Great news!

Great news!

Today was a most excellent day. It started yesterday. We got up early to have breakfast and it was a welcome change from the cold cereal and toast that we were getting so used to in Glasgow. Cold meat, fruit, cereals, breads, rolls and pastries…so good. Then, armed with a map and addresses of where we needed to be later in the day for viewing appointments, we left for the Palace of Holyrood House.

It was by far one of our favourite places so far. Because it’s a working royal palace it’s kept in perfect condition and the two floors that are open to the public are beautiful. You walk in and are taken first through the dining room which is used for both fancy dinners and every day dining when the royals are in house. There were pieces of silver on the table that are part of a three-thousand piece serving set. Crazy! The table seats as many as thirty and the Queen sits in the centre to be best able to visit with all of her guests.

Up the grand staircase you enter into the royal apartments as they were in the 18^th century. There is plaster work and paintings and tapestries everywhere that demonstrate the opulence that the royalty came to enjoy. Once you finish on the king’s side of the castle you move through the great hall and on to the queen’s side. Here we saw Mary Queen of Scots bed – or well, the bed that has been there on display in her bedchamber since she was living there in the palace. Her real bed was up a spiral staircase in a much more private room. We learned so much inside the palace and really enjoyed how historically accurate all the furnishings and decoration is.

We went outside then to the remains of Holyrood Abbey and that was a wonderful place. I got some beautiful photos of the huge windows and walls. Thankfully at this point of the day it was sunny and clear not raining and foggy like it was earlier. We also wandered through the gardens a bit where the Queen holds her party every June. How great would it be to be one of the 3000 people invited?

From here we had lunch in a great little place just up the Royal Mile. And after that we started back towards our first flat viewing of the day. It was a sweet little place and we both liked the building, the street and the flat itself. We went back to the b&b for a while and rested our feet before we left for viewing number two. This one was not so great. It’s amazing how fast a single street changes from trendy and bustling to sketchy and rather dingy. So from here we made our way over to Leith Walk (the near-by main street) for a pint before going to our last flat of the day. And as we sat there, we got a call that someone else had already taken the place. Disappointed, we got Chinese takeout and went back to the b&b.

So now for today. After tossing and turning much of the night due to nervousness, we got up, went to eat breakfast, and then called the letting agency office. I told the lady that we wanted to take the first place we’d seen that day and thankfully, it was still available. But she told me she’d have to first talk to the agent who showed us the flat to make sure he thought we were suitable tenants. Now, because we don’t yet have bank accounts or jobs here, we have no way to guarantee that we will pay our rent. So, we have to put the whole six-months-worth of rent up front. The lady told me she’d put all of this info to the landlord and get back to me.

So we waited. And waited some more. We wandered up Leith Walk a bit and looked into a couple of second hand charity shops at furniture and such. (I bought a set of really pretty crystal glasses. Gorgeous.) And we gave the agency a call back just before noon.

Finally, the good news…we have a home! The landlord accepted our six-months rent, the agent thought we’d be good people and the flat is ours! We’re no longer homeless and we get to move in on Tuesday. I can’t wait to have our own space and our own kitchen. And best of all, they’re having a brand new mattress delivered before we move in. As soon as I can I will post photos.

They don’t celebrate Thanksgiving here, but I think we have plenty to be thankful for this weekend!

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I should add what we did after we got our good news. We walked up to the Royal Mile with intentions of visiting St. Giles Cathedral. But we took our time and just kind of wandered around and window shopped a bit. There were a bunch of stalls on the side of the street with art and knitting and all sorts of neat things. Then we stopped to watch a street performer who was hilarious. He juggled and did whip tricks and all sorts of things.

We decided to check out what tours were available from the company that we toured the vaults with. The one that was next up in the evening was called Sin in the City and it was a lot of fun. We learned a whole lot about some rather questionable characters from Edinburgh’s past.   One guy in particular was hilarious. He had as many as three or four ladies of very good standing as long term mistresses at any one time and frequented 60 or more prostitutes as well. The guide also told us about how the brand new Presbyterian Church dealt with all this debauchery and sexual sin. Our guide was about 65 years old, fabulously dressed and super funny.

When this tour ended we walked back about a block to a spot we’d passed on the tour.  It’s called Mary King’s Close and we actually took a tour there too! This one goes down under the street level to a close that was closed up and built over in the 18^th century. Rather than tear whole buildings down, they decided to use the lower levels of the existing tenement buildings as foundation for the brand new merchant exchange building which today is the City Chambers. So much is preserved down there including a 400 year old house that still has plaster on the walls with visible wood block paint. They discouraged us from touching the walls however because that plaster is actually made from water, horse hair and human cremation ashes. Yep, they burned the dead from the plagues and used the ash in plaster. Lovely! The best part of this tour for me was walking up the close that used to be open to the air but is now completely closed over. It’s dark and stale and the air feels heavy. It’s very haunted of course and like the vaults under the bridge, you can spend Halloween night locked in down there. No thank you!

We got coffee after this tour as it was pretty chilly. As soon as the sun goes down it gets really cold here. And I’m proud to say that this was our first and only visit to Starbuck’s in this adventure! A quick walk back to the b&b and we climbed into bed. Our room is in the basement of this three story house and it’s terribly cold. We even got a space heater from the reception because apparently the radiators aren’t in use or they’re just not working. It’s a pretty cute place though and breakfast is awesome. Tomorrow we’re going to walk the other direction and make our way to the docks to visit the Royal Yacht Britannia.