One New York Life

Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four

Day 9 – Monday 7/12, Edinburgh
- The first day started late after the previous night’s World Cup party and regular first night in new hotel sleeping issues. It didn’t help the streets of Edinburgh were filled with people celebrating the World Cup. For my part, PLR asked for a bottle of water, so I wandered around until I found one. Which happened to be at a McDonalds, which happened to bear the wrath of a drunk Tom food order. It wasn’t pretty.

- We did the good tourist stuff today, visiting the Edinburgh Castle and Edinburgh Palace. We walked the entire Royal Mile and stopped off for lunch at a place that teased me with a venison special only to tell me they were all out when I ordered it. Bastards. In other news, this first day in Edinburgh was responsible for the image that told me it was time to get back to jogging.

- Another fun thing to note about Edinburgh. When we left the hotel that morning, I was in shorts and a T-shirt and was comfortable. By lunch, it was so cold I had to actually duck in to a junk store and buy a hoodie. About an hour after I bought the hoodie, it was too hot out to wear it. Here I thought absurd weather was unique to the Northeast.

Day 10 – Tuesday 7/13, Edinburgh
- This was the day we expected to include the pre-scheduled trip to Loch Ness. We spent the entire trip assuming it was Tuesday. It was Monday. Oops. Free day with nothing to do out of nowhere just led to a lot of walking around the city and PLR unleashing some make-up shopping fury. As it turns out, the Duane Reade/CVS/Rite Aid of the UK is called Boots and each one has an entire make-up store in it. It’s like they designed a store for PLR — allergy meds and eyeliner all in one place.

Day 11 – Wednesday 7/14, Edinburgh
- If you’ve ever been on a two week trip, mid-way through the second week you start to run out of tourist energy. When that happens I recommend an alcohol tour. Our early afternoon tour was at The Scotch Whisky Experience. It starts with a tour, continues with an instructional class about the whisky regions of Scotland and the distilling process, and ends with a flight of whisky encompassing all the regions. The trip also includes a walk through the largest whisky collection in the world (literally). The pictures I took don’t really do it justice. It has some old bottles, some new bottles, huge glass cases, rare bottles of famous brands, and a whisky clock. Then a gift shop with some, um, pricey collection bottles if you’re so inclined.

- Following this, with a nice solid buzz, it was museum time. That’s probably less interesting to most folks than the whiskey but, let me tell you, 16th century art with a whiskey buzz is something to be experienced.

- As I partook in the whisky and PLR didn’t, we split up for the late afternoon. I had planned to go home and take a shower and a nap. PLR planned to crush some shopping. However, a clogged shower and a two-hour ordeal with the hotel trying to fix it ruined my plans. On the other hand, a slight buzz and a Scottish plumber who was getting frustrated with the bathtub was wildly entertaining.

Day 12 – Thursday 7/15, Edinburgh
- Short of Stonehenge, this was my favorite day of the trip. If you’ve read The DaVinci Code, one of the churches that plays a role is Rosslyn Chapel. The chapel was begun in 1446 and built over the next 40 years until William St Clair, the founder, died. He was buried there and construction was ended in 1484. The building has been there since, living through the Reformation and sackings of the Rosslyn Castle. The carvings inside the building are intricate and, honestly, it’s hard to pick something to look at. It’s much smaller than I expected, but otherwise, it’s everything I wanted it to be. Mysterious, pagan carvings relating back to Masonic history of the family. The legendary Apprentice Column which, once seen, can be found in various works of art and even on some NYC streetlights.

- I can’t really put in to words all the different carvings and stories found in this chapel. There are images of Jesus and Christianity, pagan Green Men, images of death, columns, and even carvings of corn. The corn carvings are particularly interesting because maize didn’t exist in Great Britain when the chapel was built. I’m sure the masonic conspirators have a field day with that one. It kills me that no pictures are allowed inside the building.

- We had lunch across the street at the Roslin Glen Hotel… which I’m sure is very happy that Dan Brown turned their quiet little establishment in to a tourist trap. They sell a steak served on black lava rock. Sadly, I didn’t get it. In retrospect, that was dumb of me.

- We took the local Edinburgh bus to get out to Roslyn. The four dollar day pas got us all over the city and to various touristy spots on the fringes. Great stuff.

Next time: Back to London and Home.