Edinburgh, Scotland - Part 3

The next day we decided to leave our Old Town hotel location, cross past the castle and take a look around the New Town. On our way we passed another old graveyard and decided to cut through.

 moss moss moss

 Edinburgh Castle is always looming

Finally we made it to the new town (built in the late 1700's).  A stark contrast to the Old Town. The streets are straight, the buildings are set further back and the architecture is very different.

Georgian Architecture is known for using greek style elements such as columns and pilasters with Corinthian capitals and friezes. 

The performing arts centre appeared to be mostly Georgian, but with a new millenium flare by way of some fritted glass with spider fittings.  A well done contrast of stone and glass. 

In the afternoon we caught a taxi out to Queensferry.  A small town on the water just northwest of Edinburgh.   

 We hopped on a ferry and took a 1.5 hour tour of the Firth of Fourth (the river leading to the North Sea).

One of the big attractions in Queensferry is the world famous Forth Rail Bridge.  They told me it was world famous, I had never heard of it.  

But in the end it turned out to be a pretty amazing bridge!  It was built in the 1880's which makes it even more amazing.  

From the ferry we could see on the shore a manor house. Apparently some long time ago some Scottish people chased the British nobleman resident out of his house and killed him on the back lawn.  Brilliant.

 One of the reasons we took the ferry tour was because you can see SEALS! 

 It looks like fishing is good in the Firth of Fourth

The cruise rounds out at Inchcolm Island.  It's a small island in the middle of the river that has an old abbey and a very large bird population. 

On our way back we caught a glimpse of a tiny little lighthouse under the bridge.  Do you really need that anymore?

There are also a number of other small islands in the Firth.  The one in the middle of this picture is littered with abandoned military bunkers from the second world war.  

After the boat trip Carter was eager to go to the beach and look for shells.  He's been asking to go shell hunting since we left Spain 4 months ago.  The Firth of Fourth experiences a 20'-25' change in water height through the day due to the tides so there are a lot of interesting shells on the beach in low tide.  

 The town of Queensferry (South Queensferry to be more exact) was very quaint.

We found a nice restaurant on the shore to enjoy some dinner (and scotch, but just call it Whisky when in Scotland, figured that one out late).

 I also enjoyed the local Scottish beer when the opportunity was presented

Finally back to the hotel for a good old fashion bubble bath.  Bubble baths are great everywhere.

The next day we had to catch the 1pm train so we took it slow in the morning and the only thing we did was go for one last swim in the hotel pool. At the start they both wore water wings and floatation rings and didn't want to be very far from mommy and daddy.  But by the end they were reduced to just water wings and they didn't want to be anywhere near mommy and daddy. PLUS, they could move very well in the water; kicking and swimming all around the pool!

Back to London.

Mike