Edinburgh baby!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Originally published  8 March 2012

Piper on the Royal Mile

London was cool...and we had a great time. Edinburgh is a screaming kilted scotsman of cool on crystal meth wielding a claymore! Just so there's no confusion, I LOVE EDINBURGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The hotel has been simply marvelous. We've been staying at the Capital Residences on Pilrig Street. It's not far from downtown and right on the bus line so getting around has been a breeze. Our host has a wonderful establishment and breakfast which was included was fantastic. We left out with full bellies to discover Edinburgh.

View from our B and B window

​We went towards the royal mile after riding the bus into town. We wound up in the Scottish national gallery and took a quick trip through. We saw works of art from the 1500's and before by artists that even a bore like myself had heard of! I actually saw a Davinci painting, several Monet's, etc. Really cool stuff. Then up the hill towards the royal mile. At the start we wound up in the writer's museum which was good.

  2018 Note:  This is Tom Gilzean.  He is presently 98  years of age, a veteran of WW2.  When his wife passed away in 2000, he decided to collect for charity to get out of the house.  While in a wheel chair in 2018, he still goes out every day to collect.    To date he has collected over 500k pounds sterling (around 670k in US dollars).

​We started our trek up the royal mile surrounded by incredibly friendly scottish people, tourists, you name it. We got to the castle, and while 14 pounds to get in, it was well worth it. We explored the castle top to bottom and had such a good time at it. It's impressive that you're walking through buildings built in the 1400-1500's and the history that surrounds you is sort of overwhelming. We thought about not going in when we saw there was an admission but said "what the hell....when are we gonna get back to Edinburgh castle?" And I am so glad we went in. Top shelf, absolutely must see.

Edinburgh castle at the top of the Royal Mile

We started down the royal mile checking out shops and such and wound up in Deacon Brodie's. We shared a scone, I had a latte, and Laurie had the house specialty of hot chocolate with whisky. It was a great stop and we enjoyed getting out of the wind for a bit as it was quite windy.

Playing with cannons at the castle

​We continued to wander down the royal mile, visiting chapels, shops, Holyrood Palace, and at the bottom of the hill was the Scottish parliament. We figured what the hell...we'll check it out. What an amazing building! And remember, this is from a guy that has built buildings his entire life. After that we caught the bus back up town and wound up in a place called Dirty Dick's for dinner. Great whisky, great ales, great food, and I got a bit of a buzz on. Chatted with some of the locals at the bar.....they're much more engaging than the Londoners. Loved dinner.

Pub grub at Dirty Dick's

Headed back to the hotel for an easy going evening...and my netbook had some problems. I worked on it several hours, got things sorted out, and I'm back online now.

Tomorrow......Glasgow. We leave by train in the morning. Slanj from Edinburgh!

Whisky shop on the Royal Mile.  

I have no idea what the Mario Brothers were up to.....

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