Travel Log - Day 17

After a good breakfast in the cafeteria, I bought a day-pass on Edinburgh buses, and headed into the city center. I toured St. Giles' Cathedral (Scottish) since it was on the way up the Royal Mile to Edinburgh Castle.

Here you can see the difference between

the older and newer parts of the building:

The organ is an important concert instrument

built by the Austrian company, Rieger:

While Edinburgh Castle is built on a large rock outcropping, it is not nearly as high as Arthur's Seat (see yesterday's photo of the Castle from Arthur's Seat), but it is still quite a walk up the Royal Mile!

And even more steep roads and walkways inside the Castle!

The modern canon that is fired each day,

with pomp and ceremony, at 1:00PM:

And the cemetery for soldiers' pets and company mascots:

Here are some photos taken of the city from the Castle walls:

St. Cuthbert's, where I rang this evening:

The Anglican Cathedral of St. Mary, where I rang on my last visit:

I took a bus down to the water's edge in Leith to tour the Royal Yacht, but decided that it wasn't worth another entrance fee, and returned to my dorm to start packing for the morning.

I did have a small lunch at one restaurant to try their haggis, and then a full lunch at Deacon Brodies Pub:

Travel Log - Day 16

This day started with a trip to Waitrose and Tesco markets for food to take on the trip to Edinburgh. (There is food available on the trains, but marked up significantly!) Then I had to pack. I finally got on a northbound train at Noon - Express to Doncaster, and then making most of the stops on north. I had one of my two sandwiches on the train, along with a Kopparberg Mixed Berry Cider.

The weather was partly cloudy during the trip, with a nice shower happening out over the water, but was quite nice when I checked into Pollock Halls at Edinburgh U. The forecast was for great weather Tuesday, and rain on Wednesday, but I chose to take advantage of the good weather - and go ahead with climbing up Arthur's Seat, one of my major goals of this entire trip!

Salisbury Crag from outside Pollock Halls' gate:

Arthur's Seat from Holy Rood Park Road:

Views on the way up:

 

Off the road onto the Green Path, going up the back side:

Looking back down from the last bit:

 At the top:

And with a new friend who wanted to have a photo with me:

Views from the top:

And the icing on the cake of my goal - a picnic sandwich

(from Waitrose earlier) and a Kopparberg Pear Cider

while resting at the top:

The Castle with the Tattoo stands already erected on the Esplanade

(with zoom, it's really far away on a much smaller rock!):

Views on the way down:

I came down the front side, much steeper, with stepping stones most of the way.

The path zigzags for at least the height of St. Paul's Cathedral Dome which included 528 steps.

I did not try to count these. It was enough to concentrate on which stone next, with which foot! 

Final sets of views nearing the bottom again:

And this is where I'm staying:

Second floor (third from the ground) second window from the right

 with the curtain mostly open and the window open.