Katie and Tyler in the UK: Irn Bru

Worn out after riding the train all night and hitting the ground running in Edinburgh Scotland. The train ride was bumpy and loud. Katie slept the night through. The berth was cheap and it was nice to lay down while travelling.

One of the things I wanted to try was Irn Bru, a local soft drink favorite. Reminded me of bubble gum, orange pop, tonic water with a hint of after-shave. I didn't finish the one I bought.

Everywhere you go there is a great smell of food cooking. It smells like very rich gravy. I'm sure it is haggis. They serve it in every restaurant and there is a haggis factory that makes 90% of all that is served in Edinburgh.

We went to a World's End pub and had haggis with tatties and neeps, black pudding with goat cheese and salad of all things.

The haggis is really good. It has a texture somewhere between cooked barley and oatmeal. It has a good spice mixture and is not very meaty, but it has a meaty taste. Great with the whiskey gravy and the mashed potatos are always good no matter where you eat. The black pudding wasn't my favorite. It is made out of hogs blood and has some of the same tastes you would find in kidney pie, but not so strong.

Visited Edinburgh Castle. Very impressive and built on a huge rock right by our hotel. At night it is lit up and looms over the city.

Escargot everywhere on the huge rock that makes the castle, but none to eat. Actually there are at least two kinds of these snails and in places there are many in a small area.

More of the castle.....

Aurhtur's Seat is an extinct volcano in the background. Kind of an optical illusion if you live around big mountains. It looks like a large mountain maybe covered with trees and rocky outcrops. It's not really that big and is in the city. When you see people walking on the Seat, they look way too big because of the scale of the mountain. Hard to explain, but it is strange to see people walking there. We didn't get a chance to climb it as it was raining pretty hard at the end of the day when we planned our ascent.

St. Margarets Chapel within the castle was built in 1130 and is the oldest part of the castle.

Every August they set up a huge set of stadium seating at the castle for the military tattoo. They take it down in September with is a very incredible task.

We could walk to the castle from our hotel in about 10 minutes. On the way there is a beautiful elementary school that is fenced on one side by the Flodden Wall erected, following the Scots' defeat at the Battle of Flodden Field in 1513. On the other side of the wall is Grayfriar's Cemetery. We would take a short cut through the cemetery to get to the castle or the Royal mile. Within the wall there is a large iron gate. One day in the cememtery there were teacher from the school having a smoke during recess. When they were done they took a huge set of keys, unlocked the gate and went back into the school.

George Heriot's School built in 1628 and bordered on one side by Flodden wall. On the other side Greyfriar's Cemetary.

Greyfriar's Pub on the left with the black paint. Just a few feet beyond the pub and on the left between two buildings is one of the open entrances to the cememtery. On our way to the train station about 10:00 at night we did walk by and all the gates were locked for some reason. Up until then they were always open.

Many Mausoleums have a lower level with access for making additions. When the lower level is full then they fill the upper level. Many of these are still used today and have been for hundreds of years by the same families.

Part of the cemetery is locked tight because of ghost activity. Some nights they do open it and we were there. We even stood in side a mausoleum in total darkness.

Photos from around Edinburgh including Grass Market and the Royal Mile.

The last day in Edinburgh we took a walk up Calton Hill. The description from the official website.
Calton Hill is one of Edinburgh's main hills, set right in the city centre. It is unmistakable with its Athenian acropolis poking above the skyline.

The acropolis is in fact an unfinished monument - originally called the "National Monument". Initiated in 1816, a year after Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo, it was meant to be a replica of the Parthenon in Athens, as a memorial to those who had died in the Napoleonic Wars.

Building began in 1822, but funds ran dry and celebrated Edinburgh architect William Playfair only saw a facade of his building completed. It was dubbed "Edinburgh's shame", but it's now a popular landmark and it's a lot of fun crawling up and down its giant steps. Plans since to complete the building never really get much support.

The top of Calton hill is a usually quiet place to come on any day, with its grassy slopes and panoramic views of the city, including down the length of Princes street (the main shopping thoroughfare) and Edinburgh Castle. There is a good view North of the ruddy-coloured cliffs of Salisbury Crags, Arthur's Seat, and the undulating slopes of Holyrood Park.

Calton Hill is easily accessed. It takes about five minutes to get to the top of the hill from a staircase at Regent Road on the South side, Royal Terrace on the North side, or you can drive up and park. There is a path right round the edge of the hill and a jumble of historic buildings and structures on top including, for star gazers, an observatory. In fact, there are two observatories on Calton Hill: the Old Observatory House, designed by New Town architect James Craig in 1792; and the City Observatory, built in 1818, which has exhibitions and viewings of the night sky.

Also of interest is Nelson's Monument (the British admiral who led his fleet to victory at Trafalgar in 1805), which has a famous timeball mechanism by which ships used to set their chronometres.