Edinburgh

It's been several weeks since we took a trip to Edinburgh, but it's taken me that long to get my pictures and thoughts organized enough to create a post.  So...here we go!

The half marathon, my 12th which I just cannot believe, was on April 15th.  We decided to head to Edinburgh a couple days beforehand to play tourist.  There are so many things to see there, that after our weekend we decided that we wanted to return to take in a few things we didn't get a chance to see on this visit.

We packed up the car and headed out mid morning on Friday.  Within an hour and a half we were at the England-Scotland border.  I somehow imagined a castle or stronghold there when crossing, but there was just a sign, a couple of Scottish flags and a roach coach cooking some of the best smelling sausage butties (sausages between thick bread with HP sauce...like a hot dog but WAY better).

Sausage Butty-actually haven't had one yet!

In another hour or so we had arrived in Edinburgh.  We found our way to the flat that we rented out for the weekend.  Parking was on the street and was controlled with meters until 2pm.  We got there around noon and Steve decided to risk feeding the meter so we could start sightseeing.  Guess what was waiting for us on the windshield when we made it back later that afternoon?  You guessed it, a ticket.  That's coming out of HIS pocket.

The first thing we did was to head to the tour bus operator.  We found a deal where we got tickets to ride the double decker tour buses for all three days and admission to several attractions that we wanted to see.  We hoped on a bus and rolled out to our first destination....the The Royal Yacht Britannia.

                             

Dinner bell?

Wheelhouse

Queen's office

Queen's bedroom

The Britannia was the official ship of Queen Elizabeth II.  Although it was in the process of being built while her father, King George VI, was still in reign, he passed away four months before the keel was laid.  So the new Queen, along with her husband Prince Phillip, had a large part in the final design of the yacht.



It was christened The Britannia in April of 1953 and sailed the world during her commission, carrying not just members of the royal family, but dignitaries from all sorts of countries.  It was decommissioned in 1997 as plans for a new royal yacht were underway and is now harbored in Edinburgh and open to the public.

The kids had an amazing time and they both said that was their favorite part of the trip.  It was a self guided tour so we each had little handsets to listen to the tour guide.  As we came to each section, there would be a sign posted which would tell you what number to enter onto the handset.  Mark always ran ahead and would yell out the number...for pretty much everyone to hear.

Family room

 The ship was smaller and more modest than I thought it would be.  I guess I assumed it would be more "Titanic" like.  But it was neat to see the Queens office where she did all her Queen-ing.  Bedrooms, kitchens, dining area, engine room, etc where all set up.  They even had clothes laid out on the beds and laundry hung in the washrooms.  The kitchen on the ship is still in operation as it serves the tea room which was added to the ship as part of it's tourist reconstruction.

Engine room--so polished you could see your reflection in all the brass

After the tour and dinner, we retired to our flat completely exhausted from all the walking.  Knowing that we'd be doing that all again the next day, I began to wonder what I was thinking running a race on Sunday.  Every place we went to visit had chairs, but since they were in palaces and castles (not to mention hundreds of years old) they were all roped off with little signs saying "Please do not sit".  I needed to rest my feet!

So...onto Saturday.  It began with a another tour, this time of The Palace of Holyrood House.  This is the official residence of the Queen while she is in Edinburgh.  The abbey on the premises (called Holyrood Abbey) was founded by David I, King of Scots in 1128.  Between 1501 and 1505, James IV constructed a new palace adjacent to the abbey.  The palace itself has served as the principal residence of the Kings and Queens of Scotland since the 15th century. 

Outside Holyrood House Abbey

Inside the Abbey

At the front entrance of the Palace

Could it be?  Yep, the sun is shining!

In one of the more interesting stories of the Palace:

Mary, Queen of Scots, lived in the palace from 1561 to 1567.  It was in her own apartments in the north-west tower that she witnessed the murder of David Rizzio, her private secretary, on March 9th, 1566.  Lord Darnley, the Queens first husband, was jealous of his wife's friendship with Rizzio.  It was rumored that the baby she carried belonged to Rizzio and not Lord Darnley.  Darnley entered the Queen's apartment with an entourage.  Bursting in on the Queen and Rizzio, who were at supper, they dragged the Rizzio through the bedchamber into the outer chamber, where he was stabbed 56 times.  He was then thrown down the main staircase and stripped of his jewels and fine clothing.  They then dragged his body to another room and left him to die.  The blood stain is still in the wooden floor.  THAT gave me goosebumps!

And if that wasn't bad enough....the ghost of Agnes Sampson, who was stripped and tortured in 1592 after being accused of witchcraft, is said to roam the palace.  That almost sent me running for the hills!!

The palace underwent many changes during the centuries as it changed hands from one royal to another, but it was King George V who transformed Holyrood into a 20th-century palace.  Central heating and electric light were installed prior to his first visit in 1911, and after the World War I improvements to bathrooms and kitchens were carried out.  In the 1920's the palace was formally designated as the monarch's official residence in Scotland, and became the location for regular royal ceremonies and events.

During the tour they had some kids crafts in one of the rooms tucked away from the main portrait gallery.  They were having kids make their own pomanders.  A pomander is a small vessel usually made of gold or silver that would be filled with fragrant herbs.  It would be designed with holes punched in to let the fragrance come out.  This would be worn around the waist or neck on a chain.  Since bathing was frowned upon and thought of as "evil" during medieval times, it helped mask the body odor of the wearer.  Prettier than deodorant, but I'm sure not as effective!

After our visit to Holyrood, we made our way on foot (why did we pay for bus passes if we weren't going to use them?) to pick up my race packet.  We checked out the vendor booths and enjoyed a bit of live music from the Red Hot Chili Pipers.  They were awesome!

Red Hot Chilli Pipers

Oink!

After some lunch at a place Steve found called Oink, which served pulled pork on buns with haggis stuffing (delish!), we headed up the Royal Mile towards Edinburgh Castle.  The Royal Mile is a street that connects Holyrood Palace to the Castle.  It's filled with shops, pubs, tour groups and bagpipers at every corner waiting for tips.  Back in the day, this stretch served an actual purpose to the town people other than selling I Love Scotland kilts and bagpipe shaped piggy banks.  But the buildings were still in their original architecture and the street cobbled so it still have a sense of history.

I couldn't get a good shot of the Royal Mile, so I snagged this one off the web

Finally we made it to the castle.  Although admission was included in the package tickets, it did not include the audio tour.  But the kids had so much fun at the other two places with them, that we paid for them to have the handsets.  I swear, I have never seen them so well behaved and listening so intently to what was being said that I think I might make audio tours part of our daily lives:  "Press 1 to hear your bedtime routine...First get undressed...if your clothes are dirty put them in the hamper, if they are clean hang them up nicely....." :)

Enjoying the audio tour!

By this point, with all the walking, the cold, windy weather and the sensory overload of everything that we were seeing; I had to take a break.  As Steve took the kids to see what were some super cool cannons (as the boys described) I took a break on a bench tucked away from the crowds and wind.  With a few minutes of rest over, we continued on to see some amazing things both inside the castle and out.  We saw the Royal Scottish Jewels, tapestries, memorials, plaques of where people were murdered, artwork, gardens, plaques of where people were imprisoned and more artwork.
 

Chatting it up with some period dressed Royal Scot Dragoons (Scottish Army)

At the castle

We decided to head back to the flat for a rest before dinner.  I needed to carb up and found no less than a thousand Italian restaurants to chose from.  I have no idea why there were so many...Scottish people must love pasta!  We found a cute place tucked into a basement and had the best food and service (by real Italians).  They loved the kids and were so impressed by their manners and patience, as our food took a really long time to arrive, that they gave us free dessert and both boys got huge lollipops.

The race was truly amazing.  It was a great atmosphere, not only because it was part of the Rock 'n Roll race series but because it was the inaugural race in Edinburgh so everyone was really excited.  The music and ambiance was about as energetic as you could get.  I busted my bum on the crazy, hilly course (Edinburgh is built on an extinct volcano after all) to try to get a PR, which I did, but I still got passed by a guy dressed as Elvis.  There's always an Elvis isn't there?

Finished!

With a sore body from all the walking around town and running the race and sore brain from all the "learning", I passed out on the ride back home.  What an amazing, whirlwind weekend.

Moran taing Scotland!