by Easter Sunday
No Easter eggs today! Awake in Scotland. Easter bunny doesn’t seem to come up here (Ethan has come early for us in Vietnam)
Bed & breakfast. breakfast was a choice of cereal, toast, juice, bacon, and eggs and beans. After completely filling up and taking our fruit with us, we stepped out into the cold air and walked over and up to Edinburgh Castle. After paying AU$15 each we entered the main gate between two wards from the Royal Scottish Highlanders – in kilts.
Part of the entrance see included an audio machine guide of the castle-from which we emerged some 2 1/2 hours later.
The audio guide with very good. We saw all manner of medieval buildings and siege fare. Edinburgh Castle has been attacked and taken by all sides, many times in 1000+ year of history, after which each time it required a substantial rebuild. The castle is on top of the volcanic core, with steep cliffs on 3 sides. The 4th side is the main entrance which is on top of the tail left behind, the crag caused by the glacial erosion. The views from the castle are spectacular.
Following the castle, with strolled down the Royal Mike to Hollyrood Palace and Abbey. A beautiful street with many interesting buildings and shops. We examined the family’s Scottish roots. Red and green Scott. Wouldn’t mind a kilt, but at several hundred pounds it can wait. We then walked to the top of Carlton Hill to see the Nelson Monument which was unfortunately closed so we sat on the incomplete attempt to copy the Greek Parthenon and had soup and bananas for lunch.
We spent the remainder of the afternoon wandering around the streets of the city, stopping for a beer at the ‘Shakespeare’ and purchasing food for dinner-Rice and curry which was quite nice, although the red wine we had with it was average, although great at changing the colour of the bedlinen (oops! )
And early night before picking up the car to head north.
