We arrived in Edinburgh, Scotland on Tuesday, June 18th.
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| Hotel room at the Apex Waterloo |
CONFUSED CABBIE - Our elderly driver was waiting for us at the airport and just grunted when we got there. He had my (Rob) first and last name and Tom's first name written on the sign he was holding. He asked where the third person was and I told him that "Gutro" is my last name and there's only 2 of us. He didn't seem to get it for a couple of minutes, then "dawn broke on Marblehead" as my dad would say, and he realized what I was saying, so
he grunted and told us to follow him to the cab. He said almost nothing
all the way to the hotel.
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| The tub Tom enjoyed a bath in! |
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| Taking in the sights |
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| "Man of Steel" movie ad on a Scotland bus! |
NICE HOTEL - We stayed at the Apex Waterloo Hotel and it was
wonderful. We were on the 10th floor (top floor) and had a nice view of
the North Sea and the northern edge of Edinburgh. The room had a nice
big tub (which Tom enjoyed a bubble bath in), shower, comfy bed, desk,
TV and an internet connection we could use freely on another floor.
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| A castle-like building on a hill in Edinburgh |
SUPERMAN IN SCOTLAND - I was excited to see a "Man of Steel" poster on the side of a double decker bus!
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| The Scottish Monument |
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| "Arthur's Seat" - the extinct volcano |
GREAT SCOTT! - The Scott Monument is a Victorian Gothic monument to Scottish author Sir Walter Scott. It stands in Princes Street Gardens in Edinburgh.
WALKING THE CITY- We unpacked and walked around the city, walked
through the huge underground mall, grabbing a sandwich and taking it
back to the hotel, where we watched some kind of Scottish HGTV.
LOOKING AT ARTHUR'S SEAT - No, we weren't looking at a guy's
butt... but that's not to say we wouldn't. We were looking at a
geographical feature called "Arthur's Seat." According to Wikipedia,
Arthur's Seat is the main peak of the group of hills which form most of
Holyrood Park, described by Robert Louis Stevenson as "a hill for
magnitude, a mountain in virtue of its bold design." It is situated in
the center of the city of Edinburgh, about a mile to the east of
Edinburgh Castle. The hill rises above the city to a height of 822 ft.
Arthur's Seat is the largest of the three parts of the Arthur's Seat
Volcano site of special scientific interest which is designated to
protect its important geology (see below), grassland habitats and
uncommon plant and animal species.
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| downtown Edinburgh, Scotland |
GREAT GHOST TOUR- Anne Marie Clarke of Across the Pond Tours (we highly recommend) booked us on a "Mercat Tour of the underground vaults that run under part of the city. We took the "Hidden and Haunted Tour" and had a great tourguide in a tall young guy named Craig, who had a great sense of humor. The tour took us down a stairway into the underground catacombs off South Bridge Street.
NEXT BLOG: ADVENTURES IN THE BLAIR STREET UNDERGROUND VAULTS AND GHOSTS!!
