[To see an introduction to our time in Edinburgh, click here.]This is the rather imposing volcanic feature called "Arthur's Seat" that we proposed to climb as our first Edinburgh activity on Saturday. We found out later that some of the students had climbed it the previous evening and said the sunset was amazing from up there. That would have been a nice thing to see, but the trail was steep and rocky enough that I'm glad we did it in daylight (and me with my trekking poles).
It looks pretty far away and high here, but it only took about an hour to get to the top from this vantage point, which was near some public conveniences in a park across the street from the
start of the trail.As I said, the climb was a little rugged, but the views kept getting better and better, and, much as scenery such as this looks like above-treeline in the Rockies (although much greener) there's plenty of oxygen in the air.
Below you can see a sample of the views from the top. What you can't see is how incredibly the wind was blowing up there. I'm actually surprised that I could hold the camera steady. But great views in every direction. It was really neat to look out and see the North Sea and the Firth of Forth, but it was a little hazy and pictures aimed in those directions didn't really come out so well.
Here is another view from the Seat, showing the Castle that we would visit later.
Our next stop after descending from the Seat was the National Museum of Scotland, an amazing collection of objects that we were a little frustrated not to have more time to see. And we just
focused on the two floors that covered Scottish history. But we wanted to be sure we allowed ourselves plenty of time at the Castle. But because of the first-rate displays, which were all explained by well-written information boards, we learned a lot. Here is one of my favorite displays, of delicately-engraved powder horns.After a quick lunch on the run of granola bars, and a brief shopping stop along the Royal Mile, we climbed up the steep street to Edinburgh Castle. We were looking forward to exploring this ancient site, and other than being perhaps a bit too tired to appreciate it fully, we enjoyed it. I invested in the audio guide, which was probably worth the £3, although I
probably didn't listen to half of its informational bits. Here is a view looking east through one of the many gun embrasures. The second church steeple from the right (the one that's sort of open in design) is St. Giles, which we saw later.A rather unusual sight that added to our Castle visit was the end of a wedding that was being held in the St. Margaret Chapel, a tiny edifice that's the oldest surviving part of the Castle—built in the 1100's! Cool place for a wedding, complete with personal bagpiper. But how weird to have a bunch (like, hundreds) of tourists taking
pictures of your wedding party as you leave the church?!One of the more impressive buildings in the Castle compound is the the Scottish National War Memorial chapel. It was dedicated in 1927, and is very well-designed. However, the plaques and memorials inside, to the soldiers and sailors lost from different Scottish units, I find as heart-breaking as most of the interwar memorials I've been seeing. I'm impressed, but also somewhat angered, by the "glories of King and Country" that these memorials seem to feel justify the staggering losses of the Great War.
Our final verdict on the Castle was less than enthusiastic, possibly, as I indicated, because we came to it late in the day and were a bit fatigued, but it also started to get really cold while we were there, which didn't help matters. At the end of the day, we thought the £12 was a bit steep, especially given that Westminster Abbey was £11 and was, we thought, a more worthwhile site.St. Giles, on the other hand, was a pleasant surprise because we just happened to go in. You can
walk around all you want for free; they make their money by charging £2 if you want to take pictures. Which Hal and I did. Here is a sample of the gorgeous stained glass windows in the church, with an idea of the medieval character of the building, the oldest part of which dates from the 1200's.We ended up our day with a another surprise: chicken fajitas for supper! They were pretty decent and a nice reminder of home. We found the dish fairly reasonably priced at the Frankenstein Pub, just a couple of doors down from the Elephant House, where J. K. Rowling wrote her books. (We didn't stop in at the latter, but the coffee smell was enticing!)
A fortuitous wrong turn on the way home led to a charming little alley with fantastic sunset views of the Castle—a good way to end our very full day in the city. Edinburgh's night life was just getting started, but we were really pooped and decided on taking a pass on that aspect of this amazing place.
