Leanne and Don, life across the pond: Edinburgh, Scotland

This weekends trip would be to Edinburgh, Scotland

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edinburgh

We landed at night and the pilot must have seen the sign.

We got to our rental at midnight and have a great view of the castle. This is the view in the morning.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edinburgh_Castle

Today we would be walking up to the Castle first and then down the royal mile. We are staying on Grassmarket street, it was used for a market and also public hangings.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grassmarket

We would walk down Grassmarket and down this side street for breakfast

As you can see the castle is on a hill, so it was time to climb steps, lots and lots of steps. Our calves would get a good workout all weekend.

This picture is taken in the esplanade where the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo takes place.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Edinburgh_Military_Tattoo

It's not where they all get a Tattoo on there arm, attached is the historical info for it.

{The term comes from the early 17th century Dutch phrase doe den tap toe ("turn off the tap"), a signal sounded by drummers or trumpeters to instruct innkeepers near military garrisons to stop serving beer and for soldiers to return to their barracks.}

A view from inside the castle

This is a cemetery for solders dogs.

A view from one of the many gun ports at the castle.

This is a view looking towards the One o'clock gun.

http://www.rampantscotland.com/visit/blvisitoneoclock.htm

The gun is shot every day at one o'clock for the ships to set there clocks.

After the castle we walked down the Royal mile.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Mile

All down hill from here.

Along the mile you have all the tourist stuff, this guy was playing a bag pipe. Another guy had a bag pipe but didn't play it. He just stood there and wanted money to have your picture taken with him.

This is Lady Stairs Close, a close is an alleyway that leads to an enclosure.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Stair%27s_Close

The Lady Stairs close leads to the Writers Museum.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Writers%27_Museum

Famous Scottish writers are Robert Burns, Walter Scott and Robert Louis Stevenson.

Another guy in a kilt, these were not worn for show. As we walked around we saw a lot of men and boys wearing them.

and there was more than one place to get them.

Further down the mile was St. Giles church.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Giles%27_Cathedral

Parts of it date back to the 12th century.

A section where cars are not allowed, this leaves more room for the street performers. And yes there was a lot of them. Some were good like this Harp player.

And some were very different like this group. They were doing some type of play/show/dance/%#@%^. I really don't have a clue what they were doing.

Lets move on down the street, there must be some place to eat.

We came to the Decon Brodie pub. Although we did not stop we did read up on the history of his namesake.

http://www.rampantscotland.com/famous/blfamdeacon.htm

The pub sign shows him being lock smith by day and a thief by night. The signs are reversed on the other side.

We found this great place right after we had lunch. Baked potatoes is all they had.

Something you won't find in the states is a bagpipe maker. He was not open, he must have been on a bake potato break.

I think every one has heard of Watergate, what about Cowgate?

The next day we did a tour of the Fife fishing villages and St. Andrews.

On the way we would stop to look at three bridges. The Forth train bridge that was built in in the 1880 and opened in 1890. It's the second largest cantilever bridge in the world. It is amazing to see.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forth_Bridge

The second two bridges are the old and new Forth road bridge. The old one (in the foreground) had some issues and it was decided to build a new one. The new one (in the background) was not even half done an engineers figured out how to fix the old one. I wonder if someone got fired over that little mistake. There still going to finish the new one, i guess now they have a spare bridge.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forth_Road_Bridge

The first fishing town we came to was Lower Largo. We drove by one of those "what the heck is this" statues. If you look real close it still won't make any sense.

But also in this town was a statue of a local man, Alexander Selkirk.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Selkirk

The book "The adventures of Robinson Crusoe" is loosely based on him.

This church is the same name of the town, St. Monans. The church was built in the 14th century.

Next stop was the small fishing village of Crial. They had a small food stand that had lobster and crab rolls. It was a short stop so Leanne was not able to have either of these.

Next stop was St. Andrews, the home of golf and the university of St. Andrews

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Andrews

A view looking at the Royal and Ancient Golf Club

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Royal_and_Ancient_Golf_Club_of_St_Andrews

Leanne and I standing on Swilken bridge, orginally built 700 years ago.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swilken_Bridge

This is on the 18th fairway of the old course. We had to run on get our picture taken and run off before they teed off.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Course_at_St_Andrews

Leanne and I were able to play nine holes while we were there.

It was on a putting green, but it was at St. Andrews.

Next to the old course is West Sands Beach, it was used in the opening scene of the move Chariots of Fire.

Besides golf the other famous institution is the University of St. Andrews.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_St_Andrews

It is the third oldest university in the English speaking world. Will and Kate, the duke and duchess of Cambridge met while they attended there.

This building houses the school of Classic, its called Swallowgate ---The building is really called Swallowgate.

Hmm, Watergate, Cowgate and now Swallowgate.

The building is at the end of Butts Wynd.

Not to be mistaking with Back Wynd.

The last town we stopped at was Falkland, it was used in the filming of the TV show "Outlander"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outlander_(TV_series)

This is Falkland Palace is a royal palace to the Scottish kings.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falkland_Palace

It also has the oldest Real Tennis court in the world.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_tennis

A view of the court yard.

The town of Falkland had a lot of dogs, i thing they were having a white dog convention while we were there.

Back from our tour we we took a break before going to dinner. Did i mention the place we rented was on the fifth floor. This is a view of our workout.