The Royal Mile

Sunday  3 June 2012  - The Royal Mile

Day 52 and 107 to go

With both of us feeling rejuvenated after a good night’s sleep and Paul’s back a little loser after I gave it a crunch and rub down yesterday we were ready to get the day underway.

Paul rang home while I had a shower and then we went down the long tight flight of stairs for breakfast.  Filling up on a small cooked brecky.

We collected our things and started our walk into the centre of town.

We walked through the Meadows park and on to Candle maker street the home of Greyfriars Bobby and the statue of the little dog. The buildings in this area were very old and impressive. From here we walked into the Grassmarket and up to the Royal Mile. At one end of this street is Edinburgh Castle and the other is Holyrood Palace.

We walked up to the Castle entering through stadium seating that is used for the Edinburgh tattoo. We stood around in the courtyard just as it was beginning to rain a little heavier. We checked out the gift shop where I bought I hylin Coo hat. It’s very cute.

With the rain easing we began walking the Royal Mile passing so many old and interesting buildings and many sneaky Sally alleys. I think this would have been a very interesting city in the 17 and 1800’s.

We made it to the end of the road facing Holyrood Palace being dressed in flags and balloons to celebrate the jubilee. We wandered the courtyard before walking back up the Royal Mile. Paul’s hip had done enough walking but we couldn’t stop for a pint as they are not served until 12.30pm. Instead we bought some drinks at an off licence to drink back at the B&B.

We then walked down Southbridge Street on our way back to the B&B finally arriving at 11.40.

I rang home using Skype. Mum and Dad have Brad’s clan and Belinda there at the moment so it was good to see them all and catch up on news at home. I can’t believe how big my 3 month old nephew, Darcy, has got in such a short time! Jack looked like he was having a good time with Yogi. We were also glad to see the parcel we sent home from Spain has arrived safely. Phew!

With our catch up done and the Motogp about to start on TV we said goodbye and settled in to watch the Catalunya GP. Unfortunately it wasn’t to be a win for Stoner who could only manage 4^th spot.

With the race complete we took the car and drove to Glenkichie distillery ½ hour out of town. With Paul’s Scotch Whisky passport he was able to try a number of different whiskies, of course continuing to collect my share as well.

Our next stop was Rosslyn Chapel in Roslin. This chapel was made famous as the chapel that appears at the end of the Da Vinci code movie. When we arrived we noticed it was covered in a lot of scaffolding. They also wanted 9 pounds to go in and check it out. With Paul’s aversion to religion he was horrified they were asking an entrance fee and as a result we left again.

Our final destination was the Holyrood park where I was going to climb the hill. It took us a while to find our way to the spot we wanted as many roads were closed and traffic was built up through the centre of town. This only added to the frustration, however, in the end we found a spot and I sent Paul off in search of a pint while I began my ascent.

It took me about 20min to reach the top of the first tier. The views were spectacular looking back over Edinburgh. The castle, palace and many other buildings were easily recognisable and the view out to the ocean was superb.

With my photos taken I descended again and found Paul walking through the base of the park. With many of the closed roads now open it was a much easier drive back to our B&B.

We had a rest for 45min before walking a short way to The Old Bell pub where they were having a quiz night. The place was very busy and we had to squeeze into a small round table. We ordered drinks and dinner before the quiz night began.

Unfortunately for us the quiz turned into a bit of a farce as most of the questions we were unable to answer as they were strongly waited to local knowledge and history, but we had fun anyway.

At 9.30pm we returned home, checked our emails and then called it a night.

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