My nephew and his girlfriend came to town to visit us today, so we took them out for the day in Edinburgh to see the sights, and to go for a bite to eat.
The weather has been stunning here these last few weeks now, which is very nice. There was not a cloud in the sky today, although there was a coldish breeze blowing in from the North Sea, which was actually quite nice - it kept it from being too hot.
We walked in and out of the city centre, which helped to clock up the steps - we got to about 16,000 for the day, so we were all pretty knackered by the time we got home. On the way in we took a short cut through Dean Cemetery, which is quite pretty.
Our first stop was Brewdog, a pub in town that serves pretty nice burgers. We were first in, so it was pretty empty. The burgers are great and that gave us all the fuel we needed for seeing the sights around the city centre.
The Usher Hall, a concert venue across the road from the pub was looking pretty nice in the sunshine - but then again, what doesnt look good when the sun is shining !
From there we made our way to Princes Street Gardens, where you can get quite a nice view of Edinburgh Castle which sits high above it, and the beautiful Ross Fountain.
We also passed this beautiful bronze statue of an elephant in the gardens. Its a memorial to young children that have passed away, and brings a lot of comfort to many parents who have suffered such loss - its quite beautiful.
From the gardens we made our way up towards the castle, passing New College (above) which is a stunning building. Its where the School of Divinity is housed for the University of Edinburgh.
The road up to the castle is called the Royal Mile. Its starting to get busy now as we are into the start of the tourist season proper. It gets a lot busier than this in August when the Edinburgh Festival gets underway, but this wasnt too crowded.
We couldnt get right up to the castle because they have started building a temporary stadium in front of it, which they do every year in time for the Edinburgh Military Tattoo, which is an event that gets held every year in front of the castle for the month of August. It has displays from military bands from all around the world, and its quite something to see. Its pretty cool how they construct this venue and take it away again each year - quite impressive !
From there we made our way to Calton Hill which has nice city views, and we passed this nice pub sign on the way. Its a small pub up a close. A close is a Scottish word for a small alley between buildings (in this case). Its a short cut path you can take, and there are many of them in the old part of the city, and this pub is situated half way along the close. I love the sign !
It was a bit of climb up to Calton Hill, but we had to work those burgers off somehow. There are a number of old observatories up on the hill which look pretty cool !
Thats another observatory at the back, with a lovely old cannon originating from Spain in around the 15th/16th century in the foreground !
Calton Hill also sports landmark known as Scotland's Disgrace (above). It is actually meant to be a monument to those who lost their lives in the Napoleonic Wars, but as can be seen it was never actually finished - hence the name.
The views were nice from the hill, although it was a little hazy. This view looks North-North-East over the Leith Area, the Firth of Forth and to Fife.
The view above looks back across over the city centre (roughly in a south west direction).
I spotted the plaque above as we were coming back down from Calton Hill. It Commemorates Saint Wolodymyr the Great, Ruler of Ukraine ! How cool - I've never noticed it before.
The stunning art deco building above also sits up on the hill. Its St Andrew's House and is one of many government buildings in the City.
Just next to St Andrew's House is Old Calton Cemetery, which we've never actually been in before. I spotted it on the way up, and thought it be nice to look in on the way back down. Its fairly old and quite grand with most of the monuments and graves being atleast 150+ years old.
Quite surprisingly the cemetery also has this lovely statue of Abraham Lincoln, which is actually a memorial to Scottish-American soldiers.
From there we went back into town passing the stunning Balmoral Hotel, and went to The Dome for a quick drink.
The Dome is a very nice pub, and can be quite hard to get into, as its usually very busy - but we were able to walk right in today.
You can see exactly why it is called The Dome - just look at that roof !
It was nice to have a quick pint, before making our way back home.
We enjoyed our trip into town, and it was nice to show our visitors around, and take them to places in the city that they might not normally find as a tourist.
We were all pretty tired by the time we got back, but it was a great way to spend a sunday afternoon !
All the best from Scotland !
