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Edinburgh
Despite the dismal greyness, we could tell immediately we would like Edinburgh when we rolled in and headed out for our B&B by taxi. Lots of Georgian buildings, streets bustling with walkers, plenty of restaurants -- Fish-'n-Chips, Indian, and Italian. But I've gotten a little ahead of the story... | ||
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We began the day with a full cooked breakfast at The Castle B&B, then dragged our bags -- good doggies! -- across the parking lot to the train station. Our train rolled in and we were northbound again across fields ... and THAT's one of the biggest differences we've noticed about Great Britain. This island is a very crowded place, compared to California, and yet it has MUCH more open space. How do they do that? Simple: they live in villages. They don't balkanize the countryside into silly little cookie-cutter fiefs surrounded by chainlink fences. They leave the agricultural land for food, and cluster the houses close together, often in row-houses that look much alike except details like trim color and flower baskets. Even as one draws closer to a big city like Edinburgh, there is farmland and woods, right up to a place where city begins promptly. The result is that there is green open space, although very little wildness, very near the thickly settled area. |
Once settled in Edinburgh, we went back out in search of tea, which we found at Jenner's Department Store, one of the oldest and ostensibly the largest independent department store in the world. (Chad referred to it as "lunch with the old people.") Then we took a tour that had caught our eyes: "The Underside of Edinburgh" it was billed, and it purported to show us how the regular folks lived and worked in the 18th Century. |
 from beneath the South Bridge |
 Lady Stairs Close |
No photos, because it was dark in the 18 (of 19) arches of the South Bridge that were filled in with storerooms, workshops, and hovels. Our guide related, with a thick but understandable skirl, the story of the simple folks who built and provisioned the wealthier precincts of the city, like Lady Stairs house (now a writers museum.)
The upper city, along "The Royal Mile", was originally built of wood (since rebuilt, during the Georgian era, in stone) to a great height, as many as ten storeys, because it was built along a narrow ridge below the volcanic plug on which the Castle was built. |
After our tour we wandered up the Royal Mile toward The Castle, getting a taste for the city that we would explore more fully the next day. One of our fellow "underside" tourists had suggested that the Whisky -- no "e" if it's scotch -- Tour was fun. Perhaps it's the fact that they give you a sample at the beginning, and in this mellowed frame of mind... |
 Down the Royal Mile from Parliament Square |
 a Whisky (label) sampler |
No pictures here either, and it's not because the photographers weren't capable. It was fun, exceptionally well done, and informative, a fine thing to do on a drizzly Edinburgh afternoon, but, truthfully, a typical tourist rip-off. But that's what we're here for, isn't it?.
After this tour, Chad headed off in search of the Internet Café, reputedly the biggest anywhere (and when we finally got there ourselves, we had to agree; it's huge.) Rochelle and I had been attracted by a small soup shop named "Chocolate Soup" where we had soup and bread, then, still a little hungry, the house specialty, "Death by Chocolate" -- chocolate soup (runny hot pudding, really) topped with whipped cream. Yum! After the whisky, just the thing.
Suitably invigorated with legal drugs, we headed back to our digs where I finished the pages about The Chester's Fort, the Lake District, and Berwick.
Chad couldn't resist the call of Edinburgh's night-life, and volunteered to sample it for us all. Brave lad! We are told he straggled home well fortified with the local antifreeze about 4:30, saying, "No more of THAT this month!" |
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