Day 28 - Edinburgh: Mountebank Comedy Walk of Edinburgh

We threw this tour in when we were looking for something to do on Monday and it did not disappoint. We learned things we had not heard before and the tour was guided by a comedian named Daniel. Daniel created the tour when as he said, he figured out he could do comedy every day and get paid for it. The first 15 minutes were spent getting to know the group, learning names, jobs, and other facts he could use for humor throughout the tour.

One funny riff had to do with the original parliament building being based on Egyptian architecture, because nothing says Egypt like “pasty white, aggressive, gingers.”

Wikipedia: Deacon Brodie, was a Scottish cabinet-maker, deacon of a trades guild, and Edinburgh city councillor, who maintained a secret life as a housebreaker, partly for the thrill, and partly to fund his gambling. Maggie: Brodie kept a set of keys to each cabinet he created and then stole from those for whom he made the cabinets. Brodie was the inspiration for Robert Louis Stevenson’s Jekyll and Hyde. AND, there is a pub named after Deacon Brodie on the High Street.

Internet: The Burke and Hare murders were a series of sixteen killings committed over a period of about ten months in 1828 in Edinburgh, Scotland. They were undertaken by William Burke and William Hare, who sold the corpses to Robert Knox for dissection at his anatomy lectures at the university. While Burke was executed, Hare managed to escape the death sentence by confessing in detail to all of the crimes the pair committed. Maggie: these guys made about 8 pounds per body, huge money back in the day. They were caught when they tried to kill a small Irish women who fought back. AND, there a a Burke and Hare pub in Edinburgh.

We got some grief about being from Texas and all the guns and murders, but at least we stop short of naming bars after our freaking muderers.

I know we’ve shown the castle before but our walk down the stairs this morning and up the stairs this evening have the best unimpeded view of the castle.