Monday and Tuesday in Edinburgh

Our hotel, the Old Waverley, is our most expensive accommodation of our trip. However, it is certainly not the the nicest. It is a very old hotel with creaky floors, narrow hallways, a tiny elevator and staff that are not the most helpful. Our window has a view of the a tarred roof and the back of the adjacent building. However it is a great location on Princes Street just across the Waverley Bridge from the Old Town. One of the reasons for the high cost could be that we have arrived in the middle of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, which is a really big deal here.

The Old Waverley is the building in the middle of the pictures with the white window frames on its upper floor. This picture was taken from the Edinburgh Castle on Tuesday.



To me, the most striking thing about Edinburgh is the history and the buildings. There are just so many beautiful old buildings and there are so many monuments. We did a bus tour on Monday morning. In the afternoon we met some friends of Cathy's and got another more personal tour. Such a beautiful city.








Edinburgh Castle sits on a hill at one end of the Royal Mile. It dominates the Edinburgh skyline.


We had planned to visit the castle on Monday but were discouraged by the crowds. We decided to get up early on Tuesday and try to beat the crowds. The girl who sold us our tickets to enter the castle was from Summerside. The castle ticket included a chance to view the Scottish Crown Jewels. Unfortunately, photos of the jewels were not permitted.

One of the interesting items in the castle is a medieval supergun which dates from 1449 called Mons Meg.


The castle buildings include St. Margaret's Chapel which was built by King David 1 around 1130 and is the oldest building in Edinburgh.




At the opposite end of the Royal Mile to the castle is an extinct volcano named Arthur's Seat. On Tuesday afternoon, we decide to walk up one of the trails on Arthur's Seat. Here are some photos from our walk.















This is the last day of our holiday. Tomorrow we fly to London and then on to Halifax.

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