Edinburgh, Scotland Feb 20-22

In the first back to back travel weekend in a while, we headed to Amy's homeland - Edinburgh, Scotland. Amy was very excited to see Scotland as she is 12.5% Scottish (maternal great grandfather lived in Glasgow). We flew in Friday night. Amy was a champ and sat in what was literally the smallest seat anyone had ever seen. Luckily, the flight was only about an hour. A nice Scottish man drove us from the airport to our hotel, the Balmoral Hotel. After hearing of our engagement, he offered that the key to a marriage is "Realizing she is always right." Anthony grew to quickly dislike this man!

On Saturday morning, after Amy's impressive rally to go to the gym (Anthony needed a little more sleep), we set off to meet Hamish a guide/driver that was going to take us on a day trip to see the countryside around Edinburgh. We stopped along the way to take a few pictures - like this one in front of a railway bridge.



Anthony's primary knowledge of Scotland came from the movie Braveheart (unfortunately for Amy). Hamish set him straight in most instances and taught both of us the history of Scotland. But, ironically enough, the first "sight" we stopped at was the memorial to Robert the Bruce.



Next stop on the tour was the second largest castle in Scotland, Stirling Castle, which was set on the top of a hill.



There were fantastic views from the hilltop castle. Mountains on one side, water in the distance.




We walked around the castle checking out the various rooms, squares and architecture. One of the rooms caught Anthony's eye, but not Amy's - a re-creation of the kitchen quarters for the castle.



After the castle, we headed to the oldest working whiskey distillery in the country, Famous Grous. On our way, we stopped at a quaint restaurant and Amy desperately wanted to try the famous Scottish haggis. She or Hamish would not tell Anthony what was in haggis until he tried it. Both Amy and Anthony enjoyed the haggis. Anthony later found out that it had sheeps intestines and other delicious ingredients. That will probably be Anthony's first and last taste of haggis.

On to the famous grous tour. We toured the facility, learned how whiskey is made and then also were given a lesson in how to smell the various aromas. We ended the tour with a complementary shot of whiskey - one way to stay warm in the winter, but Anthony and Amy agreed that whiskey was not our first drink of choice.





We headed through the countryside back to our hotel. Tired from a day in the car, we decided to stay in and have some room service for dinner. We had a big day ahead of us seeing the main city of Edinburgh on foot.

The next day, we were shooting pictures left and right. Our hotel...



First stop is the main attraction of Edinburgh - the Edinburgh Castle. This was built literally carved out of stone on the top of a mountain overlooking the whole city.



It was a huge complex.




With great views.




We toured around the castle for a while. Saw the crown jewels of Scotland and learned how they hid them from Hitler during WW II in a dug in hole in the castle. Along the way, Amy found a friend she liked - Anthony got a little jealous.



We walked to the back of the castle which had a garden. The audio tour proceeded to tell us about a horrible act that had occured in this garden a few hundred years ago. The lord of the time grew frustrated with another man who lived in the castle and struck out at him in rage, stabbing him 57 times. The lord ordered the man thrown out of the window where he laid for a while dead. The garden was named after this deceased man. We're just saying.....



We then set out to walk down a main road towards another famous destination - the Palace of Holyroodhouse which is the official royal residence in Scotland. The main road was called...





Along the way, Anthony saw a sign that brought him back to his younger years (the Civale blog readers will understand).



We arrived at the Palace after walking down the cobble stone, uneven Royal Mile. There were chops lined on either side and it was interesting to see how old the city was. A lot of the buildings' exteriors had turned black from the pollution.

We took a tour of the Palace. It was fun to learn about the royals in Scotland and compare and contrast that to what we experienced in London. Lets just say that the English have a bit more gold and gems at their disposal....



At the back of the palace was the remnants of an old church which had been destroyed. It was a little strange standing in the middle trying to picture what once was.



Anthony was moved by one of the few remaining monument on the wall.



After the palace, we grabbed lunch and then walked to two museums - The National Gallery and the Museum of Scotland. Amy enjoyed them. Anthony enjoyed seeing Amy enjoy them. One of the exhibits in the National Gallery was dedicated on a special day.



One of our last stops was to check out St. Giles Cathedral where the Queen often visits.




Our trip came to a close when we flew back to London. We both enjoyed the trip, learning about the history. The city had a very different feel to it than others we had visited either in England or elsewhere. The people were very nice (and not too difficult to understand) and the city had a lot of old world charm. Long live Scotland.....