Edinburgh

Today we went to Edinburgh Castle and the Royal Mile. It started out a beautiful, sunny day when we caught the Hop On/Off bus to the Castle. We have had great weather this whole trip except the one rainy day in London. Its supposed to rain tomorrow but we are hoping it won't.
On our way to the Castle we drove through some of the narrow streets filled with old homes. Edinbugh has a much older feel than London did, more like York but bigger. Most of the buildings in the Royal Mile area are over 200 years old. The New Town area was built after the 1850's, but it still has that old, "genteel" feel about it. The Castle sits at the top of a crag/cliff that slopes downward. At the bottom is the more proper HolyRood Palace. On one side the town spreads out, on the other is a cliff. It's a mile and a bit from the Castle to HolyRood with the High Street or Royal Mile running in between. The Castle was huge and very imposing, definitely built for protection. It has been built in sections over the last 500 years and right into the cliff. After the Castle, we walked and shopped down the Mile. On every block there are shops selling everything Scottish, mostly kilts, scarves, blankets and all in lovely plaids. After lunch, Debbi and Allen went on an underground tour of one of the closed up Close'. All along the street are little alleys called a Close. They lead down under and behind the grand homes on the Mile. They couldn't take pictures but had a good time learning how the poor people of Edinburgh lived. Mom and I went to see the cafe that J. K. Rowling wrote Harry Potter. We didn't go in but she got pictures. We walked the rest of the way to HolyRood and took pictures. We can't go in like we had planned because I guess someone official is in the Palace. After we got back to the hotel we went to dinner at a pub and Allen had Haggis, which he liked. I didn't try any but Debbi did, she said it was very good.
Off to bed now, tomorrow is a train trip to Stirling Castle.

Edinburgh Castle at 9:00 in the evening