AFA Edinburgh #5 - More About the City

The city has two main roads that everything is described in relationship to. You are either close to 'The Royal Mile' or 'Princes Street.' The Royal Mile is where all the fun was. It starts at the top of the hill at the castle and runs down the hill all the way to Holyroodhouse Castle.
The story of Mary Queen of Scots is closely intertwined with the castle and much talked about in Edinburgh. Her father died when she was a week old, making her the Queen of Scotland. By the time she was 17 she had married and lost a husband, the King of France. She then married a second time to a guy that turned out to be a bad guy and in a fit of jealous rage, he stabbed her male private secretary to death in front of her in the castle. She was in line to the throne of England, but Elizabeth I was having none of that and eventually had her imprisoned in her 20's for 18 years and then beheaded. Many of the pictures in the castle are of Mary or her family.
The last picture is from a restaurant in town called The Elephant House. You can see the view of the castle from the window. JK Rowling sat in this restaurant many days with her baby carriage beside her while writing the first Harry Potter novel.

AFA Edinburgh #4 - A Bit About the City

Pronounced "ED-un-burrow". It started at least 1400 years ago as Castle Rock, which as you will see from the pictures is a really good name for it. It was a castle on top of a hill - very defense able. Then a guy named Edin from Northumbria (northern England) came, took it over, and named it 'Edin's burgh' - "burgh" meant "fort" at the time - and there you go, Edinburgh.
The Scots also affectionately called it 'Auld Reekie' (Scotch for 'old smoky') because of the smoke from all the burning coal in the fire places. Our tour guide also mentioned it might have had something to do with the smell also. The first picture below is looking up at the castle from one point in the city, the second is looking back the other way from the castle.

It, like many cities of its day was a walled city and the inhabitants were afraid to go outside the walls. So as the city grew, rather than move the walls, the city grew upward. In the pictures below, you are looking at 'old town'. These buildings are 100's of years old. And you can see, the buildings are very tall for the time period, practically skyscrapers. They were commonly 10 stories, and one even reached 14 stores. If the pictures were to pan to the left, you'd start to see 'new town' which is much smaller buildings. There is a pub right at the edge of where the wall used to stand call, "The End of the World."

We came to see an event called 'Tattoo' which occurs right in the middle of the Edinburgh festival season. (most of August) As you can see from the pix below, the place was packed with people and the mood was festive. There were street performers everywhere, many of them excellent. The picture in the center is the square where the hangings used to take place. The red building in the first picture is a pub on that square called, "The Last Drop" that supposedly dates back to the hangings. Edinburgh evidently had a big problem with witches at one time. So when they caught them, they would tie them up and throw them in the water. If they drowned, they were proven to be good girls and given a Christian burial. If they survived, they were hanged or burned as witches. (I believe we adopted a similar practice in the US)

AFA Edinburgh #3 Bobby

You've got to love the Scots. They tell the story of a man whose dog was so devoted that when he died the dog followed the funeral procession down the street. And then for 13 years, stayed close to his grave. They erected a statue to Bobby.

AFA Edinburgh #2 Holyroodhouse - Her Majesty's Palace

Minimally, once per year the Queen comes to Edinburgh, normally the first week in July. As you will see in another post, the castle is really not fit for habitation, so the Queen stays in the Palace at the other end of town.
The name 'Holyrood' comes from the legend that the original monastery founded on this site in the 1100's was built to house a piece of Christ's cross. "Holy Rood" means 'holy cross' in Scottish. The first picture is the fountain in the courtyard of the castle. If you put the second two together just right, you see what the front of the castle looks like. (as with most palaces no pix allowed inside)

AFA Edinburgh #1 Her Majesty's Yacht Britannia

The royal family used to travel internationally by yacht. The Britannia was the last in a long line of royal yachts. It was commissioned in 1950-something with the design closely overseen by the Queen. It was retired just a few years ago. It is permanently docked in Edinburgh. It is interesting to see, because it is not nearly as opulent as you would expect. It was designed to have the feel of a country home, and it does - sort of.
This is the Queen's bedroom. She and Prince Phillip do not share a bedroom, he has one done in his own style. They do have a connecting door. Notice the small bed? There is a guest bedroom that was used as the honeymoon suite for three weddings, Princess Anne's wedding, Prince Andrew, and Prince Charles and Diana. Charles had a large bed put in for his honeymoon so they could share. Obviously not a lucky honeymoon spot, Princess Anne divorced Mark, Prince Andrew divorced Fergie, and Prince Charles was going to divorce Diana but she died in the car wreck instead.

These shots are where the Queen entertained guests. There are pictures of many famous world leaders, including a couple of Presidents.

Here's a couple of miscellaneous pictures, the royal launch that would take the Queen to shore, a side view of the yacht to get an idea of the size (300+ feet long), and the family at the crew's bar.

Brittany Turns Nine! (August 19, 2008)

With a countdown that went on for a couple of months, Britty's birthday FINALLY (as far as she was concerned) arrived on the last day of our holiday. Before we left, we wrapped up her gifts and stacked them on the stairs so that when we came home, she'd walk in and see them. She was the last one in from the car, so we all stood by the door expectantly waiting to see the surprise on her face. She did not disappoint. As you can see from the pix, she wanted (and got) three kinds of dolls - it's nice to still have one little girl around the house.

AFA Scotland - Glasgow #2

We happened to hit Glasgow during the international bagpipe festival. (I know what you are thinking ... YIKES! BAD LUCK!!) I am not normally a fan of the pipes, but it was really cool. There were free performances in several venues and we happened to catch one group all the way from Australia. (yes, the one with the kangaroos) They were really good.
They have a museum of modern art there that was really great. These are some pictures from the main exhibition. Look at the floor - it is part of the exhibition. One of the artist's "things" is he does the floors where he displays his art. It is a white floor with a pattern of black tape.