Monday, October 3

After we finished our tour of HMY Britannia we got back on the bus & headed to the Royal Mile & a general walk around the Grassmarket Square area. The architecture here is fantastic. The photo below is of Holyrood Palace at the “bottom” of the Royal Mile. This where the Queen stays when she’s in town – no reservations required for her!

The palace is built on the site of an abbey/monastery founded in 1128. By the time we arrived at the palace we were pretty overloaded with information so we passed on the tour.

The photo below is of a building just up the street from the palace. I love how the architect incorporated the clock tower inbetween the buildings. No matter which way I look in Edinburgh I see something interesting & want to take another photo. Thank goodness for digital cameras or I’d go broke developing 35mm film!

The photo below shows a promenade with sidewalk cafes created on the rooftops of the shops on the street below. This is on the way to our hotel in Grassmarket Square.

We had dinner at a small cafe called “The Elephant House” (see photo below). It’s just a small place on the George IV Bridge & it would be very easy to simply walk past it if you weren’t looking for it. The decor & the menu are very basic but it’s a neat place & the food is good. What helps to make this place special is that JK Rowlng wrote parts of her first Harry Potter novel here while stretching out her coffees. Ian Rankin also had his crime fiction hero “Inspector Rebus” have coffee & lunch here in at least two of his novels. It was neat to sit here having a pint & a jacket (baked) potato for dinner and thinking about these famous writers & their characters.

After dinner we headed back to our hotel to absorb all we had seen & learned on this day. Looking out our window, it was almost hard to believe that we were looking at Edinburgh Castle all lit up above us.

Tomorrow (Tuesday) we visit the castle!

Cheers everyone!