Ok, so I wasn’t wearing boots, but you know what I mean. I’m FINALLY in Scotland. We settled into our adorable flat after an uneventful one-hour flight from Heathrow and a 25-minute cab ride from the airport. Then we headed to the bus for the 10-minute ride into Old Town Edinburgh. Edinburgh is an incredibly old city with the first recorded inhabitants here in 8500 BC! It has been the capital of Scotland since the 15th century.
This guy was playing outside the museum. We saw a few men walking in the streets dressed in their kilts.
There are several interesting things happening in Edinburgh right now: the Edinburgh Tattoo (we’re going Friday night); the Edinburgh Fringe festival (the world’s largest arts festival) and a refuse workers’ strike. The latter event has left the city strewn with garbage. Luckily it’s not hot or the smell would be horrendous. It’s a 12-day strike that started last week and will be ongoing the entire time we’re here. It’s really sad because this city is absolutely gorgeous, or would be without all the garbage.
After we got off the bus from our flat, we headed to the Royal Mile in the heart of Old Town. I’m not sure if it’s usually a pedestrian only street but it is now because of the Fringe Festival. There were street performers everywhere and people busking in the streets to get people to come to their shows. The street was jammed-packed with people and had a very cool vibe.
I think the name of this church was Tron Kirk. But….
Well, it used to be a church, now it’s a market. We browsed the stalls for a few minutes; they had some cool stuff, much of it handcrafted.
After a quick bite to eat, we visited St. Giles Cathedral and it was amazing. It was founded in 1124 as a Roman Catholic Church but after the Scottish reformation of the 16th century it became a Presbyterian church.
John Knox was one of the leaders of the Reformation, and since this was his church, St. Giles is considered to be the “home” of the Presbyterian church.
St. Giles isn’t a particularly big church but it was very beautiful and we’re glad we stopped for a visit.
I can certainly tell I’m not in the desert anymore. My joints are killing me (I can barely move my left shoulder) from the dampness and my hair is beginning to have a Roseanne Rosanna Danna look to it.
I actually had to pull out my Celebrex and flat iron today. Not that either one helped much but, oh well. I guess I’ll just take my anti-inflammatories and live in a pony tail until we get to France. Achy joints and frizzy hair are small prices to pay to be in this amazing city. Even with the garbage it’s a beautiful place. We’re looking forward to tomorrow when we explore even more on the Hop On/Hop Off bus.
First of all, loved the picture of the trash in the streets as it reminded me of New York.
The Church that is now a Market looks like the one I told you about from the Stanley Tucci special. Is it?
Have a fun time at all the Festivals!
Funny you should mention NYC. That’s exactly what I said to the cab driver as he was telling us about the trash collector strike….it looks just like New York City. As for the Stanley Tucci reference. I’ve never seen the show but isn’t it just in Italy? Unless he mentioned this in passing. It was really very cool.