Edinburgh, Scotland

Two weekends ago we traveled far to the north and spent a long weekend in Edinburgh. It is a magnificent city with museums, a castle, a cathedral, parks, and street after street lined with beautiful old buildings. All I could have asked for was better weather in which to enjoy all of it.







The Royal Mile is the street that leads from the castle down to the
Palace of Holyroodhouse, Scotland's royal residence.


Edinburgh's main sites are all located within a square mile making it a great walking city. But it is also a city built on an extinct volcano so walking up and down its streets is a workout. At the top of the old town is Edinburgh castle, which has such tremendous natural and man-made defences that it was never taken by force. The boys enjoyed a presentation in the Great Hall where Tom was asked to hold the knight's sword and to serve as a model while the knight explained how best to spear your enemy.















On one edge of the city is Arthur's Seat, another volcano that last erupted 350 million years ago. The hike to the top took about an hour but the views of the city and the North Sea (called the Firth of Forth) made it a worthwhile climb.

















This was when the weather started to change. We'd had a pleasant afternoon's walk through the city and for the climb up Arthur's Seat, but the wind and rain arrived shortly after we climbed down and we didn't see the sun for the next two days.














Thanks to the poor weather we did something very interesting that we'd never have done otherwise. On Saturday morning as we walked in the rain we passed the George Heriot school, saw it was holding an open house and went in for a visit. George Heriot was an Edinburgh goldsmith who became wealthy working for the King and he used his money to found a school for orphan boys in the 1600s (we had learned all this the day before at the castle.) The school is now a private school for children of wealthy Edinburgh families. We saw fencing competitions in the chapel, listened to bagpipe music, and then two students a little older than Joe walked us around the school grounds showing us classrooms and answering our many questions. We watched students conduct chemistry experiments, play water sports, and prepare snacks for us. In the computer classroom Joe programmed a robotic lego vehicle to drive through a course. What incredible opportunities these kids have and it all takes place in this fabulous old building that looks like a miniature castle. If I ever move to Edinburgh and have a lot of money, I know where I'll send my kids for school.

We spent time seeing paintings in the Scottish National Gallery and visiting the Royal Museum of Scotland where we saw all things Scottish like the earliest golf balls. And we ate the best pizza we've had on the entire trip. The restaurant was quite a distance from the hotel though, and by the time we were through I had to lead us back by reading a map in the dark, in the rain, in the wind. But it was worth it because I can't think of many things that give me more pleasure when I'm traveling than finding a really good restaurant.

Every evening we'd return to our hotel damp and chilled to the bone. Thankfully, the hotel had a 'leisure suite' and after a few rotations through the hot tub, sauna, and steam room, with brief dips in the pool to cool down in between, we'd go back to our room feeling toasty warm. Sounds like a great weekend - don't know why I complained about the weather.