Scotland, Here We Come! (Part 7)

I'm not sure how to describe our afternoon wandering around Edinburgh and the Royal Mile.  There was so much to see and we took so many pictures that we couldn't begin to put them all out on the blog.  Here's a few of the highlights:

The red door is the entrance to the home of Robert Louis Stevenson, who wrote Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

Walking down from Edinburgh Castle

As we walked along the street, we suddenly realized that there was another street below us.  We reached the intersection and this is what we saw to either side of us.  Our street was actually crossing over another street with no break in the buildings.

Lunch time at the Elephant House -- which claims to be the birthplace of Harry Potter.

Another highlight - St Giles Cathedral.  The oldest part of the cathedral was probably built between 1320 and 1380. 

The organ is new and was installed in 1992.

Statue of John Knox, a minister in St Giles' from 1559 to 1572, who was a leader of the Reformation in Scotland.

Just one of the many beautiful stained glass windows.  This one is of the Last Supper.

Back to the streets of Edinburgh, where we found a bagpiper just down the street from the cathedral.

There is a section of the "Royal Mile" that is filled with shops like the one below.  I think we probably looked in just about every one of them. 

More of Edinburgh......(and more stairs)....

And someone who wasn't playing the bagpipes....

Our destination this time  - The Scott Monument -- we could just see it over the tops of the trees as we went down the stairs.

They gave us plenty of warning about the steps! There are 287 steps to the top of the monument, and we climbed every one of them.  Luckily, there were different levels so we got to take a breather a couple of times.  The monument was started in 1840 and completed in 1844.  

The view through one of the "windows" as we started our climb.

The first chance to catch our breath!

 

Looking down......(we're only midway). 

And out.............

And the view was worth it! 

 

I snapped this picture of the gentleman coming up behind me as we neared the top.  See how tiny the steps are and how close the walls are.  They were wider at the bottom, but that didn't last long.  I almost gave up a couple of times, but Roger said that I would regret it if I didn't go to the top, and I'm glad I did.  It was worth all of those 287 tiny narrow steps.  (If you get claustrophobic, though, you probably don't want to try this.)

Looking straight down!  (I had the camera secured to my wrist!)

And straight up!

 The view from the top..........

Same view, but zoomed in.................

Edinburgh Castle is the opposite direction.  Because we were so high, it felt like we were looking straight across at the castle. 

Going down?

Looking out at the statuary just above the middle of the monument as we went back down.  They have "chicken wire" wrapped around it as a precaution.  It just wouldn't be too pleasant to have one of those guys fall to the ground. 

Who could resist taking this guy's picture?

Almost back to ground level.

After we reached the bottom, they closed the monument down for the night.  We just had time to get something to eat at one of the "pubs" before it was time to meet the bus for the trip back to the hotel.  We found that the pubs were the best places to get something to eat in Edinburgh, if you wanted something simple like soup and a sandwich.  They were smaller, simpler, and less expensive than eating at a restaurant -- besides, the line was much shorter than at McDonalds which was just down the street.