Monday: Edinburgh Castle and more

Happy Monday! I tried haggis for breakfast today. I pretty much enjoyed it. It's like sausage with oats mixed in, and with the skin removed. Quite spicy.

After brekkies we all went downtown to see the Edinburgh Castle. This morning I was the crabbiest because it was a bit chilly and I hadn't brought a jacket and it ultimately rained on us and I had to keep waiting up for the other two and I'd already seen a castle so it was all sort of boring anyway. But Sarah was digging it and Margo really enjoyed it. When the rain hit hard we did duck inside the cafe for tea and scones. We also saw some nice side exhibits including a war museum with uniforms, medals and weaponry from all of Scotland's history, and an exhibit on the lives of prisoners of war, including how they passed their time (crafts and forgery). We also saw the Great Hall; this one included lots of weaponry on the walls - mostly swords and pikes but also some early handguns arranged in circles. The crowds were huge, even on a Monday morning.

Following are a bunch of pictures. This first one, the castle entrance, includes a motto in Latin, which translates to something like, "If you provoke us, don't be surprised if we tear you a new one."




Here's a view of northeast Edinburgh from the castle:



One thing Margo neglected to mention about our trip to the Stirling Castle is that it was the site for one of Scotland's greatest battles involving William Wallace - the Battle of Stirling Bridge. You know, the guy in Braveheart. Okay? Like, Mel Gibson was practically there. Be impressed already.

After seeing the castle, we split up again. I went to see if I could unlock my old cell phone (locked in the US by Cingular) and use it here. I couldn't; something about being dual band, or not being dual band. Margo and Sarah went to see Mary King's Close, some boring historical exhibit with ghosts. Remember that valley I wrote about earlier between New Town and Old Town? That was at one time filled to be an artificial lake. Bad idea, because everything poured downhill into it, including the twice-daily emptying of chamber pots, the offal from butcher shops ... everything nasty went there and it got sludgy and stinky. That's what Margo learned. And that's why the trees and the grass in the park there grow so nicely.

Then it was time to switch again. Margo and Sarah picked up the laundry we'd dropped off on the way to the castle, then Sarah and I hung out while Margo went off to see the National Gallery. I guess she just grooved on the Raphaels and such, totally ignoring the Robert Mapplethorpe photography exhibit. No accounting for taste, is there?

So after watching a few episodes of The Simpsons on a borrowed tape, Ola, a friend of the B and B owners, and who had taken a shining to Sarah, came by as we'd arranged earlier to take her to the cinema for a while, giving Margo and myself a night out.

And being boring old people, it wasn't much of a night out. We went to Rose Street for a pub crawl. We had dinner and pints at one place, pints at another place, and lastly a bit of dessert. Then we bussed back to our room, where Ola and Sarah rejoined us later.



Ola had taken Sarah to see the latest Pirates of the Caribbean movie. They left early because the monsters were too scary, so they went to the beach and built a sand castle.