Edinburgh Castle

Next tour of the day was the Edinburgh Castle. The rock the castle is built on has been settled since the Iron age and there has been a royal castle since at least the 12th century. It was originally a residence until the union of Scotland, England and Ireland in 1603. After this time it became a military base and jail for prisoners of war. It is still used as a working military establishment where the Scottish Division headquarters are based.

During its time as a residence, the castle has sheltered many Scottish monarchs including Mary Queen of Scots who gave birth to James VI of Scotland in the Royal Palace in 1566. James VI later became James I of England. You can visit the royal apartments and the Scottish crown jewels (but no pictures!).

Robert the Bruce and William Wallace

A few of the highlights . . .

Hospital

Governor's House

Dog cemetary

The oldest surviving part of the castle is a tiny Norman chapel built in the 12th century. St. Margaret's chapel is a very small plain chapel that the Queen still attends masses in when she finds herself in Edinburgh. 

Crown Square, developed in the 15th century, is where you will find the apartments and the crown jewels.

The Great Hall was built by James IV in 1510.

And lastly, the views from the castle.

After 7 hours of walking, it was time for a rest.

A séjour in Edinburgh

Another long weekend away for me! This time I headed north to Scotland, another country I had never been to before. Edinburgh is not a huge place but there is lots to see and it's a comfortable city to hang out in. It also has good beer and whisky which doesn't hurt :)

Exhibit A

Exhibit B

So to work off all those calories, I took a couple of walking tours - one of the city and one of the castle. The best part of the city tour is that it was free!

It starts in the centre of the city on the Royal Mile. This street is where you will find a number of restaurants, pubs and tourist shops.

The first part of the tour is centred around this street. We went by a number of monuments, the old Parliament and churches.

Mercat Cross

It served as a landmark for the merchants and citizens within the official hub of the city market.This monument is still used today to make public announcements to the people of Edinburgh like the birth of a new royal or an election.

Parliament Square

In the centre of the square is a stature of King Charles II dressed as a Roman Emperor. Placed here in 1685, it is the oldest lead cast statue in Britain. Around the square are a number of buildings including Parliament House which was built in 1641. It was used by the Scottish Parliament until the Treaty of Union in 1707. 

There is also the St. Giles Cathedral. St. Giles became a cathedral when Charles 1st reintroduced Bishops to this Presbyterian Scottish church, however, in 1688 it lost its Bishop during the "glorious revolution" but has always retained the name.

King Charles II

St. Giles Cathedral

Just on the other side of the street from the church is a statute of David Hume which people believe rubbing his toe gives good luck. It's pretty funny because Hume didn't believe in luck!

From the Royal Mile we headed past the castle down to the Grassmarket.

Grassmarket

Originally it was the site of cattle fairs which ended around 1670 when the market became used more as a transit point where traders. It was also the site of the gallows were people were hung for a variety of crimes including concealing pregnancies. One of the old pubs on the street Maggie Dickson's has a legend associated with it surrounding this law.

The last part of the tour took us to the Greyfriars graveyard, because who doesn't love a good graveyard?!

Greyfriars

Most people like this place because it is linked to Harry Potter - JK Rowling used to write looking out on this place and the school in the background was the inspiration for Hogwarts. As a non-Harry Potter person, I preferred the story of Bobby. 

Bobby was a dog (of course a Scottish terrier!) that worked with a night watchman and when the watchman passed on, the dog would sit at his grave everyday. There is a memorial for Bobby in the graveyard though he is not buried there. The question to ask, though, is how true is this story?

Statue of Bobby outside the graveyard

The commute in between here and Haymarket where I stayed.

Falafel and Picasso

As I have previously mentioned, Sundays are pretty low key here - even when you have visitors. This particular Sunday was no different, though we managed to squeeze in quite a few activities.

Our outing started with coffee with some friends of mine out in Le Marais.

With the sunshine came all sorts of colourful people

Next stop was falafel! Rue des rosiers has some of the best falafel around - it's famous here. It was time to try it out!

People line up for this stuff, probably because it's Lenny Kravitz endorsed! (and coincidentally he lives beside my office)

Monster falafel!

Ready to dig in!

After lounging in le jardin des rosiers, we headed out to see some Picassos. I hadn't been to this museum yet so I was happy to check it out. The one in Barcelona in my opinion is still better but this one is also worth the visit. I'm not a huge fan of taking photos of art so mostly these are of the building - which, once again, is equally as nice as the artwork on the walls!

Hôtel Salé