More in Edinburgh

Just got back from the city of the dead tour. Oh what fun. Started with the underground vaults. Hundreds of years ago Edinburgh built bridges with large archways underneath. As 7-11 story houses were built on each side of the bridge, this created rooms where the arches were. These became connected over the years and the arches also evolved many different levels and divisions. They became business and residences. There were deaths and many horrors in these vaults. You can check more about them at wikipedia.
We followed our guide around town and into the vaults where it was very wet and dark. We were led through some areas in complete darkness and some of the people were a little nervous. Finally we ended up in Greyfriars Cemetary.
This is an amazing cemetary. Hundreds of monuments, stones and mosoleums. We have actually been to four different cemetarys in the last two days. It is impossible not to shortcut through them. These are what horror stories are made from.

Below is Greyfriars at night during the tour.

Now in daylight.

Also popped in to Holyrood House. Queens castle when she is in Edinburgh. Also attached is Holyrood Abbey. The Abbey was destroyed by Oliver Cromwell and is still in the same condition. Very interesting Abbey as you can see its construction when you look at the parts that were destroyed. There are kings and queens still buried inside the Abbey.

The Abbey

Inside the Abbey

Flying buttresses like these were often added long after construction when they felt the roof needed more support. Oliver Cromwell filled the Abbey with logs and set them ablaze over and over to make this Abbey fall.


The queen recently left Holyrood house. We were able to see the dining room which still was set with silver. The menu was on the plates for a dinner they had there a few days ago.

You can see the 14th century Abbey where joins the much newer palace.

The pubs here are a very nice place to hang out. So many British folks spend a lot of time there. They are quiet, and you are not allowed to wear sports team colors or anything related to sports, you cannot wear "fancy dress," nor the Scotish stripe. Don't want to cause any arguments or fights. Everyone is very polite and if someone gets too loud, total strangers will shoosh them. This is very interesting when you consider the pints here are bigger, and without carbonation you are getting at least 40% more liquid volume. So even though a beer might cost 3.85 p, you are getting almost the equivalent to a quart in the US.

We at lunch at Deacon Brodies pub on the Royal Mile and what you see above is Cullen Skink which is smoked haddock soup with cream and potato, and Eaton Mess. Eaton mess is rasberries with about 3 kinds of cream including whipped and clotted cream. Both were so good. Eaton mess is amazing with every bite. The entree was salmon, sea bass and cod with a gratin patato dish that was out of this world. When we eat, we only get one thing and split it. That is all we really need as we walk so much we don't want to slow down. AND everything is very expensive. Our lunch was about $50 and that was for one person. Usually we go to a grocery store and eat whatever looks good. Those are the best bargains for food anywhere. They even have haggis crisps (potato chips) which everyone loves. You can also go into shops etc. and they give you samples. Yesterday we sampled some cheese that looked like a big ball of bright orange transluscent parmagian. It had a very thick rind that looked like the surface of the moon. The young lady working there said the rind had cheese mites. Yes, little cheese bugs in the rind. It did taste like parmagian and Katie and I both loved it.