Scotland - Edinburgh
Ok, well I'm going to try to fly through these things so lets start chronologically.
Edinburgh (pronounced Edinboro for reasons I can only imagine) is the capital (I think) and the crown jewel of the country. I can say this with some certainty because the crown jewels of Scotland are actually in the BIG FREAKING castle up on the hill.
The city is split into a few districts, and the train station drops you right in the middle of the main two sections - an old one with tons of ancient buildings and the new one with all the modern business district. In a rare example of British efficiency, these are actually called "Old Town" and "New Town" which made me like Edinburgh immediately.
A trip up to the castle is a tourist necessity, but this was actually pretty cool. Aside from the ludicrous entrance fee of 9 pounds and the afroementioned 40 degree wind and rain, it's a neat tour. If youa re into irony, then easily the funniest part of the tour comes where you see the impressive cannons pointing out at the ground hundreds of feet below, and you think, "Damn, I'd hate to try to attack this thing - those cannons would destroy me." Then the tour guide says that "Those cannons weren't actually here. In fact, they didn't fire cannons from the castle." WTF? That's like an old building in Philadelphia having a statue of Franklin, Washington, Jefferson and Adams playing poker with the inscription, "Here's what it would've looked like if any of these guys played cards or had ever stepped into this place."
But the castle is huge (see pictures at shutterfly) and there's a touching memorial where every Scottish soldier killed in any modern battle is memorialized (I got a dirty look from the guide when he added, "Even the recent Iraq conflict.") Plus there's an interesting prison where they took all the American sailors who were captured in the Revolutionary War. Boy that must've sucked. Your boat sinks, they throw you on a British ship and send you several thousand miles and months away to a cold and damp jail on the top of a mountain in Scotland. You gotta figure the war was over for at least 6 months before these guys even heard it was over and then another 12 months to get them back.
For the most part, from a tourist perspective Old Town consists of the Royal Mile which extends from the castle down to the current home of the Scottish Royal Family when they are in town (probably the 2 or 3 days of nice weather in July).
One fun stat and then we'll move onto a new subject. At one time in Scotland there were 70,000 people and 2,000 pubs. Yes, that's 1 pub for every 35 people. Which is probably a good segue.
Edinburgh (pronounced Edinboro for reasons I can only imagine) is the capital (I think) and the crown jewel of the country. I can say this with some certainty because the crown jewels of Scotland are actually in the BIG FREAKING castle up on the hill.
The city is split into a few districts, and the train station drops you right in the middle of the main two sections - an old one with tons of ancient buildings and the new one with all the modern business district. In a rare example of British efficiency, these are actually called "Old Town" and "New Town" which made me like Edinburgh immediately.
A trip up to the castle is a tourist necessity, but this was actually pretty cool. Aside from the ludicrous entrance fee of 9 pounds and the afroementioned 40 degree wind and rain, it's a neat tour. If youa re into irony, then easily the funniest part of the tour comes where you see the impressive cannons pointing out at the ground hundreds of feet below, and you think, "Damn, I'd hate to try to attack this thing - those cannons would destroy me." Then the tour guide says that "Those cannons weren't actually here. In fact, they didn't fire cannons from the castle." WTF? That's like an old building in Philadelphia having a statue of Franklin, Washington, Jefferson and Adams playing poker with the inscription, "Here's what it would've looked like if any of these guys played cards or had ever stepped into this place."
But the castle is huge (see pictures at shutterfly) and there's a touching memorial where every Scottish soldier killed in any modern battle is memorialized (I got a dirty look from the guide when he added, "Even the recent Iraq conflict.") Plus there's an interesting prison where they took all the American sailors who were captured in the Revolutionary War. Boy that must've sucked. Your boat sinks, they throw you on a British ship and send you several thousand miles and months away to a cold and damp jail on the top of a mountain in Scotland. You gotta figure the war was over for at least 6 months before these guys even heard it was over and then another 12 months to get them back.
For the most part, from a tourist perspective Old Town consists of the Royal Mile which extends from the castle down to the current home of the Scottish Royal Family when they are in town (probably the 2 or 3 days of nice weather in July).
One fun stat and then we'll move onto a new subject. At one time in Scotland there were 70,000 people and 2,000 pubs. Yes, that's 1 pub for every 35 people. Which is probably a good segue.
posted by ABoyer at
12:44 PM
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