Edinburgh

I'll post about the past few days tomorrow, namely because I can't remember the place names because of all the misplaced vowels!

This morning, my Auntie Evelyn, my cousin Fiona and I went to Edinburgh for the day on the train. The train itself takes about 45mins from Glasgow Queen St, and so I got to see much of the countryside between the two cities as well as take a ride on the designed-for-midgets Glasgow Subway. I am officially too tall for that particular form of public transport, as I kept on hitting my head on the roof of the door as I entered the carriages!

Anyway, we arrived in Edinburgh about 10:30 or so and headed for coffee at the coffee shop of the John Lewis for a quick mocha and a great view over the city. From there we hopped on one of those open-topped city sightseeing tours to get our bearings. I've never been on one before, and it was great. So touristy and so wholly tacky, but hey, I think my accent and camera give it away anyway, so there is no point in hiding it!

We went around towards the Castle, passing the Scott Monument, and driving all the way along Princes St in the process. The Castle itself is definitely the highligh for many visits to Edinburgh, and did not disappoint. There is loads to see and we were lucky enough to be there for the 1pm cannon shot, which was suitably impressive. I was also lucky to be there with my very knowledgable Auntie, although I must admit a lot of it passed straight through me as I suffered from sensory overload.

From the castle, we reboarded the bus and headed past Grassmarket, Greyfriars Bobby (the dog that kept a vigil on its masters grave for 14 years), and McEwan Hall towards the Museum of Scotland.

This Museum is IMPRESSIVE! I mean seriously impressive - and very new. You could quite easily spend a lot of time here, as there are 6 full levels of history, and it's particularly great as its Scottish history, not so much English history, which is unusual. A lot of it was completely new to me, given we don't really learn Scottish history in Australia, so again I suffered from sensory overload. The viking and Roman sections were to me the most fascinating.

From there it was back on the bus to the Palace of Holyroodhouse and the Scottish Parliament via Canongate and South Bridge. We stopped first at the Palace, which is one of the Queen's official residence in Scotland. It's quite small by Royal standards, but it gave an excellent audio tour of the history of the Royal Family in Scotland. It's quite a bloody history (Mary Queen of Scots for example, was executed), but definitely fascinating. There were so many dates and identical names (only with a I, II, III etc. afterwards) that I don't think I completely remember it.

Our final stop was the new Scottish Parliament building. It's particularly controversial, looking more like a fancy apartment building that will date quickly, than a Parliament. It was way over-budget and behind schedule, but it demonstrates the level of national self-determination that now exists in post-1997 Scotland. They have complete control over health, education, policing, among other things, but relinquish power to the British Parliament for other issues, such as immigration and trade. It seems they are more a 'services' government, which works quite nicely.

Finally we stopped at an Italian restaurant for an excellent tea and then headed back, arriving in Renfrew at 8:30pm. In hindsight, I think I'd swap the castle and the Palace (in terms of order of visiting) to avoid the queues and crowds, and because the Palace has a better history of (relatively) modern Scotland. Other than that, however, it was fantastic, and I really hope the weather stays this way!!

PS: For photos of Edinburgh, click here