England Day 7 - Edinburgh Castle *_*
I will never get used to the time of sunset here. It’s 10pm, and looks like it’s 7. Gorgeous sunset though, for a gorgeous day.
The weather today was absolutely lovely. Stiflingly hot at times, but the sky was just this amazing blue, and the sun shown nearly continuously. The clouds that swirled in wispy hazes or condensed in storybook puffiness are now mauve and purple, their undersides shot with orange-pink.
The kitchen at Balbirnie apartments came stocked with cereal (one single-serving box each. Try the honey nuts, they’re ludicrously tasty!), milk (2%, or near as we can figure), a carton of orange juice, a yogurt each, a loaf of bread, and some small containers of butter. Wonderment. Much of it was replaced with brand new cartons after our first day 0_o;;! After eating breakfast we leapt on Alana to get her moving, and made our way onto the bus. Not being quite sure where to get off the bus to approach the Castle, we asked our bus driver and he said he’d give us a shout when we arrived at the correct stop. Lovely, for once we won’t have to worry. (Does anybody else sense the notes of dread in that statement? Yes).
Stops came and stops went; and the further we got from the Castle the more our hopes fell. On the plus side we saw more of surrounding Edinburgh than we ever thought we would. On the negative, we spent an hour and a half on that bus. He did call out to us apparently, but unfortunately with the press of people and roar of traffic outside, it was impossible to hear. And not knowing the bus routes at all (because there are no said *maps* of the bus routes, just names of stops that have no meaning to you, because they refer to side-streets), this made trying to figure things out ourselves pretty much null and void. We did eventually make our way to the Castle, but it was certainly an interesting route that led us there!
Edinburgh Castle is one of the most fantastic structures I’ve ever seen. Built on a large, rocky hill in the center of town, it commands attention from nearly every angle. It is impressive, and sings the fact that it’s a castle in every way imaginable.
The Royal Mile connects the Castle, on one end, with the Palace of Holyroodhouse at the other. The road slopes up to the ticket counter, where one queues to first go through security (a manual, visual check of your bags), and then buys the tickets. You have the option of purchasing an audio guide as well, but we’ve found that they almost provide too much information, keeping you rooted to one spot.
I’m sure that part of my enjoyment of the Castle was simply due to the perfect day that surrounded us. Truth be told we didn’t *do* much at the Castle, except look out at the phenomenal views of the town from its heights, slip in to see the Scottish crown jewels, and shop. We are shopping mavens ^^;;.
I fell in love with a Scottish artist’s jewelry (Sheila Fleet, of Orkney), and bought an absolutely lovely silver and enamel spiral necklace named Shallows. I could spend forever staring at all the Celtic jewelry! I also fell in love with a woven image from one of the Cluny unicorn tapestries, but at 400GBP it shall have to be just a dream. Sigh! I picked up three beautiful cards with watercolor scenes of Scotland in another gift shop, that I plan to frame when we return to the states.
The rest of the day was spent wandering down the Royal Mile, getting progressively hotter and hotter. Crowds started to form along the sides of the street for a parade, which we joined in to watch (bagpipes!). What perfect timing that our only true day in Scotland should have such a lovely event going on.
After the parade we stopped in at Garfunkels for food. I don’t know how we keep on managing to hit the restaurants meant for tourists (we have yet to hit a restaurant that refers to fries as chips), but YUM! Alana and I each ordered a pizza that was not only large for a single serving, but extremely oishi. We each only managed to finish half, taking the rest of it home with us for dinner. Mom and I also splurged on not getting tap water, but actual bottled water (Strathmore).
More walking, more shopping, more walking, reading the names of the little side-alleys called ‘closes’ (my favs were Fleshmarket Close, and World’s End Close).
We never did make it all the way to the Palace of Holyroodhouse. Had the bright idea of catching a bus back up so that we could find our way back on Prince’s Street, where we knew one of the three buses we were on the lookout for would take us back ‘home’. Yes. We should just not be allowed anywhere near public transportation. Maybe it’s the lack of it back home that makes us so stupid with it. But damn it, I need a map!
Bus ride back up, bus turns down unknown street taking us far out of our way, and we trudged back to Prince’s Street on foot, afraid to step on another for fear of where we’d end up (another country at this rate, I’m sure!). Thank god for the map that Alan/Ian gave us, otherwise we might still be wandering. At least when we finally made it to the correct bus, we executed that part perfectly. So maybe we can learn, if given enough time *G*. When we arrived back we were completely overheated. It figures that in the hotel where we actually have a/c the temperature doesn’t rise above 65F, but as soon as we go North we encounter an unusual heatwave!
Speaking of which, hey look, I got a tan! A trucker’s tan *lol* (must be because I was resting my arm against my purse for much of the day).
Anyway, tomorrow is an early flight to Bristol. May the weather travel with us!