Edinburgh, Scotland - Part 1

**warning: this is an extremely long post!!**

On the weekend we headed north on the train to Edinburgh, Scotland. After debating the train versus the plane, we opted for the train ride to see the scenery between London and Edinburgh. What a beautiful landscape along the way... lots of farms with fields of sheep, rolling green hills and quaint old cities. It was a 5 hour ride but it proved to be much more  enjoyable than flying due to the great scenery and the freedom to move around on the train; not to mention avoiding the whole security and bag check at the airport. 

Downtown Edinburgh is mainly made up of two distinct sections, Old Town and New Town.  The old town dates back to the 12th century with medieval architecture. A city where the rich and poor lived together in high rise row housing with the rich above the poor. Eventually the conditions got undesirable for the rich who started to flee to London for better housing, so in the late 1700's Edinburgh held a design competition for a newly designed area of town. The winner was James Craig who designed a grid like system of streets with buildings based on Georgian architecture, thus creating New Town. 

always on the look out for a baa baa

the Grass Market - a really great area we walked through daily filled with shops, restaurants and stores.  its thought to have a french atmosphere with the cafes on the street and little french shops.

Edinburgh Castle sitting high on rock formed by a volcano and glaciers - dating back to the 12th century the castle has been a royal residence to various monarchies including Mary, Queen of the Scots until the 17th century when it became a military base.  The rock that the castle sits on is over 300 million years old and on this rock they have found evidence of "man" dating back 12,000 years.

the many stair paths up to the Royal Mile and the castle

waiting to get into the castle

That is Robert the Bruce on the left and William Wallace on the right.  No joke, they protect the castle (it wasn't just a movie)

view of New Town from the castle 

View of Calton Hill.  On this hill is a monument to Nelson and 12 columns.  The 12 columns were the start of a a kind of Parthenon replica as a war monument that was cancelled due to budget cuts (old world city budget cuts).

The castle is much more than just a royal residence.  Its more like an entire city winding up around the rock protected by a perimeter wall.  

Far off in the distance you can see the North Sea.

The kids had fun as usual

beautiful garden at the top

an old war prison within one of the castle buildings at the top of the hill

Fire!

 They even had a dog cemetery at the top of the castle!

Edinburgh's oldest street, The Royal Mile connects Edinburgh Castle, at the top of the hill to the Palace of Holyrood House (the Queens Palace) at the base of Holyrood Park (the extinct volcano that formed the rock on which the castle sits). After our tour of the castle we made our way along the Royal Mile starting at the castle and ending at the Palace, shopping and eating along the way! 

Rain was fairly typical for the weather that we experienced while we were there, raining at least once a day. It usually only lasted about 10 - 15 minutes and seemed to fit with the quaint Scottish, medieval surroundings.

As the Royal Mile climbs from the palace up to the castle it gets higher and higher above the surroundings so they created cool little winding streets and staircases through doorways in the buildings along the Royal mile that lead down to the neighbourhoods and streets below. 

 

Mike with the Deacon Brodie's tavern behind him where we ate lunch. It was named after a famous Ediburgh resident, Deacon William Brodie, who led a double life and was eventually hanged on the spot. It is said that the story of Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde was inspired by the real life tragedy of Deacon Brodie.

love the bagpipes!

the Royal Mile

amazing architecture

a restaurant entrance I liked

The fountain in the front and the stone portions of the building behind are the oldest residential elements in Edinburgh, dating back to the 1300's I think.

note the name of the pub ;)  

Scottish Parliament at Holyrood - designed by Catalan architect, Enric Miralles, and completed in 2004. A highly controversial building for Edinburgh due to it's abstract design, location, cost (414.4 million pounds) and choice of materials not indigenous to the region (granite, oak and concrete). 

The parliament buildings are right across the street from both Holyrood Palace and Holyrood Park.

 

An incredible complex of buildings, unique in design, materials and layout. I only wish we had gone inside and that the above interior photos were my own!  (Mike wasn't as impressed by the exterior!)

Phew, we made it to the bottom!

Holyrood Palace - the official residence of the monarch of Scotland, which is the Queen since she reigns over all of UK.  

Jenn