh Castle.
Thus concluded our documented touristic activities for the weekend. All the rest is a blur of drink and food in various pubs around town. No really, we caught the shuttle bus to our hostel (The Globetrotter Inn) near the Firth of Forth. This happened to be our first real dorm-style backpacking experience. According to the SMH, we're in the Flashpacker category. We dropped off our daypacks and freshened up before having a nice little stroll along the water. We then jumped back onto the shuttle bus to get into town where we visited a couple of pubs and divey student pubs before settling in at the busy, but charming Clever Dick's pub on the Royal Mile, which is filled with all manner of interesting bric-a-brac.
The reason our touristic meanderings sort of ended there on the Saturday was due to the fact that we woke up on Sunday and the weather had turned shite. Sunday was taken up by a bit of windowshopping and whatever else we felt like doing, which wasn't much considering it was standard Scottish crap weather. We did end up back down the other end of the Royal Mile on our quest for a decent fridge magnet and decided to have a look inside the Scottish Parliament building. We found out that you have to pay for the guided tour and that access is restricted to the foyer, cafe and gift shop - even though they still make you go through security to enter the building. After that we just headed back up through the shops and souvenir shops escaping from the rain every now and then into the pub.
We also went to find the Water of Leith, a stream flowing through the city. Nothing spectacular. 'Nuff said. We then headed back into Clever Dick's where we chilled out and sampled a "Wee Taste of Scotland", a traditional dish of Haggis (a mix of sheep's heart, liver, and lungs, minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt, mixed with stock, and boiled in the animal's stomach for approximately an hour - mmm tasty), neeps (turnips) and tatties (potatoes)! The haggis wasn't too bad. One of the Aussie bartenders at the World's End pub was describing haggis to some American girls who'd never heard of haggis before. He said it was similar to a sausage or meat pie, but much tastier and much more healthier. Well, it does go down well with some Belhaven Best bitter.
This is one of our final views of Edinburgh. Foggy, wet and eerie. Just what I thought London would be like (but, it isn't). That's Jenner's there on the right. That's right ladies, the world's first department store. We did have a look inside, and I don't think they've made any improvements to it at all. It's no Galeries LaFayette. 'Nuff said.
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