Day 1 in Edinburgh

Edinburgh is a beautiful city.

The original old city, including the Castle, is built on the remains of an old volcano. The modern city sprawls out around it, but the heart of the city and the skyline is definitely the castle, which somehow balances looking both imposing and elegant against the clouds.

The view from our hotel room window of Edinburgh Castle. We are staying right near the old city center, which is fantastic. Michael's conference is literally a block down the street, and all of the sites, restaurants, and cool things to do seem to be within a 20 minute walk.

The choice to build a fortress there is obvious - it is perched on top of a huge, solid bedrock peak. Archeology indicates that the mount has been inhabited in some form or another since the 2nd century, although the oldest part of the castle standing today was built in the 1200s. Still very old.

We took two walking tours of the old city today - the first of which was underground. By virtue of being built on a hilltop, the medieval era city (a walled city about 1 mile square) sloped down and away from the castle, and buildings were almost all at least 7 or more stories high (since they built up, rather than out), in which all 30,000 odd citizens and all of their livestock lived piled on top of each other. Incidentally, Edinburgh is the home of the first sky scrapers. In the 1700s, the city decided to build a new, centralized market place, so they leveled (literally) off a good portion of the buildings to be even with the other side of the street and just built what is now government buildings right over the old foundations. So, there are 3 or 4 stories of 400 year old houses and streets that are still intact, and now "underground". So this tour took us through some of the largest medieval streets, in what is now the basement of Edinburgh city hall. It was really, really cool. Unfortunately, since it's technically in a government building, no photography was allowed. But it was an amazing window into Edinburgh in the 1600s, and how cramped, dirty, dark and smelly it must have been. Thank goodness for indoor plumbing and building codes. The second widest street of old Edinburgh (the widest being the Royal Mile), which was a major market place filled with merchant stalls, cows, people and everything else, was 4 feet wide. Seriously. I could almost stretch my arms out and touch both walls, which would have gone up 7 stories above me. The ground floors would not have ever gotten direct sunlight. Of course, the poorest people lived on the ground floors, and the rich lived above them, all stacked up on top of one another. The tour was given by costumed guides, who played the roles of individuals that lived during different time periods, which was also kind of fun, and there was a lot of detail in the tour. We got to see the insides of several homes (some of which still contained the original plaster and wall paper from 400 years ago - that was crazy) and a lot of the little streets and alley ways that have been covered up. It was an absolutely fascinating tour.

A "close" is a little side street off the main Royal Mile, and was usually named after the most important business or resident. The underground tour was primarily of Mary King's Close, which was unusual in that it was named after a woman. Mary King's Close was the second widest market street in old Edinburgh.

We also did an above ground tour with the same company, which was also very interesting, about some of the still existing buildings.

St Giles Cathedral, which has been standing in some form or another since the 13th century.

The home of Lady Stairs, who had to marry an a**hole after she was widowed, because he didn't take no for an answer, bribed her maids to let her into her bedroom (while she wasn't there, hopefully) and stripped naked in front of the windows for the whole neighborhood to see. And of course that was so scandalous at the time she was forced to marry him. Uhg.

Beautiful Gregorian spires in the New Town, where all the rich people moved in the 1700s.

Another angle of St Giles, including "the Crown", which is a newer addition to the building that is a replica of the Scottish Crown and jewels (which we got to see in Edinburgh Castle!)

Looking out across the city.

The end of the tour was in in a little courtyard with the handprints of famous Scots - including J.K. Rowling! Apparently my hands are the same size as hers.

We also walked around Edinburgh Castle, which was a really interesting place. It was very well fortified, built directly on the volcanic bedrock, and I thought it was neat to see how they had integrated the very hard rock into the structure and design of the walls and interior buildings. It houses the Scottish Crown Jewels, and the royal apartments of Mary Stuart and her sons have been beautifully restored.

Castle on the hill. We're inside the outer defenses, here.

Looking very castle like. You can see how the existing bedrock is part of the foundations.

At the Portcullis gate!

There are really lovely views from the walls. My haircut was not designed for windy climes, though.

Inside the royal apartments. Yes, Michael's camera takes everything in mirror image, and I was too lazy to flip these ones, so all the words are backwards.

Outside the old castle church, which is now a grand memorial to all Scottish soldiers who died in Wars since WWI.

So overall, it was a really lovely day exploring the history of a beautiful city. We had dinner on the Royal Mile (fancy!) at a place that a friend of mine who is from Edinburgh recommended - it was very tasty!