Day 25 - Edinburgh: City Tour

We hopped on the big bus to get an overview of the city. Let me tell you, there is a lot of things to know about Edinburgh. First off, America, we are not old. Buildings here can be over 500 years old here. Second, what does that say about American housing that Scottish buildings are centuries old and our houses barely make it to 20 years without extensive repairs.

The Unicorn is the national animal of Scotland - just a random fact.

In the olden days, building were ten, twelve, sixteen stories tall with several stories being undeground. To access each story, spiral staircases without handrails were used. Seriously, no problems there…

We passed the National Museum of Scotland a few times on the tour. Inside are millions of cool things, including, apparently Dolly the first cloned sheep. Dolly was created from a mammary gland, and the boys (no doubt boys) involved in the creation thought she should be named for Dolly Parton, for obvious reasons.

We passed a night watchman’s quarters at a cemetery. He was hired to ensured fresh bodies would not be dug up and sold to the school for medical sciences. Apparently, there is a lot to be learned from fresh dead bodies. After a week in ground, they were good to go (or stay.)

There are 18 festivals in Edinburgh annually. 11 of the 18 festivals occur in August and swell the population from 500,000 to 2.5 million. Yowsa! I’m not kidding, it seems crowded now, I cannot imagine another 1.5-2.0 million people roaming the streets.

The Queen has a palace here - Holyrood Palace, and she uses it occasionally. She definitely prefers Balmoral in the highlands.

The Queen also has a garden and you can tell by the crowns on the lampposts.

In a town of really old buildings, Parliament is new and modern. Apparently, the window adornments are supposed to look like curtains drawn back to reflect sweeping away obscure government business into a transparent government. I have no idea if that actually worked…

There are 40+ giraffes around the city highlighting wildlife conservation. And one small elephant, highlighting absolutely nothing.

There will be more of the Edinburgh Castle tomorrow after our tour, but here are some outside views. And for those that have been here, let me know if I’m wrong. We took a lot of pictures today.

We could throw 20 pics here, but since I can’t tell you what they are, I’ll refrain. I will tell you, Edinburgh should be on your list. Coolllllll town.