The Royal Mile and beyond

03.08.2011 - 04.08.2011 65 °F

Yesterday started off with beautiful weather and a trip out to a pretty awesome castle, Tantallon. About an hour away and on the coast it was a magnificent sight. Lots of staircases taking us to different sections of the castle. Well into ruins yet still enough of it to get a feel for what it was in it's glory days!

A trip down the road to what Tom Tom said was a beach... Ended up at a dead end which happened to be a family fun park. Umm... Kids, candy and tired parents - no thanks. A quick u turn and we were off to the airport to return the car. Dumb Tom Tom!

Found the airpor car return with relative ease :0) only a few moments of where the h@ll do we go (intersections with like 6 stops and rotaries (round abouts) with four lanes and six exits). Off to the buses and to ride in the upper deck. It was funny riding in the top portion, definently a better view. We sat in the front seats up top and it looked like we are going to cream small cars all the time!!

Into the city center we went to go and see Grey Friars Kirk. Pretty cool headstones and the church was pretty and had a huge organ (would have loved to hear it play). A quick ride back to the b&b for a nap. Nap done - check and back into the city for dinner. Where to go? Dirty dicks!!! Good food and Jamie and I decided to have some scotch. Cant go to Scotland and not have scotch. So after parusing the list of 500 kinds we settled on a couple that sounded good. We were both shocked at how good they were, given that neither of us liked scotch before. Well now we sing a different tune. Yummmm

Our last day in Scotland called for a little bit of lazy time this morning before we headed up to do the castle. A very very rainy tour of Edinburgh castle but it was very impressive. Saw the crown jewels, huge!!! Meandered about saw some cool stuff but ready to head to the other end of the royal mile to the Holyrood Palace. A long wet but productive walk (bought some yummy scotch along the way) and we arrived. Nice to be inside out of the rain. Took the tour and saw the royal dinning room and the room that the queen uses to present appreciation awards to people. A quick peak into Mary Queen of Scots bedroom and the chamber where king James was born. Pretty cool, lots of history, very interesting.

At last onto dinner. Empty bellies, tired backs, sore feet and soaked... Time for beer and burgers. Feeling good we trekked back to the b&b and here were are, relaxing till tomorrow. Early day, on the train to London.