Our first big tourist attraction was the Edinburg Castle. It was really a neat castle and experience. They won't let you take photos of the "honors," but those are the crown and sword and scepter of the Scottish throne. They are technically now owned by the British throne but for a long time it was independent and it was even in hiding for a long time to keep it away from the grabby Brits. Here's a shot from the bottom of the hill.
Here's Brian at the top.
Whit and I in the "lover's corner".
Posing by a cannon. There's an enormous cannon near the top that was only ever fired like three times. There's also a cannon that's fired every day near the restaurant part of the castle (where I ate lunch--but the boys mostly just drank water) and we got to see it be fired. It was loud and kinda cool. There's a shot of that lower down.
They had a presentation of women in castles and their clothing. Kind of neat.
I liked all the period reproduction artwork. Lots of "expensive" gold paint.
Heading up to the top... lots of people out! Also, everyone was gobbling up ice-cream, even though it was like 76 degrees. Apparently that's SUPER hot in Scotland. Everyone was going on about the "heat wave."
I thought it was funny the storm drains were gold encrusted.
Nice view from the castle.
Now a view OF the castle from below (there's a cool park down there where I am NOT kidding, there were all KINDS of people with their shirts off, including women and really old, pasty white guys! 76 degrees, GO WILD! I kept thinking, MY EYES, MY EYES!
There was a cool "great room" with weapons all over and a lot of period restored wood paneling. I also liked the Scottish crest you can see below. Gold with a red lion.
Here's the cannon firing.
This was a dog cemetery. SO WEIRD! (Reminds me of A&M!)
We really liked this tower that looked like lace. It was to some famous guy there, but I can't remember who now! Ha!
The park I was writing about above.
Gorgeous roses everywhere.
A pretty cool church...
This is the beginning of the royal mile, which is basically a lot of shopping and a few churches.
We saw a (pretty cute) lady in a wedding gown here. Brian tried to marry her but she shot him down.
Like the double decker bus in the back. I meant to ride on one, but I never did it.
This was a REALLY COOL clock made all of plants!! Impressive!!
Then we made it to this castle called STERLING castle. It's in Sterling (surprise, surprise), which is the gateway to the Scottish Highlands. It was really pretty but we were like 4 minutes too late to go inside. Boohoo.
It had a nice view.
Here we are, where the tiny man behind us denied us access.
Cool Robert the Bruce statute. I tell you what, we are related to him and that guy is REVERED and LOVED and HATED (depending on the place) in Scotland. Everyone has an opinion, though.
Cool church in Sterling...
Neat front gate.
The holy RUDE! Hahaha.
QUARRELING IS TABOO!! My kids need to learn this.
We saw two things on our drive back to the Marriott. Moss Bros store. And Baker Street! Kinda cool.
When we went to find dinner, we found these signs. They were pretty funny. We ended up eating at the best indian place I've ever been to, hands down. The chicken melted in my mouth!! MMMM. The chicken pakora wasn't quite as good as what we get at home, though. I loved this sign we saw on our walk, though.
Whit was diligent in his quest for the shortbread I loved with dried fruit in it. I found it once and thought it must be everywhere. It wasn't!! I should have bought it when I found it. We did find these personalized Cokes, though. Apparently Emma is a common name in the UK.
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