While Matt visited with some friends, the rest of us decided to spend Wednesday morning touring Holyroodhouse, the official residence of Her Majesty the Queen in Scotland.
The walk down the Royal Mile to the palace was interesting, too.
The John Knox house:
Some detail around the house's gift shop:
"Love God above all and your neighbor as yourself"
We did an audio tour of Holyroodhouse. Photographs weren't permitted inside, unfortunately, but the tour included the rooms of Mary Queen of Scots as well as the ruins of this Abbey, which predates the palace.
After the tour we nixed the idea of climbing Arthur's Seat (seen in the background of the picture below), and opted to do the gentler climb up Calton Hill.
A little self-timer jumping action on the bonnie hills for ya:
Holyroodhouse and Arthur's Seat can be seen behind that cute couple:
The ever-present thistle:
Some view from Calton Hill:
Edinburgh Castle overlooking a park on our walk back to the hostel:
We did some shopping and then met Matt and a University friend of his for some coffee. On Greenmarket Street, not far from the hostel, we passed a shop that specialized in deep-frying foods that should never be deep-fried. I of course had to try the famous Edinburgh deep-fried Mars bar because a whole segment of the travel show Rick Steve's Europe: Scotland was dedicated to this delicacy. It looked gross and did some major damage to my arteries, but I'm happy to say that the calories I burned on my climb up Calton Hill didn't go to waste. Then it was off to the train station for the return trip to London, where I hoped to find some trace of a vegetable in my next meal.*
* Just for fun, I thought I'd share what I ate while in Edinburgh:
Monday:
potato roll
mocha latte
beef pie with french fries
Tuesday:
bagel with egg salad, latte
mocha latte
ham and brie sandwich
fish and chips
Pooh Bear (steamed milk with honey and nutmeg, April's and my idea of a drink at the pub. I made Steve order it.)
Wednesday:
egg roll, o.j.
scone
mocha latte
chicken sandwich, orange
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