September 16 - A Leisurely Day in Edinburgh

Water of Leith Firth

Dean Village

The morning started with a stroll down Leith Firth (River) beginning at a the quaint Dean Village.  From there, we walked along a wooded path adjacent to the picturesque but not-so-clear waters of the Leith.  While undoubtedly there is pollution, Rick said that what we were seeing was likely also the organic materials from the boggy moors so prevalent in this country.  From the path we entered the Village of Stockbridge, a stately 18th century Georgian community.  There we happened upon a lively farmers market.  The goods sold here are similar to those we find at home, fresh produce, pickled veggies, fresh baked goodies, cheese, though there were some exceptions like haggis-spiced ice cream and grey squirrel.  Not feeling terribly adventuresome, I opted for a croissant though Alison did try the ice cream.

View of Oldtown from Waverly Bridge

Squirrel anyone?

From there we proceeded through Newtown on our way to the National Scotland Museum.  Apparently my lack of toiletries was beginning to cause concern among my companions as they energetically assisted me in finding a pharmacy to replenish my supply lost at the hands of Heathrow Security.  Once that critical task was accomplished, we carried on south to Oldtown across the Waverly Bridge, into the tourist trap that is the Royal Mile.  It was 11:30 so we thought we might pop into a pub for a bite.  We found the Mitre Bar, a nice-looking 19th century pub, nearby and was drawn in by its advertisement of fish-n-chips.  We promptly learned that on Sundays, in Edinburgh, breakfast doesn't begin until noon.  Um, then, isn't that called lunch?  Also, that taps don't begin to flow until 12:30, I guess a Scottish version of Pennsylvania's blue laws.  Nonetheless we sat a spell, drinking water and diet cokes (that seemed so wrong), and enjoying the ambience of the "old" bar, before proceeding to a restaurant recommended for its fish-n-chips.  What that restaurant lacked for in ambience (a fast-food style . . . that served beer and liquor) it made up for in good food, though, according to Rick, not as good as the fish-n-chips served at the Frying Scotsman food cart near Stark Street in Portland :-)

After that we proceeded to the Scottish National Museum.  Among other things, it has quite an impressive display of of artifacts from Scottish History and it was great to have my readings in Scottish history reinforced by what I saw there.  I just wish it could have been a bit more organized.   While Scottish history was presented sequentially on each of the 8 floors in the museum (beginning, oddly, with -1, then 0, then 1-6) the material on each floor was NOT presented sequentially within the floor.  So, for example. the floor intended to cover 900 AD to 1600 had displays jumping from 1000 AD to 1300 AD back to 900 AD.   Nonetheless, it was still informative, though, alas, there was no mention of how castles were built.  This was originally an interest of Casey's and I have adopted it as well.  How did these huge suckers get built in the 12th and 13th centuries?  No answer as of yet and so the quest continues.

Hiking up Arthur's Sea

After a few hours we headed out and were welcomed by rain.  It was rain just like what we get in Portland, light and not soaking.  Being a little tired, we decided to head back to the hotel for a little rest before dinner.  Rick and I rested a little, but quickly got our second wind and decided to NOT be beaten by the hike on Arthur's Seat.  So we donned our hiking clothes, hailed a cab to take us to the
Holyrood Palace from where the hike begins.  The rain had stopped, though it was still cloudy.  We decided to take a different route, one recommended by the locals and the guidebooks, which took us past the Salisbury Crags, an interesting geological feature, that was historically heavily mined, but still impressive.  As it turns out, this route was much longer and steeper than the one we tried on Friday.  There are steep rises ascended by stone cobble steps set into the hillside and the very last ascent involves a bit of scrambling.  Nonetheless we made it to the windy top and were rewarded by a great view.

Heather

 It was kind of cool to do this at the end of our short stay in Edinburgh because we were able to pick out the places we visited and realize that we've learned quite a bit

Windy at the top!

about the inner city's geography.  We then made a mad dash down, taking the shorter route, stopping at the ruins I saw on my way up on Friday, which turned out to be the remains of St. Anthony's church.  We snapped a few photos, made our way back to Holyrood Abbey and were fortunate to quickly hail a cab and get back in plenty of time to clean up and meet Alison and Casey for drinks before dinner.

St Anthony's Chapel (Ruins)

We had INDIAN for dinner and thank you Casey and Alison for being adventurous enough to give it a try with us.  We went to Kasturi, a recommended restaurant just around the corner from our hotel, and we had a delicious meal of various curry dishes and naan.  The piece de resistance (and what made up for the continuing loop of Karen Carpenter songs) was that dessert came with souvenirs - ice cream served in little plastic animal-shaped cups.  You had your choice of a cow or a penguin.  After a few glasses of wine each, Alison and I thought this hysterical.  We ordered one each, but, alas, they had none of the cow, so we accepted two penguins.  I guess Alison and I appeared so downcast that there was no cow that the waitstaff dug around in their supplies and found a cow and gave it to us (with ice cream) "on the house".  Let's see if those little figurines make it all the way home.  Then it was back to the hotel to prepare for our departure, the following day, from Edinburgh and make our way to the highlands.