Mon 26th May. Off to Scotland. Post 1
Having spent Sunday gathering with friends back in Peterborough and enjoying the first decent day of summer they had had til then with lunch in the garden, Monday morning found us on the Peterborough train platform awaiting the 9.15 am train to Scotland
which didnt arrive. (Unfortunately whilst touring the Enterprise is parked behind the second star to the right so cant take short cuts.)
We were told to get on the next train and all seat allocations were off. Luckily this was not a repeat of our Kyoto experience last year. The next train arrived about an hour later, half empty and we quickly found a carriage, dumped our luggage in the racks at the front and nabbed some vacant seats. We never ended up paying extra for 1st class and really were very happy in second. DD and I bought a delicious toasted sandwich and reasonable coffee en route and 3 and a bit hours later, we arrived in freezing, overcast Edinburgh.
It didnt take much to orient ourselves towards our apartment here, Blue Rainbow Apartment hotel (which I think I have given the worst review of any accommodation ever!) Excellent location in New Town just a few streets below Princes St, but highly pretentious, lousy housekeeping and maintenance. Anyway, it turned out they are laying new tram tracks right outside. (Luckily our bedrooms faced the gardens at the back and were very quiet so no complaints there.)
We couldnt occupy our rooms til after 3pm and after a very frosty reception to match the weather, left our bags and headed out to explore. We were staying near St Andrew Square so the first pic here is of the Meville Monument (commemorating Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville, who was the most powerful Scottish politician of his time-late 1700s and apparently referred to when alive as Harry IX uncrowned King of Scotland).
Next are views of Edinburgh spread out along the ridge with its distinctive grey stone and the Princes gardens which are in a valley between us and the old town. The photos go from views of the east and the Waverley Bridge to the west and the castle.
Until the founding of the New Town in C18th, the books say old Edinburgh was an insanitary, overcrowded hive of humanity squeezed between North Loch (now Princes St Gardens) to the north and the city walls to south & east. The town expanded upwards with 5 & 6 story tenements in C16th & C17th, skyscrapers of their day and remarked upon by writers such as Daniel Defoe. Beggars and magistrates lived cheek by jowl, the rich half way up above the noise and stink of the streets (but not at the top because of all the stairs), the poor lived in the attics and in the basements & cellars with the rats and raw sewerage. Diseases like the plague spread as the population increased to over 50,000 so in the 1700s they extended the city and built New Town. We never did get time to do a tour of one of these basement areas like Real St Mary Close - next visit!
The Scott Monument in memory of Sir Walter Scott.
Princes Gardens in what was a boggy valley drained in C18th. I am sure this tree was the inspiration for HP Whomping Willow.
We then headed up one of the many stairs and closes to the main drag of the Royal Mile.
Doors opened off the passageway into students rooms belonging to New College.
We came to St Giles Cathedral with the City Chambers opposite.
The church (it wasnt a cathedral for very long) was named after the patron saint of beggars and cripples and dates from C15th (but restored in C19th). John Knox, the infamous Scottish reformationist, was minister here in 1559-1572.
Close-up showing some of the detail on the statue of the Duke of Buccleuch.
Inside the church
One corner has the Thistle Chapel, built in 1911 for knights of Most Noble Order of the Thistle, Scotlands greatest order of chivalry with membership considered to be one of the country's highest honours. Along the sides of the chapel are the knights' stalls, capped by carved canopies with the helms and crests of the knights rising above-some of these modern knights helms looked almost comic book like the rainbow over the world and greatly amused me and DD!
Outside with the Mercat Cross behind where merchants and traders met and Royal proclamations were made.
Love the unicorn which appears everywhere as the herald for Scotland (hence the Lion and Unicorn created when James IV Scotland became James 1 of England).
As it started to rain, we headed off to the National Musuem, following some of the narrow wynds and stairs down and along Cowgate which seemed very closed in and dark. This was once the road along which cattle were driven from fields around Arthurs Seat to the safety of the city walls.
We climbed up through Greyfriars Kirkyard, which is infamous as in 1638 the National Covenant was signed at the kirk here, here rejecting Charles 1 attempts to impose the new English prayer book, and affirming the independence of the Scottish church. Many who signed were later executed or held prisoner in terrible conditions in the SW corner of this kirkyard. Today it is very peaceful and pretty.
We had to have a look outside at Greyfriars Bobby. Bobby is a terrier who for 14 years between 1858 to1872 guarded the grave of his master, an Edinburgh police officer, in the kirkyard. The story was turned into a movie by Walt Disney in 1963.
Then it was into the National Museum-next post.