Edinburgh, the Final Frontier

Hello again!  I'm back from Edinburgh and about half way through my last week here!

The entrance to our hostel was right by the castle and Royal Mile

I flew out to Edinburgh with two of the other guys from Wisconsin on Thursday afternoon and got back on Sunday evening.  On Thursday, we got into Edinburg at about 10pm, and went straight to our hostel, the Castle Rock Hostel.  It's located right at the bottom of the castle, so it was pretty easy to find from Waverley station where the airport bus let off.

Pretty typical view in Edinburgh, this was out of one of the hostel windows

The first thing I noticed was how every building was so old (or appeared to be) - at least before the early 1900's by my estimate.  Buildings in Norway were and still are built with a lot of wood, so there is very little old architecture visible in day to day life.  The visible history in parts of Europe, namely German and Spain because I've been there, is an aspect of Europe that I really appreciate and had missed being in Norway.  I especially noticed in Edinburgh that there were an incredible number of old Gothic churches in the downtown.  There were so many that most had been repurposed for other things if they weren't especially historic.

On Friday, we woke up relatively early and grabbed a quick breakfast of cereal, a roll with spread, and juice at the hostel for only £1.80, a pittance compared to what we paid in Oslo for about the same food (55 NOK, I think).  I found it funny how people kept joking about how "Oh, it's expensive, but that's Scotland" while I was thinking how incredibly cheap everything was compared to Norway!

St Margaret's Loch

We got out early, so we were able to hike over to Arthur's seat before it got too warm or crowded to get a view of the city from above.  On the way, we walked past St Margaret's Loch where there are the ruins of St Anthony's chapel, dating from sometime before 1426!

Contemplating the tough questions of life on a
chair we found on the way up to the top

Another view on the way up to the top.  The
castle is over to the left in this picture

Continuing the trek up, we took a few breaks to look around at the views of the city and ocean behind us.  Once we reached to top, it got a bit windy and cold, and we could hear the sound of bagpipes coming from somewhere down in the city.  We stayed at the top briefly but soon climbed part way down to the Salisbury Crags which make up a large ridge that is closer to the city and with better views of the downtown area [Cool side fact: The crags are actually the remnants of extinct volcanoes from before the most recent ice age].  I've tried to add a video from the side of the crags where you can hear some of the bagpipes (and wind).

On the Salisbury Crags

Once we were done on the crags, we were pretty close to Calton Hill and decided to walk over there.  Calton Hill is the location of the Lord Nelson monument, the city observatory, and a few other monuments.  There were more cool views of the city which we admired while resting our feet from the day's hike(s).  We also stopped at the city's museum before retiring, which was cool but I don't remember much worth commenting on.

The view from Calton Hill - I don't remember which monument it is on the left.
The castle is near the center, and the spire that I will mention later is the
dark one farthest to the right in this image.

The next day we decided to walk down to the ocean after reading one of Edinburgh's travel sites boast of its "unspoilt beaches."  We started at the castle, walked the Royal Mile down to the Scottish Parliament and palace, and then continued out of downtown.  Of course, being three guys, we neither brought a map nor stopped for directions, so we took quite a long hike to get to the beach.  When we did, it was a great relief, and we stopped to enjoy our steak pies on some rocks on the beach.  Speaking of which- I didn't expect to, but I really liked all of the meat pies that I got while in Edinburgh.  I guess the trash talk about English food is not all to be believed.

So... unspoilt

Once we had finished our delicious and filling pies, we decided to walk along the beach and later along the storm wall, heading generally back toward town.  This lead to further detours, but we were able to make better time on the way back to town.

Looking up at the Scott Monument

The castle, national gallery, and park from the top

When we got back toward the castle, we planned to stop at the national gallery for a lower key activity.  However, on the way, we saw the spire of the Scott Monument which you could climb up for just a few pounds.  The monument is right near the castle, in the center of downtown, and we had great views of the area from its top.  There were 287 steps to the top, and in the last stairwell I had to turn sideways and take off my backpack to fit!  Once we were done, the sky cleared and we walked the length of the park visible in the previous photo before getting some food and heading back to the hostel.

The castle from the park at its base.  My question:
Why do you need a wall at the top of a shear cliff?
Who would possibly try to invade up that?

The other two guys had a 6:00am flight, so they left the hostel very early Sunday morning.  I, however, didn't fly out until about 4:00pm, so I had a morning to fill.  I started off by walking to the Edinburgh University which turned out to be full of very closed, very 1960's era buildings (think a combination of Vilas hall and the ERB from Madison's campus).  Since that didn't work out, I headed over to the National Gallery to see what it had to offer.  There were a lot of great paintings that I liked by artist whose names I recognized (an accomplishment for me) like Rembrandt, Degas, Cézanne, and Monet - just to name a few.  There were also no pictures allowed, so you'll have to check it out in person or on their website if you want to see them.

Looking up at Calton Hill from North Bridge on my last day.

I got to the airport at about 2:00pm with plenty of time to spare.  However, apparently my spare battery for my camera looks like an IED detonator when viewed through their x-ray machines.  I got a pretty good scare and a (thankfully) short delay and was very glad that happened in Edinburgh and not Norway as I could basically understand what the security agent was trying to say.  Luckily, I made it through without too much hassle and caught my plane without issue.

I had a great time in Edinburgh and am starting to pack up to come home!  I can't believe it's less than a week!