in which even i grow weary of seeing .... everywhere. {scotland archives}

Waking up in Edinburgh again...heaven.

Dad and I enjoyed some coffee in the breakfast room at the hotel before Jordan decided to wake up. There was also an English family in the room. One of the little girls actually asked her dad for "beans and toast!" (A common breakfast food there; they REALLY like baked beans apparently. They also sell ready-to-eat, pre-packaged pancakes and waffles right next to their bread.)

After check-out, we all started to walk towards town; our destination: Edinburgh Castle. We hadn't gone far before Jordan realized he'd left his tourist pass in the car, so while he and I went back for it, Dad decided to "stay." Except he wandered off. Yet another significant portion of the day spent lost...oy vey. After grabbing some breakfast at (where else) Starbucks, we apparently decided to take the long way to the castle....(lost again)...

Once we got to the castle, we discovered that it's more "in use" than any of the others. There were a bunch of military offices and whatnot. And countless military type museums. Kinda boring to my tastes. This castle also has a lot of buildings all nestled inside of it's walls, probably because it's the best preserved. Including a building which holds ---the Crown Jewels!!!! Gorgeous. Seriously. Wow. Too bad no photos were allowed...

After leaving the castle (which was quite overrun w/ American tourists. Who do they think they are, anyway?! oh wait...) we went shopping on Princes Street. They have some Scots-only stores, but also Gap, H&M, and McDonalds. We then left Edinburgh again to go to Craigmillar castle...which, after 3 hours of driving around we finally found just before closing-time. It was very pretty; very picturesque! It had gorgeous, twisting trees growing in it's entry-hall, which added a lovely fairy-tale element to it all.

There were also attack pigeons here. We were in a darker part of the castle (no indoor lighting, of course) and I heard a man's yell...it didn't sound like either Jordan or Dad, and as I turned around I saw Jordan leaping backwards away from a dark corner. I honestly thought there was some creeper-man over there yelling at him! Quickly Jordan explained that something had flown violently at his face, and in a barely a second the guilty pigeon came towards my head like a fluttering missile!! It was intense. And hilarious. Other castle patrons were laughing with us even...or was it AT us? :)

After this misadventure, we headed back to Edinburgh for the night. We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express by the sea port. Located across the way a bit was a large building, which turned out to be a mall. It wasn't very busy, but was a noble attempt at recreating the quintessential shopping experience. Of course I bought clothes. But not too much.
We ate at a restaurant in the mall, one of many, and don't let their location fool you; these are high-class joints. Super swank. They had a movie theatre in the mall, too, which we didn't patronize, but did observe that their stunning new releases were "Juno"! And some other movie from months ago! That's a bit sad, actually. Back to the hotel for a night cap. I also must mention that genuine, single-malt Scotch whisky is strong. Sinus-clearing strong. Yet still undeniably superior. Jack Daniels? Never again. (well...not this week anyway.)