Edinburgh - Sat 12 Sept

As many of you know we planned to visit Edinburgh on Saturday and so headed off about 8am..

Mase and I enjoyed the countryside - saw our first thick mist (the 'har') hovering at the base of some hills, along with green paddocks, brown fields just ploughed, the coast, castles and forest..

We stopped off along the way to take a photo of us all beneath the sign that said "welcome to Perth".

We arrived at Edinburgh around 11am and headed for the street where the city tour buses depart from. While Mase booked us tickets the kids and I went to look at the Walter Scott Memorial – a huge stone monument set up to memorialize the Scottish poet. If you wish to climb to the top for a 360 degree view of the city then it’s a 287 step climb…we were keen to try it but for 15 pound we decided to give it a miss…we were planning to go the Edinburgh Castle and the same view would be available there.

So off we went around the city – seeing the Parliament buildings – they have 129 ‘thinking pods’ on the side of the buildings for the politicians and our tour guide was most derisive of the amount of money they cost the taxpayers and various other aspects of the parliamentarians…quite amusing

One of the first things you notice on the east side of the city was the long extinct volcano and mountains alongside…you could see many people climbing the mountain – it has a road leading round it to the top and we’re all keen to do it sometime while we’re here.

The tour bus took us past the Palace of Holyrood House (where the royals reside when they visit), along the Royal Mile and many other places (most of which were interesting to hear about at the time but I don’t remember anything about them now).

The city is divided into New Town, Old Town (including Ed Castle) and West End. The old buildings are all very similar – some ornate sculpture, intricate details and the dour grey of stonework but the newer buildings haven’t followed this style.

We hopped off the tour bus at Ed Castle and made our way thru the courtyard entrance some of which is cobbled and some bitumised. It’s an impressive site – built on the top of a rock formation and elevated way above the rest of the city. It has a commanding view of the city and country beyond – fit for the residence of royalty!

The three ‘boys’ enjoyed climbing over the cannons and looking out over the city – they didn’t want to look thru another castle – whereas Jo and I were keen to look over it.

We did all go and view the Honours of Scotland (comprised of the royal crown, scepter and sheathed sword). They were very impressive – the pearls on the crown were really large and the diamond in the sceptre must have been about 8-10cm in diameter – worth a fortune.

We also saw a Scotsman in full dress (kilt, gun, dirk, sword, hat etc) retell some of the history of the castle – the children sat on the stone floor entranced by his dynamics and some of the bloodthirsty events.

After this Mase and the boys went off to the cannons and Jo and I explored the underground Prisoner of War rooms. They were damp and musty, with hammocks and beds for the men (mostly sailors) captured during the war – they were treated ‘well’ – with a small amount of food each day (including cheese and butter twice a week). They had could move about in their dormitories and play games and make things – such as a ship which was on display. They had some great sound effects and lighting, shadow characters acting out scenes of the past and some interesting guides to explain whatever you wanted to know about.

We saw the Great Hall and the swords displayed around the perimeter of the room, the massive fireplace and high ceilings – I could have spent ages there but we had to resume our bus tour and get home at a reasonable hour that night…so with some regrets Jo and I rejoined the others.

The other thing we did that day was listen to a presentation of the Loch Ness Monster by a scientist who’s been chasing the elusive beast for many many years.

Basically he went thru the eyewitness evidence (which would stand up in a court of law), showed the research he and other teams had collected over the years – searching the actual Loch with rows of boats with drag nets and recording ‘hits’ where large objects were discovered.

He also explained the food chain in the loch – from krill to large trout - basically there wouldn’t be sufficient food for an animal the size of the presumed Loch Ness Monster…

His team have also tracked the weather and supposed sightings of the monster – some of the sightings coincided with the wake of boats and can be explained away – others can’t be.

All the sightings have occurred on calm, flat days on the loch and this has come to be termed ‘Nessie weather’.

So in all his team’s “Nessie watching” over long periods of time there was no conclusive evidence of a Monster. It was a really interesting presentation.

That really sums up our day in Edinburgh – nothing startling or fantastic – but we got an impression of the city.