Tuesday, Aug 9, 2011 --- Going to Grandma and Grandpa’s House

Tuesday, Aug 9, 2011   ---   Going to Grandma and Grandpa’s House

So, 4AM comes really fast, but when you are getting up to go to Edinburgh (as opposed to work) it not as hard. We met in the lobby at 5AM for our transport to Heathrow for our day trip to Edinburgh (are we a bit snooty?). Apparently we do not speak English, because the door man was unable to tell us that our van was waiting out front for us. He thought that anyone going to the airport would have luggage and despite our repeated attempts to explain the situation, it wasn’t connecting. Within 5 mintues we had our signals aligned and we were off to Edinburgh.

We arrived in Edinburgh on a beautiful morning – partly cloudy, a bit cool at first, but warmed up throughout the day (Note: “warmed up” means we were wearing multiple layers of clothing and it almost got to 70⁰F). Our first order of business was to take the on-and-off bus tour (1 hour) to check out all the cool places so that we could plan the rest of the day. We learned lots of interesting history and saw a number of historic sites/monuments. For example:

We saw the largest monument to a writer (Walter Scott – of “O what a tangled web we weave, When first we practice to deceive”);

The grave of James Napier (the inventor of logarithms and the slide rule);

We learned of Robert Byrne (of Auld Lang Syne fame – the 2^nd most sung song after Happy Birthday);

Sean Connery (James Bond – 007) was a milkman there before graduating to the big screen;

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (author of the Sherlock Holmes series) lived in Edinburgh;

The medical school where Alexander Fleming of U Edinburgh made the discovery of penicillin;

The Queen’s summer palace;

The places where JK Rowling wrote the Harry Potter series;

And of course, the world famous and 2^nd most visited site in the UK … the Edinburgh Castle.

(Note: The 17 P’s kicked in as we walked past a two hour line for entry to the castle due to pre-purchased tickets on-line by Chris.)

Now, for the uninitiated, this castle is Tim Lawson’s ancestral home since Queen Margaret (and also a Saint, unlike Tim) is Tim’s 28x Great Grandma. Really, it’s true. Margaret was married to King Malcolm III for those keeping royal score. Saint Margaret’s chapel is the oldest building in the castle and in all of Edinburgh (constructed 1130 AD). The chapel is quite small, but the stained glass is really cool – see the window of Saint Margaret (I use Saint since it probably supersedes Queen, and she would want me to refer to her that way).

The castle sits atop a very high extinct volcano and overlooks the whole city all the way across the Firth of Forth to the North Sea. The buildings inside the castle complex were all made of old field stone with cobblestone streets. Included in the complex was the Scottish Crown Jewels, which I can hardly use the plural since there is a crown, a necklace, a decorative collar, a ring and a scepter – total estimated value $50,000 on QVC. Of course, the real Scottish Crown jewels were looted by the British centuries ago and are on display in the Tower of London (on our ‘To Do’ list).

After lunch in the usual pub environment (see picture of us at the bar), we wandered Edinburgh, most notably taking a stroll through the “Fringe Festival.” Now, the many, many people participating in this huge festival, which occurs every August, are definitely fringe people, and that’s generous. They are only fringe if one considers the far reaches of the galaxy the fringe of planet Earth. We saw some really poor actors/characters, pathetic break dancers, aspiring jugglers, etc. etc. The crowd was oppressive, but we made our way through to do some shopping on the Royal Mile, Edinburgh’s poor imitation of the Magnificent Mile in Chicago. Besides actually 1.2 miles, the only difference being that everything on the Royal Mile could be purchased for $50 or less while everything on the Magnificent Mile can only be purchased for $100 or more. It was really the souvenir haven for tourist.

We ended the day in a beautiful park in the middle of town, enjoying the “warm” sunshine and gentle breeze. On the hillsides surrounding us was a city of old, majestic buildings and history oozing from every corner of the city.

We went back to the airport and the flight and shuttle back to the hotel where we had some appetizers (since we missed dinner), drinks and desserts before going to bed.