Good tour, bad weather

Kim was feeling unwell this morning, so we cancelled our morning plans to give her an opportunity to recuperate. The extra rest must have worked, as she was ready to go by noon. We had reservations for the free Edinburgh city tour at 2pm, which meant grabbing lunch, driving through roundabouts, finding parking, and checking in with the tour.

We randomly picked a cafe on the way into town and did our best to order without too many silly questions. I had a ham and cheese sandwich, which turned out to be two pieces of bread with sliced ham. So far so good. The cheese was grated and added to the sandwich. That could have meant a mess of cheese falling out of the sandwich, but the bread was smeared with butter, which held the cheese in place. Interesting idea. Jacket potatoes have been on several menus, and Kim selected the jacket potato with chicken and mayo. Basically, it’s a baked potato with the toppings of your choice. The potato came out piping hot, but the chicken and mayo was cold. Although she reported it was good, she also said it was a little weird. Nikki ordered chili nachos, which were corn chips smothered with beef chili. Not sure how that’s going to settle in her tummy, as a (mostly) pescatarian.

We arrived at the meeting place a few minutes early and met Brian, our tour guide. He was very thoughtful and asked for feedback throughout the tour. He did a nice job and provided just enough history to make his point, whilst not boring the crowd. We started the tour stepping down a “close.” These are like Snickelways in York. They are short walkways cut into the middle of the block that took us to the next street over. Some were a couple people wide, while others were shoulder width. We made our way to the St Giles Cathedral and retraced our steps from yesterday; however, we completely missed the grave mark at parking spot 23. John Knox was the leader of the reformation movement in Scotland, preaching from St Giles. It sounds like he was quite fiery and passionate, which increased his popularity. He insisted that his final resting place be in the cemetery at St Giles, which was located in a courtyard next to the church in the 1500’s. Many, many years later, all of the bodies were relocated, except Knox’s remains. He was insistent, and very clear, about the site of his eternal rest, so they paved over him. The site is now parking stall #23 next to the church. Brian also provided some new information about St Giles, which we missed when we toured it yesterday. Apparently there are wood carvings of angels playing the bagpipe. I’m not sure how we could have missed that, but we agreed that we would go find them after the tour.

We walked the Royal Mile, which is the street that runs from the Edinburgh Castle to the king’s residence at the other end. We learned that a Scottish mile is just a bit longer than an English mile, just in case anyone was measuring the distance. Today, the Royal Mike is filled with historical sites and lots of shops inviting tourists to empty their wallets. The castle sits at the top of a hill, so the tour kept gaining elevation until we were at the castle gates, from which you can see all of Edinburgh. It seemed like everywhere I looked there was some amazing building or church. Brian pointed out one of the schools that has been rumored to be the inspiration for Hogwarts. JK Rowling wrote most of the Harry Potter books, while living in Edinburgh, and I could certainly see why people took note of the school. Not much later, we visited Greyfriars cemetery. Across the street from the Greyfriars church, there was a cafe where Rowling would sit and write. She would take breaks and walk on the Greyfriars grounds. Some of the names of her characters are actually individuals who are buried there. Specifically, we saw the grave markers of William Magonagall and Thomas Riddell. But the saddest story from the graveyard was about Greyfriars Bobby. This little dog was owned by a policeman that passed away in the mid-1800’s. He was buried in Greyfriars cemetery, where Bobby would come everyday and site by his grave. The cemetery keeper tried to get rid of him but eventually appreciated his persistence and took care of him. The dog stayed at the graveside of his master for 14 years, before he passed away himself. A book and movie tell the story of the dog, though I’m not familiar with either. But, there is a little bronze statue just outside the cemetery to memorialize his loyalty and persistence. Oddly, people rub his nose for good luck, so he has a very shiny muzzle.

Brain recommended a chippy not far from the cemetery, so we headed there for an early dinner. The place was super busy and pumped out fish and chips like a machine. From Bertie’s, we walked back to St Giles to see the angels with bagpipes, which kinda sounds like a song title now that I’m writing it. We got there 10 minutes before they closed, but the attendant said the area where the angels are was already closed, “but you can come back tomorrow.” We put on sad faces and said that we were leaving tomorrow, but it didn’t work. He still didn’t let us in. I tracked down a photo of the carving and added it here. It’s more than I had a hoped for!Read more