Edinburgh: Day 2

We woke up bright and early on Saturday morning and headed over to a cafe called Porto & Fi for a little breakfast before our big day of sightseeing.

An Americano and some Hot Choco, duh.

Porridge with warm fruit compote.  (Mine.)

French Toast with Bacon and Syrup for Drew!  This was REAL good.

Then it was Castle time!  It was another sunny (but completely freezing) day so we were braced with good attitudes about the outdoors, gloves, and two layers of socks.  We went on a short guided tour of the place with a funny Scottish guide and then got audio guides for the rest of the deets on the place.

So...Edinburgh Castle is built up high on another part of the string of highlands/inactive volcanos close to Arthur's Seat and you can see it easily in most parts of the city.  It's been around in some form for 3,000 years!  In the Middle Ages it became Scotland's chief royal castle and has added parts and bits and interesting things and facts to it ever since.  Mary Queen of Scots lived here and gave birth to James XI here in 1566, so that's cool.  James XI, as he was known in Scotland, was also known as James I in England.  He was the first king from Scottish heritage to rule the throne in England, and unified the two sovereign states.  Since then, the castle has changed hands and ownership and monarchs so many times I can't even keep it straight, so just know that it's a pretty cool place and a big deal.

The second entry to the castle, after crossing over the dry moat...

And it's guarded by this bad boy.  You wouldn't wanna be under this thing in a siege, am I right?

Oh look!  Another 'Hook Em' shot with a cannon.

Pretty views of the New Town from the Castle.

National War Museum in the grounds for all the fallen Scottish soldiers, in every war/battle/fight since WWI.

The Royal Palace, where all the royal peeps lived and where they now keep the Crown Jewels, which include the Crown, a Septre, and a Sword.  And the Stone of Destiny, which is a mysteriously large stone that is present at all coronations.  Hmmm. 

The Great Hall, completed in 1511.  Now it's got a lot of armor and swords and weapons and some musicians who play in the afternoons!  All amor is on loan from the Tower of London.

Great fireplace in the Great Hall.

Drew in a guard tower.

The oldest building in Scotland, St. Margaret's Chapel, built in the 1300s!

THIS, my friends, is a Dog Cemetery! The guide said that the "Scottish people were a people that loved and honored their pets" so that means that I am a person that loves and honors the Scottish.  These were all the royal pups that lived in the Castle over the years!  Awww.

They also had a Prisoners of War exhibit, where Drew got behind bars like a kook!

The prison/barracks/something.

Some American POWs scribbled our flag into the stone wall!  THESE COLORS DON'T BLEED, PEOPLE!

A cell.

Every day at 1pm (excluding Sundays, Good Friday, and Christmas), they fire a canon from the Castle.  They used to do it to alert the ships during the day of what time it was, and now it's just tradition.  You can hear it all over the city!

This is a Gothic hotel/restaurant called The Witchery by the Castle that looked a little spooky.  But cool.

After the Castle, we went to a touristy/gimmicky kinda place called the Scotch Whisky Experience to learn about Scotch and warm up with some tastings!

They talked through each region of distilleries in Scotland and then we placed our tasting glass on the color of the region we wanted to taste.  Did that make sense?  I went with the "Highlands", which has sweet vanilla hints while Drew tasted stuff from Speyside, which was more fruity.

This place was also home to the largest scotch/whisky collection in the world!

Look, Lolly!  Burberry makes whisky!

The Dewars section - Drew's fave.

The Balvenie section.  Thinkin of my Pops.

Scotch scotch scotch.

Happy place.

Maps of the distilleries throughout Scotland.

We were hungry after the Scotch Whisky Experience so we went and got some lunch at...where else?  The Whiski Room!

Drew got excited about the phone booths.

Lunch: a glass of scotch for him, a Whisky Mule for me, a delicious burger for him, and a quiche thing followed by partridge for me.  Pretty damn good.

We strolled around some more after that, walked up and down the streets, stopped by the apartment, tried to get into another tourist attraction called Mary King's Close (an underground alleyway thingy majig) but it was full, and then wandered over to Mercat Cross where there were several weirdos in costumes advertising ghost tours of the city.  If any of you know me at all you'd know that this is NOT something I would even consider, especially given the already natural creepiness of the city.  But our plans at the Close fell through and I could tell Drew wanted to do it and we had some time to kill before dinner...so I spoke to the lady and she assured me that children do it and I'd be fine.  I took a deep breath and signed up.  And then went to chug a beer in the hour we had before the tour started.

Our nut job guide was a girl dressed all in white, with white [painted] skin, who claimed she used to be a woman named Euphemeria but now lived in a girl named Kimberly's body.  She had a strong Scottish accent and wandered around talking to everyone before the tour started, asking our names and how we liked Edinburgh.  "Drew, is it?  I'll be sure to remember...for the INCIDENT REPORT should you DISASPPEAR!!  MUAHAHAHAHA!" and she'd cackle maniacally.  Oh Lord, help me.  I asked her if she was freezing as she was in a very thin dress but she said she didn't feel the cold because she was dead.  Awesome.

We started our tour and she told us horror stories of the people who were tortured and killed and beheaded in the city many a century ago and led us down a dark alley where she told us more ghost stories.  The stories themselves weren't so bad and I mostly tried to tune out but I pretty much kept my head on a swivel and constantly looked behind me to ensure no one was going to come sneak up and cause a panic attack.  Euphemeria/Kimberly would talk really really quietly and right as we'd lean in to hear her, she'd SCREAM AS LOUD AS SHE COULD in our faces.  That bitch.

She then took us down into the underground "vaults" below the city, which were originally built as another market place where people could conduct business, but turned into a cesspool of sin and tom foolery.  Lots of prostitutes and gamblers and thieves and looney tunes hung around down there, lots of murders committed, and now lots of HAUNTING going on down there.  This was the part I had the hardest time with.  It was dark, ridiculously quiet, cave-like, and the air was thick with mold and damp. She'd lead us into various rooms and tell us how this was the most haunted room or place because of some horrible story that occurred.  Then at the end she packed us into this really tiny room and told us a scary story and I had a hard time breathing because there was (seemingly) limited oxygen and I was scared and claustrophobic.  It was over after that, thank God!  I survived in one piece but it definitely didn't do much to help with the creepiness factor.  

A ghost?  Or our tour guide?

The dimly lit vaults of doom.

Yikes.

Euphemeria and her pal.

After the tour, we needed a strong drink to shake it off and relax.  So we went back to the Beehive Inn from yesterday and utilized the wi-fi and wine.

To finish off the day, we had a late French dinner at La Maison Bleue.

Pic of La Maison Bleue during the day.

Deep fried Haggis balls!  When in Rome/Edinburgh..

Mhamar d'agneau au safran a l'Algeroise.  (Lamb shank tagine with cous-cous.)

Drew's Ribeye!

We had a lovely meal.  At the end of our meal, I saw an odd looking red-headed 19-year-old kid walk back to his table and sit down reluctantly with his table companions...none of whom looked like his parents.  Not odd-looking like he had something mentally wrong with him, just odd looking like...strange.  He looked bored and started pointing at glass and saying things to it.  And then made a weird shape with his palm and kept wielding his pointer finger towards the glass.  And then kept looking at me.  And then his table companions started looking at me for no reason.  And I have still convinced myself that I saw a table full of real witches sitting there, and this particular one was working on a spell.  I know how I sound and it's probably the book I'm reading or that damn tour but I'm STILL weirded out.  So there.

We went home happy with our day, though a little creeped out!  Day 3 to come tomorrow.

It feels like we're in a war zone right now, as people are setting firecrackers (bangers) off all over the city for Halloween.  Crazy Irish folks.  Happy Halloween!