Exploring Edinburgh...

May 26, 2012

We had breakfast, checked out of the hotel and drove to Carolyn’s place.  She made everything so fabulous and had put sticky notes all over things (such as a tin of cookies, telling us to make sure we ate them, "...yes, all of them").  She is just incredibly thoughtful J

Her place is so nice that I just had to take more pictures.  It has vaulted ceilings making it feel enormous.  Her bedroom has three windows...  Here are the views from different directions…

  

And all three together…

After settling in, we walked through the Holyrood Park below the Crags to the bottom of the Royal Mile. 

Then we walked the entire way up the Royal Mile through town.  At the bottom of the Royal Mile, in this picture, is Holyrood Palace, which is where Kings and Queens stay when in Edinburgh, rather than up in the Castle, which is a mile a way (hence "The Royal Mile")

Along the way up the Royal Mile...

Up near the Castle, looking back down the Royal Mile to the Firth of Forth.

 

Then, being the Harry Potter fans that we are, we had to go to the Elephant House to see where J.K. Rowling had written her first book "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" (the name was changed to "Sorcerer's Stone" for the U.S. market).

 I'm sure she sat over there somewhere...

  Of course we went inside for a bite to eat…

This is the view out the back window of Edinburgh Castle…

Next we headed to the National Museum of Scotland, where we spent an hour exploring.  This is the millennium clock.  The flies legs move up and down to engage the catchment as the seconds click by.

 

Danika had a robot spell out her name…

It is a really large place and unfortunately it closed before we could see everything, so the kids say they want to return tomorrow.  This is the main atrium…

 Then it was off to the PieMaker for some dinner…  So fresh, so good J

 

We took our pies down to the wading pools to relax and eat.  Then the kids cooled off… The Crags and Arthur’s Seat in the background.

It stays light until after 10 p.m. here (with the sun coming up at 4:15 am), so we decide we had time to climb up to Arthur’s Seat.

 

Once on top it was fairly windy, but still nice.

There was a compass that David was showing to Danika…

Jason took this picture of the helicopter flying by while we were up there.

From the back side, you can see the Firth of Forth…

When we hiked back down, there was a long grassy hill and the kids had a blast rolling down it.

  

I think I am a bit tired now…

~Mary