Day 137 - On a hill and underground, sort of

For our final day in Edinburgh we fit in quite a bit. A castle, museum, shopping, eating, underground streets and repacking. Busy busy day.

To start we went to the castle. We managed to see most of it without taking our whole day. How?? We finally figured out what we should haw ages ago. Go early(ish) and put a cap on. Decide when to leave and leave around that time. Genius!
This particular castle is still in used by the military here so not everywhere is open to the public. What is open is pretty great though. The Scottish Crown Jewels are housed here for all to see as well as the "stone of destiny."
3 army museums, 2 prison museums (1 for prisoners of war, 1 for misbehaving army men), a church, what's left of a tower and plenty more.

Leaving the castle we shopped along the way to lunch at the oldest pub in Edinburgh. The white hart. Really really good food there.

Shop some more on the way to another museum. The writers museum pays tribute to 3 celebrated Scottish authors. It's quite small and was close to closing so we weren't there long.

Some more walking, in fluffy fluffy snow this time!!, we went back to the hostel to warm up and do some laundry before our last journey of the day.

Mary King's close. A 'close' is a street. This particular street is underground though. Sort of. It used to be just like all the other streets here in Edinburgh, in use from the 12th century up until the 20th. Originally it was proper ground level, which sloped quite dramatically downward and then the city decided to build something else there. They wanted that something else to be flat and so used the former street as foundation for the new building.
Anyway, it's a street under a building that still has rooms from homes, shops and allegedly ghosts. We took an hour long tour through it with an actor guide. He told us all about the way it was and most importantly cleared up the big question around the whole place.
Was the street covered over to contain plague victims and let them die there?
No. It wasn't. There had been a serious plague outbreak around that area some time before it was covered over, but everyone had left before it was sealed off.
Also, similarity to the caves in Nottingham, it was used as an air-raid shelter in the war.

That was our last day. Tomorrow will be very long as well and will move me ever closer to home. Poo.
Amsterdam, I'm coming!

xoxo








Jan 18, 2013