We headed back to Edinburgh and decided to go for a stroll up Arthur's seat, a hill overlooking the city. The view was pretty good and it was a nice walk.
We then waved a fond farwell to our faithful friend 'The Dentist' and checked into our very centrally located hostel - already it was streaks ahead of Belford hostel our previous Edinburgh accommadation. After a series of average beds and interesting living conditions we had finally hit the jackpot, the penthouse suite of hostel accommadation... a room with
1. walls AND a ceiling
2.enough room to spread out our bags, sit on some chairs and swing a cat
3.amazingly comfortable, clean beds that were described as like lying on clouds of buttery wedges by a member of the pack (read onward to understand this statement!).
In short The Caledonian backpackers are getting a big tick of recommendation from The Pack, oh and breakfast was included - nice one Caledonian!
Due to our nice walk earlier we found the allure of testing out the comfortable beds too much of a temptation so some 'resting of the eyes' ended up in us heading out to find tea at rather a late hour. Wedges were served at 10pm after an hour of attempting to boil and then put them in the oven for a further hour and a bit. After this epic amount of cooking they were to taste nothing but AMAZING...kind of like lying on a super comfy bed (read backward to understand! ha)
We thought it would be rude not to catch up with our new Finnish friends so sent them a text but we were well in bed when they repiled at 2am saying they had made it to Edinburgh but had to head to the airport...this was the finish of our Finnish friends!
Tuesday we headed back to the Royal mile to visit some of the sights that were pointed out to us on our walking tour with Seth. First was St Gile's Cathedral which is the home of the Thistle chapel. When we entered it would seem that our great timing had struck again with a visiting Icelandic female choir putting on a free lunchtime concert. We love how many of the best things in Scotland are free! As we strolled around the Cathedral the spine tingling harmonies enhanced the beauty around us, St Gile's would have to be one of the most nicest churches we have been in so far.
In the corner of the Cathedral resides the carpenter's masterpiece - the Thistle Chapel. This is where you are welcomed into the Order of the Thistle. The Order of the Thistle is Scotland's great order of chivalry and membership is considered to be one of the country's highest honours. The Order is traditionally given to Scots or people of Scottish ancestory, who have given distinguished service. The Order consists of the Sovereign and 16 Knights and Ladies, as well as certain 'extra' knights (members of the British Royal family and foreign monarchs). The Sovereign alone grants membership of the Order, he or she is not advised by the Government , as occurs with most other orders. (Thanks Wikipaedia for refreshing our memory on these details!). The chapel itself is a rather small room with only enough seats for the members of the Order and has the most amazing detailed wood panelling including 2 carvings depicting angels playing bagpipes! There is only one other carving of an angel playing the bagpipes in the world and we can't quite remember where Seth said it was.
We carried on up the Royal mile to the the top of the hill and Edinburgh castle. To our disappoinment the good looking young man was not pipiing by the staute today, so certain member's of The Pack couldn't throw their number into his open case and are just left with a photo as a momento...sigh!
Edinburgh castle blew the budget for the day at approx $30 (NZ) each! But thanks to a nice American couple who handed us their Audio guide as they were heading out we were able to get the most out of our experience. We learnt about the one o'clock gun, this has fired everyday since 1861 except on Sundays, Good Friday and Christmas Day and for periods during the two World Wars. It was established as a time signal for ships in the Firth of Forth and although the gun is no longer required for this purpose, the ceremony has become a tourist attraction. The most amusing bit is the reason the gun is fired at one o'clock rather than midday which is purely because of the Scottish nature - why fire off 12 rounds when you can just fire 1 by doing the signal at one o'clock!
We also went past the Governor's house where the Governor of Edinburgh resided, which back in the day was a Kerr ancestor...Abby is pretty much royalty in these parts so it is only fitting that from here on in we refer to her not as our 'non-agricultural correspondent' but instead 'Lady Abigail'. While we're mentioning it, Kath has assumed the title of Her Majesty Kathryn The Great Roy...but you may call her Kath for short! :)
Edinburgh castle has many interesting exhibitions including a couple of Military museums on the Scottish regiment that still operates from the castle. Here are a couple of stories...
Ensign Kennedy, was mortally wounded and fell carrying the Colour in front of the regiment at Waterloo. A Sergeant tried to take it from him, but was unable to remove the staff from his grasp. The Sergeant hoisted the young man still gripping the Colour over his shoulder, which so impressed the French that they held fire until the 2 soldiers had returned to the ranks of the regiment.
It was at Malpalquet that a soldier's wife who had been in winter quarters decided to return home to Scotland, she handed her infant son to his father - Private McBain, who was on parade. Having no where else to put the infant he fought the battle with the child in his knapsack.
The oldest building in the castle and in Edinburgh is the small St Margaret's chapel which dates back to the reign of King David (1124-1153) who built it as a private chapel for the royal family and dedicated it to his mother St Margaret of Scotland who died of a broken heart in 1093. The chapel has also been used as a gunpowder store in the 16th cenutry until it was restored back to its former glory in 1852. If you are a member of the Scottish regiment or serving in Scotland you are able to get married or have your children christened in the chapel still today. Though there is only room for approximately 25 people.
We also looked through the war memorial and finshed with a peep at the crown jewels of Scotland where we finally got to see THE STONE OF DESTINY...dun-dun-duh-dah!! (refer back to our last Edinburgh blog for the story about this infamous piece of rock)
After such a busy day we treated ourselves to a little D.I.Y pampering.
The next day we set ourselves a mission of trying to do as many free things as possible so we trotted off to the National museum of Scotland which has free admission! This was no B-grade free museum, there were people to greet you at the door and plenty of staff on hand to help you find your way around the very informative museum. Highlights of our time there included...
- Dress up stations...
- Seats available to borrow (for free of course) to rest your tired legs as you wandered around the museum
Now onto some of the actual highlights...
- The Lewis Chessman - this was the first time the entire collection has been together since they were found in 1831 with half of the pieces usually kept in the London museum. There are 78 chess pieces most of which are carved in walrus ivory. They were discovered on the Isle of Lewis (hence their name), but are thought to be from Norway in the 12th century. There is alot of mystery surrounding these chess pieces.
- Dolly the sheep, the world's first successful clone, is stuffed and has her own carousel to display her in all her woolly glory
- Interactive displays, including one that tested the amount of electricity you can generate by hand and if it was enough to make a TV go
...and other generally intruiging Scottish history
Once again the Amber Rose provided us with another sweet round of deals for our evening meal (approx $7 NZ each for a filling feed!)
Finally it was time to say a final farewell to Edinburgh. To celebrate this sad occasion we managed to hunt down a cafe that promised Abby a real Flat White, which so far on our trip had proved elusive and Abby was becoming rather distressed, disillusioned and down right depressed by the many sub-standard latte's and false Flat White's she had, had to endure. Enter Wellington Cafe, staffed by Australians which in this case was a positive, they managed to satisfy Abby's heartfelt desire of the perfect Flat White.
We could now head merrily south to Kelso.
Saturday, July 17, 2010
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You girls are outrageous! Love it. I particularly enjoyed the war memorial at the castle when i visited last year. Truth be known i shed a tear or two, especially when reading through the lists of kiwis that had died in service. Gosh Edinburgh is great eh? Did you happen to bump in to the Canadian Navy on your travels? They were a fun addition to our Edinburgh experience. Righto, now to read about Kelso. Madz
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