The trip to Edinburgh was fairly short and had some nice views of the surrounding areas. We emerged from a long tunnel to see a cliff face with the castle perched right on top of the hill. It was spectacular even from the train. We emerged from the Waverley station onto Waverley Bridge where all the tourist buses leave from and we found ourselves walking along Princes Street looking around some of the shops. The weather was quite dreary and it made the whole city look very grey.
We had our lunch in the gardens and admired the Scott monument while Will had a little run around. Edinburgh was in the middle of the Fringe Festival so there were a lot of people milling around, music playing and things to do. We stopped and listened to an odd trio of American Indians playing Celtic music on pipes that were really good. We found a pretty alleyway leading up to the Royal Mile and emerged onto the cobbled streets to find it swarming with people.
We walked up to the castle to find the queues quite short. We went inside and soaked in the history of the place which had a feel like it had been hewn from the rock itself. The view from the ramparts was incredible with panoramic views over the whole city. We explored the castle from St Catherine’s church at the very top through the Honours exhibition into the grand Royal Hall with weapons all over the walls where we found a friendly executioner was willing to have his photo taken with Will. Will loved climbing all the stairs and opening all the doors he could find and spent his energy running around all the self-contained cobbled streets.
We put Will in his pram and left the castle onto the Royal Mile which runs from the Castle down to Holyrood House. The Mile was packed full of live acts: musicians, comedians, jugglers and other performers. There were crowds and crowds of people and it was a slow walk down the road. Will was in his pram and the gentle rocking on the cobblestones sent him off into a deep sleep. We took a leisurely walk down to the bottom stopping at various shops, St Giles Catherdral and the home of John Knox. My only disappointment was that I couldn’t find the monument to Greyfriar’s Bobby (I found out a little later that it wasn't even on the Royal Mile - should have done my homework!).
At the end of the Royal Mile we strolled past the new Houses of Parliament which is a disastrous design which sticks out like a sore thumb amidst the antiquity of its surroundings. Across the road is the beautiful Holyrood House which is where the queen stays when she is in Edinburgh. It was getting late in the evening and we couldn’t get in to have a look around but I was allowed to take a few photos from the outside.
We decided we would walk up Regent Street instead of going back up the mile so we followed the road around the base of the hill. On the edge of the Holyrood grounds was a small two storey structure called Queen Mary’s Bath House that looked quite rickety. It was a strange little building and I found it difficult to believe that there ever was a bath in there.
The stroll up Regent Street was a lot less crowded and was quite a gentle climb. It had a nice view of Arthur’s Seat and the lower part of the city and we stopped to look at the Burns monument, the Stones of Scotland monument and viewing the Nelson’s monument and the National monument (dubbed Edinburgh’s Folly) on the way. The batteries on my camera had run out at this point so I had to switch to my cell phone which by its very nature isn’t as good.
We caught our train back to Linlithgow and found our car where we had left it. We were very tired when we got home but fortunately Isobel was there to look after us and we had a lovely pie for dinner followed by some yummy chocolate cake and ice cream!