rickandkarenineurope

Keep up with Rick and Karen as they travel through Europe.

9-24-24 Edinburgh an amazing city

Posted by:

|

On:

|

We had a full day of seeing Edinburgh on Tuesday. We started the day by visiting Edinburg Castle, an amazing site. The castle rests high over the city on an old volcano mound. It was built in 1103 and has been attacked 26 times, making one of the most attacked places in the world, according to our a prerecorded walking tour. The recorded tour costs 5 pounds for adults but only 2.50 pounds for concessions. Yep, I didn’t know what that was either. Here in the good ol’ US, we call it senior citizens.

Our bus ride from our hotel took an unusually long time to get downtown. Our appointed time to tour the castle was 10:30 a.m., but it was 10:15 before we arrived at the hop-on-hop-off tour bus. We asked if we could change our time but that wasn’t an option. We decided to make a run for it being only a little more than a mile from the tour company. Did I mention the castle is on a volcano mound? It was a strenuous trip. We thought we were in shape from walking each week. But that hike almost did us in. We did make it by 10:30 and thoroughly enjoyed the tour even though the first few minutes had us gasping for air.

It took us nearly two hours to see the entire castle, which includes the battery where cannons surrounded the parapet.The castle has a chapel, a dungeon for prisoners, other weapons of mass destruction. One such weapon is called the Mons Meg, a medieval bombard that has a 20-inch barrel, making it one of the largest cannons it the world. It hurled huge stones that could breach a castle wall. Another weapon was the trebuchet, also known as a catapult. It also could throw huge stones at invading armies.

After the tour we went hunting some Scottish food, in particular a meat pie and bangers and mash. Perhaps they weren’t exactly what we were expecting. The bangers and mash is a plate of sausages over mashed potatoes mixed with peas and smothered with gravy. The meat pie looked like two pancakes stuffed with beef over the same type of mashed potatoes, peas and gravy.

Following lunch, we stopped by the train station to check out where we would be going on Wednesday and pick up our tickets to York for Wednesday.

From there, we hustled over to the tour bus which took us out to see the Britannia, Queen Elizabeth’s ship. I can tell you she cruised in style wherever she went. And, the ship went a lot. It traveled over one million miles when it was in use. The queen could host some 200 guests on the five decks, although half of the ship was dedicated to Royal Naval men and officers who manned the ship. They were confined to the front part of the ship.

Not all of the ship is open to visitors. Only a few of the rooms used by the queen. Interestingly the queen had her own bedroom and her husband had an adjoining bedroom. Also, each had their own private studies. Whenever the queen was on board, her mail was flown to her everyday no matter where she was.

It took about two hours to tour the ship and it was well worth it so see how “the other half live.” It’s pretty swank I can tell you. Alas, the ship was retired in 1997 when it became an issue with Parliament over the cost of maintaining the ship.

Not being hungry after our heavy lunch, we went by the train station to check it out and pick up our tickets for our trip to York on Wednesday. While at the train station, we stopped by a little fast food store to get a couple of ham sandwiches and two filled croissants for “take away,” which we call “to go.” We carried them back to our hotel room, which was equipped with tea and a teapot and made two cuppas of tea for our supper. Not longer after eating, we were asleep.

I was sleeping much sounder than Karen. I know this because she told me she got up in the middle of the night and switched iPhones, which I was using as a sound machine to drown out outside noise. Apparently my phone was not charged and turned off. It awoke Karen, who went over and make her phone the sound machine. I didn’t learn about it until I awoke in the morning.

Over our two days touring around Edinburgh, we each walked a totaled of 10 miles. No wonder we are ready for bed early.

At left we pose with the ships bell on the Yacht Britannia before going into explore the rooms which the royal family used and entertained. Above we stand outside St. Margaret’s chapel located at Edinburgh Caste.

Posted by

in

One response to “9-24-24 Edinburgh an amazing city”

  1. Ken Brown Avatar
    Ken Brown

    Glad to see that you’re enjoying travel to foreign countries and learning that their terminology is often a little different than ours in different parts of the world. I wondered if during the tour of the Britannia they mentioned how distressed Queen Elizabeth was when they decommissioned her prize ship. It was a traumatic event in her life as I understand it.

    I loved your description of the food. I think you’re going to find some food that you wish we had here in the US and, of course, some that you’re glad we don’t. But it is always an exciting experience.

    I can’t wait to hear more of your experiences as you travel along Karen’s selected Route. My only regret is that I’m not with you to enjoy it as well.

    Stay safe.
    Ken