Edinburgh is great, a must stop if you are planning a trip to Scotland. This fact, however, does not appear to be a new revolation as the city is chuck full of tourists, comfortable walking shoes are out in full effect. Even with the number of tourists and occassional feel that you're walking thru a section in Epcot the city still wins with its charm and amazing history. If anyone does need me to pick up a kilt and a graphic t-shirt, a plastic sword and a bottle of whiskey (at the same store) do let me know.
Here is a snapshot of how the past few days went down:
Literary Tour - This was right up our alley. A combination of drinking, walking, storytelling and a sprinkle of being a nerd on top and you have the Literary Tour. Our guides engaged in a lively debate as to the appropriate legacies for many of Edinburgh's literary hero's. Spoiler alert: they were all pretty much drunk the whole time. Fun way to see the city while enjoying a few pints along the way. Word of advice, don't be a douche and try to high brow order single malt Whiskey in a bar that is literally in the basement. Especially when you clearly have no idea what you're talking about.
WWW Tour - The W tour was a full day bus tour consisting of a visit to the William Wallace Monument, Whiskey Distillery and Waterfall. Typically we are not all that interested in a full day bus tours, however this offered an opportunity to see some important Scottish landmarks. Nick was our friendly (ok no so friendly) tour guide. Off we went, taking off from the Royal Mile. Nick's voice was hypnotic, it immediately lured us into the best naps of our trip yet. Maybe it was his rhythmic, Jim Nantz like delivery, or the fact that we haven't been sleeping that well on our rock hard mattress, we all caught up on some much needed sleep.
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| Yes Nick, we are totally listening. We are not at all sleeping. |
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| Battle of Stirling Bridge - This is where William Wallace camped prior to his famous battle with King Edward. The yellow castle in the distance is where the English Army camped the night before. Talk about your stare down. |
We also learned how whiskey is made at the worlds oldest working Scotch Whiskey distillery, The Famous Grouse Experience (Glenturret Distillery).
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| Don't make a big deal, just enjoying my single malt from the same cask as Prince William / Princess Kate |
Edinburgh Castle - The only working castle left in Scotland, it's truly amazing. Completely dripping in history. Daily the castle engages in a cannon ceremony, which is used to give a time confirmation to the ships in the harbor. There is a ceremonial reenactment each day at 1pm, we all wanted to see it. We of course were waiting in line to get our tickets at 12:57. 12:59, tickets purchased, go! Naturally the cannon went off as we were running up the drawbridge. We successfully missed the only point in the day where time actually mattered. Nice work team.
Took in a walking tour of the castle, was able to learn some great factoids and future answers to a wednesday night bar trivia question. Hard to fathom all the work that needed to be done to logistically run a castle today, yet alone in the 1500's. Certainly one of the must see items in Edinburgh.
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| Do we dance in a 14th century Scottish Castle? Oh we dance. |
Escape - Richard had found on TripAdvisor a link to a live action game called Escape. The premise of this game is that you are trapped in a room in which you have 60 minutes to escape. In order to accomplish your goal you will need to complete a series of puzzles, riddles, etc to ultimately allow you to open a safe, find keys and get out alive. All of us were fairly convinced we were walking into the live version of the movie Saw, thankfully that wasn't the case. We were shown into our room and the clock starts...We cruse thru the first few riddles, pulling combinations from clocks, maps and bus schedules. We hit a snag once we get to a puzzle that we all thought were dominoes but in actuality was a section of braille that we had to decipher, who knew? Clearly none of us had sufficient braille experience but we managed to get thru. Clock is ticking, final code is needed. 30 sections left, we find the CD we need, final code is 1977, go! Richard enters the code just as time expires, we did it, well sort of as we still needed to get out of the room once we had the keys inside. We'll call it a draw.
Fun game, great couple days. The Adventour continues...
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| Just your average Tuesday.
Fun fact: William Wallace was 6 foot 5. Mel Gibson is 5 foot 6.
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