UK Trip: Edinburgh, Day Two

The Frederick House.

Our second day in Edinburgh began early with a breakfast at the cafe across the street from our hotel (the cost was included in our room charge). Ironically, it was a French-style cafe, meaning we started our last full day in the UK by transitioning back to France. But not transitioning too much, as I ordered a full English breakfast and Lisa ordered the vegetarian version.

Scottish formal wear: dresses
for women and men!

Goal: Climb this.

Our goal for the morning was simple: climb Arthur's Seat, the 822-foot-high peak at the end of the Royal Mile that's all that's left of a 350-million-year-old volcano (long since extinct) that was ground away by glaciers. However, this goal was easier said than done, largely because of the weather. It was raining when we woke up and while it stopped during the walk from our hotel to the park where Arthur's Seat is located, it was extremely windy, "near gale force" the weather on the TV said. This made the climb more difficult than it would normally have been. We followed the path up the north side of the hill (although near the top, the path gave way to just rocks to climb around on). Parts of the climb were a bit

The beginning: an easy paved path.

steep, especially near the top, but it was also quite lovely. We walked along the ridge of a valley (the descent to the valley was quite steep, but not a sheer cliff - still, I wouldn't have wanted to fall over the side and roll down the hill!) and past the ruins of a monastic chapel. There were also some lovely views to the north of the Firth of Forth and of Fife on the other side of the Firth. At the summit, it was unbelievably

The middle: less easy, less paved.

windy and we had to crouch on all fours to avoid being blown off our feet! I'm not entirely sure we made it to the official summit (there's supposed to some sort of marker there that shows you the various identifiable points of Edinburgh, a marker we didn't see), but we came awfully close. It was so windy that we didn't want to try to keep walking looking for the

The end: What path?

actual summit; in fact, we spent all of about two minutes at the top before we decided to make the trek back down! On the way down, we saw a lot more people going up than we had on our ascent - we may have been among the first people at the top that day. In the end, it took us about an hour to get from base to summit and back, although at times it felt longer than that! It was quite an invigorating way to start the day.

View from the summit (more or less).

The Firth of Forth.

The monastic chapel.

Can you believe this is Edinburgh?

"Ah, Scotland, land of my forefathers."

"Uh, it's a bit windy!"

St. Giles' Cathedral.

We walked back up the Royal Mile in order to actually visit Edinburgh Castle. Along the way, we stopped in St. Giles' Cathedral, the center of the Scottish Reformation in the 16th and 17th centuries. We learned that we had to pay two pounds to take pictures inside, something no other church we've visited has done. I'm not really sure it was worth it, but the exterior architecture was very nice. We had lunch along the

St. Giles' Cathedral.

way, too, although not on the Royal Mile itself but on a small side-street, Cockburn Street. The prices of food just off the Royal Mile were much lower - I guess it goes to show what merchants can get away with when they're located on a known tourist street! We had soup and sandwiches, both of which were good, continuing the theme of "good food in Edinburgh." After lunch, we popped into an antique store just down the street because Lisa was looking for a charm for her charm bracelet to commemorate our visit to Scotland. She found a very cool one - a miniature book with "Scotland" printed on the front that opened up to show a series of tiny black-and-white pictures of various sights around the country.

David Hume, a great Scot.

Once we got to the castle, we waited for the next guided tour and I'm glad we did that; we learned much more about the history of the castle's development than we would have if we wandered around on our own. Most of the castle

Inside Edinburgh Castle.

dates from after the 16th century, so it's more recent than many of the castles we've seen so far in France. After the tour, we went into the Great Hall (mostly Victorian, but the roof is still the original one from the 1500s), saw the Scottish Crown Jewels, and the room where James VI of Scotland / I of England was born (he was the first king of both Scotland and England). We couldn't go into the oldest part of the castle, St. Margaret's Chapel (from the 11th century) because it was undergoing restoration and many parts of the castle are off-limits because it's still a

Checking the cannon.

The Scottish War Memorial.

functioning military post. In fact, they even have a big artillery piece they fire everyday except Sunday at exactly 1 pm. We did, however, visit the Scottish War Memorial (a very lovely building with dedications to the various Scottish military units that have suffered casualties since World War I and containing books listing all the deaths) and two small regimental museums. One of them included a French standard taking by a Scottish dragoon (at great peril to his own life) during the Battle of Waterloo. The castle was very interesting, but the best part might just be its location: on another volcanic rock that's part of the same structure as Arthur's Seat.

The Great Hall.

The birthplace of James VI/I.

A French standard from Waterloo.

Edinburgh from the Castle.

After the castle, we walked back to the Scottish National Museum because I wanted to have  more time to look at some of the early archaeological material, although we got there at 4 meaning we (again) only had about an hour before closing. They had some nice Roman remains, although nothing too spectacular, and some nice Viking and Pictish stuff, too - mostly grave markers, coins, weapons, and jewelry. Once the museum closed, we headed back to New Town to get our bags from the hotel (we checked out in the morning and left our bags in their baggage storage room). On the way, we stopped at the little store attached to Henderson's Bistro to buy some tea for ourselves as a souvenir of our time in Scotland. We also went to a tea shop just across the street from our hotel for a late afternoon cream tea. (Incidentally, there was a French family in the tea shop, too, continuing our transition back to France, I guess!) The tea and scones were very good, but the best part of the tea was the plate the scone came on - a china plate with a Bavarian design that read "Frankenmuth, Michigan" on it! (For those of you who don't know, Frankenmuth is

Frankenmuth, Michigan?! In Scotland?!

a town about 60 miles from where my mom and grandparents live designed in a German theme to celebrate its immigrant heritage.) Based on the rest of the china in the shop, it looked like someone had just gone to an antique and bought a bunch of cheap, mismatched pieces. So I guess at some point, someone from Edinburgh visited Frankenmuth, brought a plate home, then it ended up at an antique store before coming to the tea shop. It was pretty amazing to see!

After tea, we got our bags, walked back to the train station, got the express bus to the airport, and made our 8:30 flight to Southampton. We spent the night at the airport hotel there, then flew back to Rennes the next morning.

We really enjoyed our time in the UK - not least because it was nice to spend some time in an English-

Edinburgh Castle at our departure.

speaking country and take a break from French for a while! We'd love to go back to Wales, since there's so much more to explore there, and we'd also like to return to Scotland. There's obviously much more to Scotland than Edinburgh (I'd particularly like to visit the Highlands), but returning to Edinburgh would be fun, too. It's a very friendly city, easily manageable, and very picturesque. Also, Lisa said it's one of the first big cities she's been in on this side of the Atlantic where she's felt safe and comfortable the whole time. I don't know if we'll make back to the UK before we leave France for good, but I'm sure we'll be back someday.