Day 3: Edinburgh, Scotland

We slept really hard and long last night and had a slower start. After breakfast we started walking northwest to the Botanic Gardens which is free and got to not only enjoy the peace and quiet of the gardens, but also start to see the everyday lives of Scots. We meandered the windy side streets along from the Botanic Gardens to Stockbridge where we looked at the local shops and then happened upon a stone stairway that ran along the creek that led to the Nelson Monument with everything around there covered in ivy, moss, and golf course green grass. This ran under a train aqueduct to a quaint village called Dean Village. It was so nice to get away from the main drags and see normal life in quieter cobblestone streets with their wee mini coopers, lush gardens, and beloved terrier dogs. We got a coffee at Nero Coffee (a UK chain I convinced Joel to try as he was looking for a Starbucks). We then walked clear across the city to a pottery shop called Meadow Pottery and bought a nice mug to add to our collection and had a nice chat with the artist named Paul- who I would have liked if he wasn't wearing a Bernie 2016 shirt- and he taught us all about the raku pottery process. We grabbed lunch at a place called Wildmanwood which had very reasonably priced pizzas and salads (rabbit in the salad- yum!) and listened to the Scottish restaurant guys chat about American gun control and the obvious solution of taking guns away to stop these killings from happening. I wanted to give them a bazillion different explanations why that wouldn't work, but I decided to enjoy my pizza and not go into explaining the American Pshyche. Honestly though, American news is covered just as much as the UK news in the UK and throughout the world and it's incredibly embarrassing sometimes. That's why I try to make a point of being an extra good representation of an American whenever I travel. They need to be reminded that not all Americans are fat, stupid, and racist. Speaking of which, we haven't run into too many Americans in Edinburgh- lots of Europeans, but very few Americans. After lunch, we walked to the National Museum of Scotland to look around the huge and really nice history museum which had a great section on Scottish history. We walked back to our flat for a rest and Joel pre-cooked dinner while I took a shower and watched Serena Williams win her 22nd grand slam. We then walked back to the Royal Mile (my hip joints are starting to scream at me at this point- it's a very hilly city) and participated in a City of the Dead tour. There are several horror/history tours in Edinburgh, but this is the only one worth doing. They are incredibly knowledgeable about the history of Edinburgh and take you to a few spots you can't otherwise visit that are haunted because of the horrible things that happened centuries ago. Edinburgh was one of the dirtiest cities and hearing about the different atrocities was enlightening and a little bit disturbing. We visited underground caves and graveyards and churches where alleged ghosts lurk at Greyfriars Kirk. Very entertaining and totally worth it. Sorry for the novel, we did a lot today.Read more