We stayed in a hostel in Edinburgh that was up a spiral staircase about 50 steps--quite an interesting trip with a few suitcases. This time George and I slept in a room with 2 sets of bunks. A girl from Serbia slept in the top bunk of my bed, and a 60-plus year old man(big time snorer!) from New Jersey slept in the lower bunk of George's bed. Most of the older people we've talked to in the hostels have never stayed in one before, but they've been looking for adventure--you sure can find it in a hostel! This one didn't turn the hot water off at any time so you could get a hot shower almost any time of day.
While in Edinburgh we took a tour of the sites. This is a picture of our guide, Owen. I think he was auditioning for some part in a play...he was very dramatic while telling us about the city. This tour was free and the guides were paid by tips at the end. I think he did pretty well. He was a Canadian who came to Scotland and stayed.
This is a picture of the largest monument to a writer. Most of the monuments are for kings or other royalty but this one is for Sir Walter Scott. The buildings are all very old and quite dark--I'm guessing from years of using coal for heat (but don't quote me on that).
J.K. Rowling wrote her first Harry Potter book in the restaurant above the "furniture" part of the sign in this building. She was very poor at the time and the management would let her buy a cup of tea and sit and write all day. As she sat at the window she could see a school and the castle which are her inspirations for Harry Potter.
This is the school Rowling could see from the window. It was a school for orphans.
This is the Edinburgh Castle which could also be seen from the window by Rowling. We are going back to Edinburgh at the end of our trip to take a flight to London. I hope we get the chance to walk up to the highest point in the area to take a look around. I guess it is awesome and well worth the hike.
We saw this on part of our tour of Edinburgh. We spent quite a bit of time during the tour in a cemetery learning about different things. This was an outdoor jail cell that "The Covenenters" who were being persecuted for their religious beliefs were held in. People were kept in this cell outside during the coldest months of the year with all sorts of terrible tortuous things happening to them. The Covenant Church that we attend has its roots in Sweden--but we'll have to ask Pastor Paul when we get home if these Covenenters were the same group.
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We learned about a few sayings that we use in the US and how they came to be during this tour. One is "the graveyard shift". Dead bodies were worth a lot of money in those days because medical schools might only get one body a year to use with their students. If you had a family member who died, people took turns sleeping on the grave of their loved one for 20-30 days or long enough for the body to decompose and be worthless to others so the grave robbers wouldn't try to dig it up. Another saying, "saved by the bell" came to be because during this time they often buried people they thought had died, but really hadn't (maybe they didn't know how to check a pulse?!) so they tied a bell on a string to the "dead" person and if the person woke up, he or she could ring the bell to let people know they were still alive. That is also how the term "wake" came to be used when talking about a reviewal of a dead body. The mourners started having wakes to give the bodies time to possibly "wake up" before they were buried.
This is the most famous staute in Edinburgh. It is Greyfriars Bobby. This dog sat on the grave of his owner for 14 years until the dog finally died. Many famous dog stories were based on this dog--Lassie and Rin Tin Tin are two examples. There was some controversy about the way the statue should face and eventually the pub across the street won out on the placement. If you stand in the best spot to take the picture of the statue, the pub is in every picture--great advertising! No advertising on this blog, however! :)
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So that wraps up the trip to Scotland. Along with The Open experience, George has had his haggis, his Shepherd's Pie, and his fish and chips, so all of his itches have been scratched. Now it is on to London, arriving Monday evening and being there until Tuesday evening.
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We stayed in this bed and breakfast in central London. It was great! We shared a bathroom with other guests, but we didn't have to share our room with anyone else. We walked about 15 minutes that night to an area with lots of night life and ate Chinese! In the morning we ate a "traditional" English breakfast. It consisted of 2 pieces of toast, 2 eggs, a piece of ham, french fries and baked beans! I (Kim) could pretend that the french fries were like hash browns, but the baked beans (like the VanCamps ones) were an interesting breakfast food.
We took another bike tour in London. It was called "The Fat Tire Bike Tour". Evidently they have them in several countries in Europe. One of the families in our tour had recently been on one in Germany. We got to see all sorts of great sights.
This is a picture of Kensington Palace--it didn't really look too palatial. They were in the process of renovations and had the green wall all around it. This is where Princess Diana lived after she and Prince Charles divorced.
We got to see the last bit of the changing of the guard. Every day about noon a band plays and the guard marches.
This is Buckinham Palace. On the top of the palace there was a flag flying announcing that the Queen was home. We had hoped she might come out to say hi, but she was busy getting ready for a party that day.
The 2012 Olympics will be held in London. We made a stop during our tour at the spot that will be the site of beach volleyball. They're going to have to truck in tons of sand. Right now it's just a big open area almost like a parking lot with crushed rock on the ground.
Here is a group getting ready to head to the Queen's party. Just about every woman waiting in line on the sidewalk had a hat on. Some of the younger girls wore headbands with feathers. The men were wearing regular suits but some were wearing tails and high hats. Quite the site. We weren't invited...
This is a picture of Westminster Abbey. It cost about $15 to see inside, but every Wednesday afternoon they hold a service inside, so if you get there early enough to get a seat, you can see it for free on those days.
This is the memorial to Princess Diana. I guess it was quite controversial. Some English people thought there shouldn't be any sort of memorial to her. I thought it was quite fitting. It was a granite pool that had water flowing through it and kids were playing in it and having a good time. Many of the causes that Princess Diana championed involved children.
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And that takes care of our short time in London. From here we headed to Stockholm, Sweden, on Tuesday evening, arriving around midnight. The next blog will be about our first couple of days in Stockholm.
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