Yesterday was a long and busy day. We started out early, or well, early for us lately, and we were out of the hostel by about 9. We made our way to Queen’s Street train station that’s just at George Square and we bought tickets for the next train to Edinburgh. It takes about an hour to get there and the train makes a few stops along the way. But we were both surprised about how smooth the ride was and how fast the trains move. We couldn’t see much for scenery as the tracks are surrounded for much of the trip by quite high berms on both sides. And it was rather rainy and foggy most of the way too.
When we arrived in Edinburgh, it took a while to get our bearings. I remembered being exactly where we got off the train from my day there in 2008, but we couldn’t see the castle for all the fog. So, even though we stopped for a map, I got us headed off in the wrong direction. Didn’t take too long to figure that out though and from then Brandon was in charge of the orienteering. When we finally did get across the bridge and onto the Royal Mile, all was well. We walked slowly up the hill and stopped in a shop or two to listen to the piping music they were playing and to window shop a little. I had my eye on a mini kilt that I regretted not buying years ago, and I looked closely a pair of cashmere gloves but they were 36 Pounds so I decided they looked better just where they were.
The castle was great. We paid a little extra for the audio tour but I’m not totally sure that was necessary. We also waited a bit and followed along after a guide for a half hour live tour. When that was done we saw the Scottish crown jewels and the Stone of Scone and we watched as a live performer wrapped a volunteer in a highland great kilt. The guy was really funny and the volunteer took it all in stride. And while the performer was folding all his pleats and getting things ready, he gave us a William Wallace history lesson that proved how many liberties Mel Gibson took with the story in Braveheart. It was a really neat place to visit, but I think we both agreed that the Tower of London was better. But it is really neat to know that Edinburgh Castle is still a working garrison for the army. And it’s pretty cool that it’s been there in some form since the 800’s AD.
When we were leaving the castle the fog had lifted quite a bit which enabled us to see a good part of the city and all the way out to the North Sea. We made our way down the hill and found a restaurant to eat lunch in. Our meals were so-so, but we both had sticky toffee pudding for dessert and holy crap. Best. Dessert. Ever. I even took a picture.
We hurried from here just a little further down the Royal Mile to Mercat Cross by the St. Giles Cathedral. This is where we met and started our tour of the hidden vaults under the south bridge. About two hundred years ago when the city needed to start building out instead of up, they build the north and south bridges to go over the two large valleys that surrounded the Royal Mile. The bridge is basically made up of arches that go way down underneath the street level. Over the years the rooms these arches made became a rather intricate system of vaults that have been used for any number of purposes. There was a time when lots of legal work happened down in the vaults and they’ve discovered evidence of everything from cobblers and book binders to oyster sellers. There are also shelves built into the walls of some of the vaults that were used to store wine and claret. However, when the craftsmen cleared out due to lack of light and the other horrible working conditions, the illegal trades moved in. Whiskey stills, brothels and opium dens were common but the body snatchers also used the vaults in their lovely little trade. This was a great tour and we learned an awful lot. They also do late night ghost tours down there as the BBC has deemed this one of the most haunted places in the whole of the UK. Brandon wants to go back for that tour…I’m not so sure!
We walked back across the bridge onto Princes Street and walked up to the Scott monument to get some pictures. And while there, we heard a piper and went to find him. There was a three man band – pipes, guitar and drum kit – playing just outside of the art gallery so we sat and watched a bit. They were pretty good and the crowd loved them. I think they were called The Spitting Blowfish.
And then back to the train where luckily we were just on time for the next train back to Glasgow. We got Subway on the way to the hostel and turned in early. It was a good day.
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