North to Scotland

Day 4 and 5:
A travel day. Not by plane. Not by car. By train. The 4 hour transport left from Kings Cross station and ended at Edinburgh. I'd recommend this as it is easier than a plane and faster than a car. Naturally, we got to the station early and visited Platform 9 3/4 to take a photo of some random parent's child and to sit down with the king for a bit - it is his station after all.

Arriving in Edinburgh, our first order of business was to find our AbnB. This city has tourists crawling all over the hills, and we joined them. Our place is in a unique location. The back wall is the inside wall of the Greyfriars graveyard. None other than Tom Riddle is buried here. JK Rowling wrote the first Harry Potter book in a coffee shop, the Elephant House, overlooking the graveyard. The shop was closed due to a fire, so there were no visitors.

Exploration of the city began and continued into the next day. Dinner was first, and we ate at a place Kim and I liked here in the UK, Nanodo's. It's a chain baked chicken restaurant, Portuguese style. It was convenient and good. In the morning, I hiked to the top of Arthur's seat. It's an extinct volcano and hs great views 360 degrees. I highly recommend it.

Back at the AbnB, we prepared for our entrance time to Edinburgh castle. We self guided and went through several museums. This fortress is also built upon the top of a hill and is a great location for such. But, even so, it changed hands from Scottish to English several times over the centuries.

Colton Hill sits to the east of the castle and is another good place to walk up and see views all around. It's not as good as Arthur's Seat, but it's much easier to walk. Speaking of walking, Kim is racking up the miles. Another day, and she will be approaching 50 miles on this trip, and she has the blisters to prove it.

Interesting facts: First, the Sir Walter Scott monument (see photo) is the 2nd tallest monument to a writer in the world. I'm reading his most famous book on this trip - Ivanhoe. Second, everywhere in this city, it is easy to see the inspiration for the Harry Potter series. The buildings, streets, roof tops, hill tops, and castle scream HP.

We closed the day looking in the shops and having dinner. Does anyone fancy a wool scarf, hat, shirt, sweater, socks, and maybe even underwear? They have it here. For dinner, we went to another pub. I got the Cullen Skink soup. Yes, what a name for soup. It's a scottish fish crowder.

So far, Edinburgh has been an interesting place to visit. Lots to see and do in a compact old and new town area. The weather has been great for walking about. More tomorrow as we seek out ghosts, witches, and grave robbers.Read more