Day 7, Aug 16 (Thursday)

Slept in and deliberately missed breakfast at MacKenzie.  Had it a local café and it was really good.  Nice low-key atmosphere and relatively inexpensive.  Today we do the castle.

The castle is huge.  Really, really big.  So many buildings and levels to it.  We had lots of fun exploring and taking silly pictures of the signs and numbers by them.  Apparently there is an audio tour, but we don’t normally do these things.  First, they are slow and usually pretty lame; we prefer to do our homework and buy the book so we can read more about it.  Second, those headsets are gross like a TV remote or a phone in a sleazy hotel room is gross.

if you ask nicely, other tourists will take your picture

he looks so proud of those castle gates

pet cemetery (not creepy like a Stephen King one...)

Edinburgh Castle is very vertical.

Literally, the pet cemetery.

Mons Meg's balls are huge.

Mons Meg was a strategically important weapon.  They still have it.

While in the castle we was the Scottish War Memorial.  This is like their Arlington. We are getting a numb from all the war (especially Great War) memorials, but this one was worth it.  It was quite moving to see all the tributes to the various units, counties, and cities.  Scotland lost 148,000 men in the Great War, which seems like a small number, but it was highest proportion of soldiers to population of any country in the war (today the population of the county is only about 5.5 million to put it in perspective).

We bought the book, so we'd have a better understanding and better pictures....

Every castle needs a dungeon.

Dessert and mocha following the castle.  We are pretty happy with the dessert and coffee/tea thing in the mornings and/or afternoons.  Impulsed on a show and saw a 59 year old male accountant that also does a stand-up act.  Bald Man comedy act or something.  He did a part about growing up in Glasgow gangs and then some parady songs to Johnny Cash tunes that were very funny.  Really good show, probably the funniest so far.

The Royal Mile at dusk.  This is relatively quiet compared to the middle of the day.

I thought it rude to take a flash picture.

The resting place of John Knox.  For some reason, this amuses me greatly.

After the comic, we went to Edinburgh Underground Tour’s “Real Fear Tour” for an 8:45 start.  “Captain Porteous” was our guide for this one, an obvious late middle age stage actor.  His act was annoyed (which happened in real life – see appendix on city/country observations), haughty, and a little conceited.  Probably the best presenter and actor to date on tours (and likely shows).  Our tour was the guide, us, 2 Scots (whom we made friends), and 7 others from a mix of France and Spain.  The guide was clearly “done” with festival, but did a great job of telling stories and history, very well blended together.  Insights into Scottish politics from the guide and the others on the tour were very interesting.

Another dark corner in the Vaults.  This one was reputed to be haunted.  People that got close, often felt something.

This creepy little tableau was in another of the vaults.  It was said that a family that did not speak the local language was tortured to death in that vault during the last witch panic in Edinburgh.  The dolls are left for the ghost of a small child who was killed along with her family.  Sometimes people feel a hand in their hand, or a tug on their clothes.

Late dinner at Deacon Brodie’s Pub up on the The Mile.  The nice waitress was also pretty fed up with the festival as well.

 

They had a whole wall of Deacon Brodie/Jekyll and Hyde stuff.

The cider situation was bittersweet, not because of the taste, but because they are yummy, and we knew we couldn't get them in the states.

Day 6, Aug 15 (Wednesday)

Taking it easy today.  No shows today, other than our evening performance of the Scottish Military Tattoo.  No alcohol either, guts need a rest.

I'm still loving Barry.

Saw two smaller museums today.  Both were excellent displays of their stuff, both in neat old historical buildings.  The People’s Story Museum was mostly about how the “common people” of the respective era lived.  They covered the 1600’s through roughly World War 2.  It was in a narrow building, with about 3.5 stories of exhibits.  Somewhat typical of a nicer museum in a smaller to medium sized city here.  The second one was the Edinburgh Museum which was mostly about the story of the city from about the same period as the People’s Story above.  It also had a large display from Field Marshall Earl Haig, the commander of the British Expeditionary Force in WW1.  He a hero, or the “donkey general” depending on your opinion of his war of attrition strategy against the axis powers.

painted ceilings were a thing

they relocated this painted ceiling to the children's play area.

We also took in the Scottish National Museum.  This place is big, on par with a larger museum in any capital city.  This is the one where we stray from the normal reviews.  They get 2/4 stars, mostly for the t-rex skeleton.  The rest of it is not very well organized.  They clumped displays – all of which looked great and were of high quality – more or less randomly.  In the fashion/clothing section they had ladies dresses from the 1600’s through the 1980’s, but in no particular order (there was also some factually incorrect signage on a velvet dress from the 1890’s about it being too heavy to actually wear).  The natural museum had animals from 3 different continents displayed as if they were running together.  Again, no rhyme or reason, it’s as if they were displayed according to aesthetics, not any kind of regional, temporal, or other theme that makes any sense.  We wandered around for a bit, saw some performance art, and took some silly pictures of Dolly the cloned sheep.

The loving gaze at Dolly

Later we took a stroll through Greyfriar’s Kirkyard during the day and took some more pictures.  Also did some street photography for fun as well.

 

obligatory street scene from Victoria street

Marker indicating where many protestants were executed for their faith during the 1600's.

Diane said, "no thanks"

I love you too, Barry

This is an example of the multi level nature of Edinburgh.

We gave up on maps pretty early on.

The original skyscrapers.

With some time to burn before the Military Tattoo, we decided to do the Edinburgh Dungeon.  Having experience the epic lameness of the London Dungeon, I wasn’t optimistic about this one.  That was a pleasant surprise.  The Edinburgh Dungeon was surprisingly good with a larger cast, some good story telling, and funny characters. 

 This included “Judge Mental” who sentenced everyone to death and some people playing witches, including some, for a haunted house, pretty high tech special effects.  Diane had the misfortune of being next to a teenage boy that had some rather special challenges. We don’t know if he had a panic disorder, but it seemed like it.  He was in full on freak out mode a couple of times, including freezing up, hyper ventilation, etc.  The haunter in a least one of us wanted to fall upon like wolves and push him over the edge.  Sadly, this county has some confusing laws about incivility, so we kept our mouths shut and tolerated the distraction.

The Military Tattoo was amazing.  There were groups from several countries outside the UK including the Swiss, two sets of Americans (one the drill team from the USAF, the other a Revolutionary War outfit), a Czech drill team, Mexican dancers, a children’s group from an African country (missed which one in the announcement), and of course several units in the UK.  Naturally we are impartial to the Americans, but the Highland Pipers were incredible in their own right, and the Mexican performers (including male aria) were so quintessentially Mexican that I think they were my favorite.

The tattoo is a 'Change Your Life' kind of experience

Day 5, Aug 14 (Tuesday)

Planted two letterboxes.  Both in Leith, no point in planting in downtown Edinburgh; way too many bums and street people there.

can you see the letterbox in this picture?

professional cemetery creeper

Walked through the Old Calton Cemetery.  It was disconcerting to see all the litter from homeless living in the graveyards.  So much trash scattered about.  We noticed this is a trend in Edinburgh – there is a lot of litter in this city.  I like to think the homeless would be welcome in my tomb, but they should take their trash with them.  To see that basically nobody cares enough to take care of the parks and cemeteries is a little sickening to us.

Of course we spent a fair amount of time creeping around the cemetery near our hotel.  I (Erik) love the old headstones.  It's interesting how they changed over time.  Unfortunately for this part of Scotland, there is a lot of sandstone.  Easy to carve and work, but not as long lasting as granite.  Here are a few of the more interesting ones.

From the 1700's

Is this intended to keep some out?  Or something in?

This is the oldest stone in the cemetery, from the mid 1600's.  Symbolism was very common at the time.  The skull and cross bones represents our inevitable end.  The hour glass is to remind us that time is running out.  I believe (but am not sure) there is a cross in the hour glass which is there to symbolize salvation.

 

Diane in her natural habitat while letterboxing.

I thought this was a neat thing.

growing right out of the rock. (you get my artistic side)

I had to know what the inside looked like.

So I took this long exposure shot by holding my camera up to the grate above the door.  Other tourists stopped me and asked what it looked like.  The results were even better on the big screen.  Yes, I know I am now officially a creeper.

this plant is everywhere, even in tombs

While walking in Leith, we ran into a nice lady that walked a ways with us to find a post box for post cards to send home.  She spent some time in Boston, and found the relatively open and welcoming attitude of Americans to be agreeable.  The Scottish aren’t as open and friendly as… get this, Bostonians.  We didn’t know how to reply to that.

As we walked towards Old Town, we tried to visit some rescue cats at the local shelter.  No joy there, they turned us away because we aren’t locals looking to adopt.  As they say here, they are fucking cunts.  Caught a bus back to the Old Town for lunch at the very cheesy World Famous Frankenstein.

World Famour Frankenstein is tacky enough to be in the Wisconsin Dells.  The food was a little overpriced (but not as bad as expected).  The worst part – 2 days of food poisoning that Erik got.  Ick.

waiting for mediocre tasting food poisoning

good party decor, no?

total tourist pic.

Took in another show.  This one was called “Good Grief” by an Australian performer (Natalie Harris).  It was quite good.  Her thing was about finding humor in the life and passing of her father who sounded like quite the character.  It was poignant, funny, and at times a little inappropriate as she told the story from day he died to a few years later and her dating experiences.  One of the highlights was when the performer ejected some douche for using FaceBook during the show and never bothered to silence his phone (we think he was just charging it, not really watching the show).

Did dinner at an Indian place called Vinyasa.  The food was good, but the service, even by UK standards, was atrociously bad.  Rice was not included, so Erik had to improvise with naan and some rice from Diane, else the curry chicken would have been curry soup.  It was a little weird and took about 20 minutes to get the check.

Last thing we did was Mercat Tours “Hidden and Haunted Tour” by Jarred, another local year round guide.  This style was totally different than Ian from the previous one.  This one was basically all in the vaults with a short section above ground.  Jarred was also very funny, and just as enjoyable.  

stop off at the Scottish National Museum

well, hello, Dolly! <3

Took a bus back to the hotel.  Bad stomach ache thanks for World Famous Frankennausea.  Not 
enough sleep that night.





























 Some pictures of a dress from the 1700's.  There are a few views, but look especially at the close up.

The world's smallest museum.  This is on a counter in a kitchy shop selling tourist crap.  It's a display of a leather business card holder made from the tanned skin of the 1820's murderer, William Burke.

Made from human skin; this is what macro settings on camera were made to capture!

Naturally we did another underground tour...