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So last Saturday Martin and I headed to Edinburgh at 9:30 a.m. The train ride over was very comfortable and easy. There were probably six or seven stops on the way, including three in Edinburgh. We got off at last one. The train station is actually a little below what is street level in the city, and to get out of it you just had to walk up a street that runs through the station. It was a busy place full of people who looked like they knew what they were doing. We didn’t. I was reading my guide book the whole day looking like an idiot. It was great.

After we walked up the street out of the station, we took a look around. To the left were huge buildings. In front of us was Edinburgh Castle, way up on a hill. Below that was the Edinburgh Art Galleries (Scottish National Galleries), and in front of those were some sort of gardens. There are actually blooming flowers here in February. Up to the right was a large tower that was quite exquisitely carved, and of course we heard bagpipes blaring down the street. It was an exciting introduction to the city.

We decided that the tower should be first. It turned out to be a memorial to Sir Walter Scott, and at £3 we had to climb the tower. The stairs were the winding kind that can be found everywhere here. At the bottom of the tower, the stairs were two way. Half way up they were one way. At the top I could barely squeeze through. The top had a fantastic view. I think that we were above everything but the castle itself and I got a lot of pictures of the whole city.

After the Tower of Scott (my term…) we climbed up the bluff to the castle. After waiting for a long queue to die down we got our tickets for £9 pounds. Up at the castle we noticed quite a few Italians wearing their colors. It turns out that we were there on the same day as a 6 Nations (Scotland, England, Wales, Ireland, France, & Italy.) Rugby game. This has been quite a big deal the whole time we’ve been here, so we thought that was an extra treat. After we got back, I talked to a number of friends that were actually AT the game. I was a bit jealous.

I liked this castle more than the Stirling castle. We took the guided tour and were shown around by a jolly Scottish fellow in a kilt. We got quite a bit of history from him and, if you’re going to a castle, I would try to hop on one of these tours. It turns out that the British Army still uses the castle as the headquarters for one of their regiments, and they still house troops there; we didn’t get to go to these parts.

We did see a war memorial, the Scottish crown jewels, old wartime prisons, and a lot of other parts of the castle. Unfortunately, half of the Great Hall of Edinburgh castle was actually under construction. That was too bad because the entire thing was lined with old swords, pistols, suits of armor, and trench cannons.

The prison part of the castle made you proud to be American. They held Americans here who had been captured at sea during the revolution. They carved a lot of flags and revolutionary rhetoric into the wood they were imprisoned by. It’s all on display today! Quick trivia: Americans were also treated as pirates in prison by the British and were given less food than the other prisoners taken there.

After a couple hours in the castle we headed down the Royal Mile. The Mile gets its name from the kingly walks from the castle down to the kings’ more peaceful residences a mile away. Along the way there was a man dressed up as William Wallace and one of those damn moving statues. The Wallace guy was fairly entertaining and had all the attention he could handle from Italian tourists. We also stopped by the Scottish Whiskey Experience to see how much it was. We didn’t think it was worth it to do the tour, but we did check out the store. We got a free sampling out of the deal and thought about buying £2,650 bottles of whiskey. Someday…

We stopped for lunch at the Filling Station on the Mile. I had a delicious burger, and made the classic mistake of assuming that they were offering free refills on pop. Turns out beer is cheaper than Coke here. Good thing I only got two.

After stopping by a beautiful gothic cathedral we bought some tickets to the Real Mary King’s Cross. You have to book a tour and we got one for three hours later. To kill time we decided to walk around the castle. This turned out to be a great decision. The view of the castle from the other side was great. It was a huge sheer cliff. I would recommend that journey to anybody. (Don’t look at the city on this side though...) Along the other side of the castle was a nice park with more wooden benches than I would’ve thought possible lining the sidewalks. It was a pleasant stroll.

Not many of you are going to believe this next part. Its true though. Martin wanted to go to the art museum. I obliged. I didn’t hate it. That’s all I’m going to say on the matter.

The last part of our journey was Mary King’s Cross. It was a section of town where they’ve built the City Council Chambers on top of old foundations. We got to check these out with a tour guide leading us through the old houses that were “struck with the plague” and haunted. The tour had been recommended by students here on campus, but I thought it wasn’t really that cool. I thought we were going to see a lot more actors but it was really only the guide. Overall it was interesting, but maybe a disappointing with all the buildup.

Overall a very good trip and I had a great time. I will be going out of Stirling much more!