Edinburgh Castle

We left the hotel fairly early to get to Edinburgh Castle at opening time.  We'd heard it gets pretty busy, especially if you haven't bought tickets in advance.  We only waited about 20 minutes in line but when we left (3 hours later) there was a massive line that had to be at least 3 hours long.

The view of Old Calton Hill.

The castle isn't what you might think of.  It's a group of several buildings, from different eras, behind heavy fortifications.  And it's actually still an official posting.

The One O'Clock Gun is shot everyday so the ships in the harbor can synchronize their clocks.

Napoleon's flag, captured at Waterloo

The castle hill often served as a dungeon or prison over the years.  The prisoners not only left interesting graffiti, they also created very artistic objects.

A forger's tools

Special dog cemetery

St. Margaret's chapel dates back to the 1200s

The Great Hall

After the Castle, and a quick photo with the musket guys, we walked down High Street to find some lunch.  We ended up at a great little place called Canonsgate.  And we made reservations for dinner at Wedgewood.

Walking down High Street

The lovely Wedgewood's restaurant.  I highly recommend the Chicken Caesar Salad Soup.  Yes, you read that right.

More on the second day coming up next!

Our first day in Edinburgh

As promised, I'm going to go back to our days in Edinburgh since I didn't have much chance to blog about them yet.

We landed at about 8am local time, but to our bodies it was about 3 in the morning.  We stumbled off the plane, went through customs and found a very nice, very helpful young lady.  As she showed us to the taxi stand, we saw Susan Boyle.  She was arriving to catch an airplane.  In the country for 30 minutes and already seeing famous people.

Our taxi driver was very friendly and nice as well.  We quickly understood what welcoming people live in Scotland. 

Our room wasn't ready yet, but we dropped off our bags and did a little exploring.

Jet lag was quickly catching up.  So we stopped in for some tea to wait for the room to be ready. We found a lovely little cafe called Vincent's.

After a very restorative nap, we were ready to explore in earnest.

A very cool little antique shop

Lavender!

Our "neighbor".  He was a glazier.

A view of the castle from Princes Street

The Sir Walter Scott Memorial on Princes Street

A pub called Guilford Arms

The Balmoral Hotel

North Princes Street

An arch built for Prince Leopold. 

We discovered Old Calton Cemetery.  It was on a hill, overlooking part of the city.  One of the coolest things about this cemetery was that people's occupations were on their gravestones.  It really made the visit more special.  

Philosopher David Hume, one of Edinburgh's favorite sons.

There was a statue of Abraham Lincoln...?

Isabella is most likely a relation.

Across the street from the cemetery was a walk that David Hume proposed to the city council.  He designed a lovely climb up Old Calton Hill which afforded wonderful views of the city, the river and some very cool buildings on the hill itself. 

This memorial to Lord Nelson also has a ball on top that drops at 1pm everyday, in conjunction with the one o'clock gun .  This was so the ships in the harbor could synchronize their clocks.

Looking back into downtown.

A view of Edinburgh castle from Princes Street

We began walking back towards our hotel.  Despite what it looks like in these photos, it is about 930pm at this point.  Edinburgh is so far north, it stays light very late -- in the summer.

The Surgeon's Hall Museum... more on that later