Now this is odd. Last night we went to bed in Edinburgh and today, theoretically our third day here, we are actually going to spend time in Edinburgh. This should be interesting.
After yesterday's breakfast buffet, today we opted to have our breakfast in the room. Eggs benedict, waffles, bacon, croissants; everything tasted wonderfully.
Today we actually need to leave The Balmoral Hotel and switch to an apartment. The first part of day is going to be theoretically devoted to this switch. I have now said
theoretically twice. And you cannot hear it, but that
theoretically plays in my head with a Scottish accent. It sounds like
thee-oh-etik-all-ay in there.
In the hotel elevator I snapped a self-portrait.
We got a taxi, leaving our bags ans such in the room. Why? Because if the flat that Barbie's friend is renting, and who is kindly allowing us to use, is not
up to snuff, Barbie has contingency plans.
And, most excitingly, we intend to go
Amazing Race Style with this taxi. That is, we will have him wait for us between stops and errands that must complete, so that he is there for the next leg. We could tell he was a good and honest driver, who took us directly to our first stop without fuss, and thus we definitely wanted to use him for the rest of the morning's tasks.
Task One, get the keys to the flat. Barbie thought the address we wanted on this street was 37. After knocking on those below street level doors, she checked her BlackBerry and saw she wanted number 36.
Number 36, across the street, is a much more logical place to pick up the keys to a flat.
With the keys and other needed things from the letting agency in hand, we hopped back into the taxi and headed over to the flat to check it out.
A view of Edinburgh Castle on the way to the flat.
The taxi driver, who was as nice as can be, waited for us while we took a look. I should have known he would be nice; he and I have the same hair style. I have a hunch this building might have been completed in 1940.
The flat.
One of the three bedrooms.
The living room.
No pictures of the kitchen and such, but the flat was more than adequate, which means taking this taxi back from the Southwest side of town to the Northeast side to fetch our bags.
Those who watch
Amazing Race know that a friendly, efficient taxi driver is the key to victory.
Back at The Balmoral, I took advantage of the lack of rain to snap this photograph of the Nelson Monument on Calton Hill. It was Nelson's decisive victory at the Battle of Trafalgar that saw the British Navy decimate both the French and Spanish navies. There were many Scots captains and crew at the Battle of Trafalgar, which would explain Nelson being honored here as well as in London.
The greek looking columns next to the monument are the National Monument.
Boy and Teddy Bear Candid. August, 2011.
I love candids, but a candid involving a teddy bear in its natural habitat? Priceless.
Our kind taxi driver waited for us at the curb while I checked out and Barbie had a porter get our suitcases. It was a very well-run operation, and soon we were back to the West End of Edinburgh, snugly secure in a Scottish Flat.
The view from our window. Hey, if I am going to show you the view from every hotel window, why not the flat window.
Time to walk the neighbourhood and get acquainted. Also, I had searched on my iPhone for laundry service and we plan to drop off a few kilos of laundry today.
The tiget statue in the window of Mumbai Mansion, which is one of several Indian restaurants in the neighbourhood.
Look closely and you will see that is our local Starbucks. Quite nondescript.
We dropped off our laundry THERE.
Time for lunch. We hopped into this local pub, The Mercat Bar.
Cozy and comfortable.
I say quite often to Barbie, "There are two types of people; those who eat in pubs while they are in the UK, and stupid people."
I could not resist. This is a bar, you know.
Barbie got sweet potato soup and a proscuitto sandwich.
I got the Steak & Caledonian pie.
We quite enjoyed it, and the young man and woman working there were friendly as can be. My Scottish friend who lives in London, Kerrie, warned me that the people in Scotland are the nicest in the world. I am starting to believe her.
After chatting with the waitress that we were from Los Angeles, she told us that they had people from Texas in the downstairs dining room. (She pronounced it Takes-sus.) We quickly warned her to not tell them we were there, lest there be a brawl.
Then it got interesting. But not as interesting as it is going to get. The Texans came up and they were alterna-kids in their twenties, covered in tattoos with faces full of piercings. I figured they had to be from Austin and Barbie stopped them to ask them, and they told us that they were from Dallas, and that Dallas was the new Austin and such. It was interesting, and they were quite nice. They left, and we thought that would be that. But... you will see.
Also, I realized for the first time that while in Europe I would rather bump into an atlernakid with tattoos and piercings than, say, another variety of American.
That is how you sell newspapers.
We went for a walk towards The Old Town, the area of Edinburgh where everything essentially predates 1750.
Magic. A local pub owner has turned his bar into a shrine to The Dude. That sign reads,
LEBOSWKIS. Not a man, a way of life. Now...
The Big Lebowski is a Coen brothers movie and one of our favorite movies of all time. Everywhere we travel, a DVD of this movie comes with us.
Walking towards The Old Town, we could see glimpses of Edinburgh Castle between modern buildings The contrast is quite a treat.
From 1477 to 1911, the Grassmarket was Edinburgh's main market for horse and cattle. The continued having horse shows here late into the 20th century.
It was also a setting for public executions. Hangings. This one of the pubs here is named, appropriately, The Last Drop.
Maggie DIckinson's Pub. Barbie spotted it and wanted her picture in front. Now, hours later, I learn that this pub has taken its name from an Edinburgh legend.
As the story goes, Maggie Dickson was hanged here in 1728 for murdering her own baby. After she was hanged, they packed her body in a coffin but she woke up during the ride to her home. She had served her punishment under the law and was let go, and the words "until dead" were soon added to law. This is the tale of Half-Hangit Maggie.
We decided that we would walk to St. Giles' Cathedral.
Cowgate looked down upon from the George IV Bridge. (George IV, you might recall, lived in the Royal Pavilion that we visited in Brighton.) Now, when you are standing on the George IV bridge, you have no idea it is a bridge. It is simply a street, because they have build around it on all sides.
The Old Town of Edinburgh has many bridges and levels, and due to building restrictions they kept building up and up. Edinburgh during the 17th century was home to stone buildings as tall as 14 to 15 stories, making it technically the home to the first skyscrapers on Earth. (Sure, other tall monuments were built but these buildings were built for habitation.)
The many levels of The Old Town make it tough for a man with a map to get to his destination, because streets that appear to intersect on your map run above and below each other. Fortunately for us, Barbie's instinct gave us a correct turn and we were soon face to face with St. Giles' Cathedral.
There it is, the High Kirk of Edinburgh, St. Giles' Cathedral. It dates back as far as the 1100's, but most what you see was restored during the 1800's.
Inside St. Giles', you see that Edinburgh was not a city of massive wealth. The cathedral is beautiful inside, but it is not an over-the-top make-sure-God-knows-for-sure-we-love-him sort of building. It strikes me as more subdued than that.
It has been a long time since I went sepia on a picture. This one seemed appropriate.
Stained glass windows with medieval imagery is seen in ever direction.
Barbie lights a candle.
Just outside St. Giles', looking down the Royal Mile. The Royal Mile is the road which runs from Edinburgh Castle at the top of the hill to Holyroodhouse Palace at the bottom of the hill.
There is a reason for the crowds. We are here just before the Edinburgh Festival is to begin, as well as the Edinburgh Fringe. This is the kind of story that I love. In 1947, the city of Edinburgh started the Edinburgh International Festival, featuring theatre productions and classical music performances. When eight theater companies arrived without invitations to the first Edinburgh International Festival, they performed on its fringes. The Fringe has grown and grown to become the largest comedy festival in the world, as well as a home to various performing arts and artists.
The Fringe welcomes thousands of acts, and if you want people to see you perform, you must go directly to the public. Everyone wants to hand you a flyer, and many performers go the extra step to get your attention in hopes that you will come to their performance.
Texas, part two. The man in the turquoise shirt is the same alternakid who talked to us at The Mercat Bar. And he has chosen to stand on that cement pillar and shout about Jesus. Yes, of all the people for us to meet at lunch, we met the kid who came from Dallas to Edinburgh during the Festivals to shout about Jesus. How shocked were we that the guy with piercings, tattoos, and huge hops making his earlobes stretch is a big fan of The Jesus?
By the way, I am all for believing what you believe, but his argument, at least the one he was using as we passed by, is that Darwin is not a real man whom you have ever met, and why believe what he had to say if for all you know he never existed, whereas Jesus was a real man and you can know him through scripture.
I get that to him this is a reasonable argument. But to me, well, he could find much better points to shout about the greatness of his religion.
These kids (yes, I am so old that anyone under 30-ish is referred to as a kid without second thought) chose to promote their performance with this still life. That kid had not changed positions either time we passed him. He just lay there, as if were in mid-stretch about to grab those flyers for his troupe's upcoming performance.
These young women decided that we might take their flyer if they pretended to sleep. Either that or a witch had hit them with some sort of faerie dust. I have to say that I loved seeing all of this enthusiasm for the arts. I think both Barbie and I could consider coming back and staying for the Fringe. This year we are leaving just as it begins.
Could you not take a picture of this sign as you passed it? Any use of the word
wee is undeniably adorable.
The Balmoral Hotel, where we woke up this morning, is THERE.
Another shot of the Nelson Monument.
Peruvian Flute Bands protect the world from being overtaken by gigantic guinea pigs. (According to a South Park episode.)
This is The Hub. It is the center for the Edinburgh International Festival. This building was built for the Church of Scotland in 1845, as a church and meeting hall, known then as Victoria Hall. Its spire is the tallest point in Edinburgh, taller than any point of Edinburgh Castle next door. It closed as a church in 1979 and went unused until the Edinburgh International Festival re-opened it as The Hub.
I have to say that is odd and surprising to see a 160 year old Gothic spire and find out that it is not
Saint this or
Church of that but is in fact, officially,
The Hub.
A look at Edinburgh Castle as we walk down Johnston Terrace. I promise that before I leave Edinburgh you will see inside that place.
Edinburgh castle from below, very near to our flat.
After some time working and resting in the flat, it was time to go meet the newlyweds for dinner. David and Carol drove up from Dumfries today, and are staying at the Sheraton just a few minutes walk away.
Usher Hall sits across from the Sheraton. Usher Hall has been Edinburgh's home fro classical musical performances since it opened in 1914. I know that I can be easily influenced at times, because I looked at Edinburgh's Usher Hall and thought, "This is their version of Albert Hall."
The Sheraton is under construction, and therefore you get no pictures of it. And we were a bit rushed to head over to our dinner, which lead me to not take pictures of any of the people. Yes, I slipped back into old Waste mode where you only see buildings and food.
When we told Carol about the french onion soup at Hadiran's Brasserie, she said french onion is one of her favorite types of soup. Therefore, we have returned to The Balmoral Hotel because Barbie and I know this will be an excellent meal for the newlyweds, and Carol will get to taste the soup.
The soup. Three of four ordered it.
Barbie got the pateé starter as her main.
I got the grilled salmon on lentils.
David got he scallops, with a preordained plan to give one to Barbie.
Créme brulée, personalized for the newlyweds.
We are only a few blocks from the Hard Rock Cafe, which makes this the perfect even to stroll over and get a shot glass.
This is the Scott Monument, which is only a few hundred yards from The Balmoral Hotel yet I have still not gotten a good picture of it. Someday...
Along the way, to the Hard Rock Cafe...
Fireworks. Could you ask for more, newlyweds?
The unusual thing is that we are not going to have any pig meat here tonight.
Buy the shotglass and run.
This is The Dome, a restaurant and private club. Behind this facade it is a round building covered in a dome. Another building added to list of recreations of the
Pantheon. Built in 1775 to be the Physician's Hall by the College of Physicians. For the record, you can book it for your wedding if you like.
Until tomorrow...
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