Edinburgh!

We went over to edinburgh for a day trip over sat - absolutely brilliant timing cos it was the Queen's birthday as well, so all historic attractions were free over the weekend! yippee! that was a 11 pounds saved over the castle. liked edinburgh, the city had a rustic charm to it, with rows of old old buildings and lots of people milling about.there was this cute christmas shop with a store full of christmas deco. and loads of touristy shops with all kinds of stuff..edinburgh castle itself was majestic and huge..so sprawled over that i cldnt really appreciate its size.There was a lot of history involved obviously, I felt that I cldnt appreciate those very well with my rather lacking knowledge of scottish history. It was a unique feeling though, to realise that u r standing on stuff built like 600 years ago! Made a huge blunder of forgetting to put my battery into camera. (despite charging it fully the day before). :( unfortunately, ky's cam also ran out of batt so by the time we reached the castle proper, all we had were phone cameras. Still, those were kept clicking with all the sights around. And I m absolutely in love with scottish houses and stained glass paintings - these are so vivid and colourful!! cant get enough of them.

After the castle, had a sumptuous lunch of burger, chips and salad (think huge portions) which certainly put to rest all hunger pangs. they tried the haggis which is scotland's signature dish - a sheep stomach stuffed with liver and other things. (doesnt sound too good to me!). There was even a veg haggis (seriously!) but i decided to err on the side of caution and stick with the burger.

Royal mile street is the main street in edinburgh old town and this has lots of surprises. Most interestingly, there were numerous passageways connecting to the parallel roads - these are called closes, are very very narrow and often very steep and hv quirky names. like world's end close, old fishmarket close etc. all these are really old too so walking through them really felt like stepping into history.

And then we stumbled onto the Harrry Potter cafe!! this is called 'The elephant house' and proudly claims to be the birthplace of harry potter :D it was pure joy to have found it, as we hadnt been able to find any concrete details online. so that was something!

Another of royal mile's surprises was fudge stores, which had amazing fudge of a mind boggling variety and with free samples too! We indulged in some heavely highland cream fudge, triple choc and almond toffee fudge on the way back after Arthur seat. This is britain's only surving volcano, with its outer core eroded (and hence called a 'plug') and with a rugged path to get to the top. The slope was very steep and the rain made it slippery. But the views were worth it. Although we didnt make it to the very peak (this further path was at 45 degress and with no proper path either). So had to be contented with the half-way ascent. a good workout nevertheless and with fabulous 360 degree view (as we walked ard it) of edinburgh!

By the time all this was done, it was abt 6pm and everything was shut down..made a (seemingly) brave decision to leave glasgow without my trench coat and with just my cardigan that day and oh my, did i pay for that! it was very cold, esp with the rain - my poor fingers lost all their agility. Even folding the umbrella was impossible! So Roslin chapel and the edinburgh university proper have to wait for another day. Looking forward to it though!
In all, lovely edinburgh, much more old than glasgow which has a more contemporary feel (which is of course much more ancient compared to spore!)