Our Travels: Scotland - Day 9

We got in so late last night (11:30pm) that we decided to let Josh sleep through breakfast. He agreed and got more rest. Karen and I had our first breakfast here with some other guests. Both were from England. One couple had come up here (by car) just for the Tattoo the night before. The other couple was here on a bike trip from Newcastle. They were getting ready to bike back this afternoon. They said there is a company who has mapped out most of the U.K. with excellent biking routes that never take you on a major highway and have you on good backroads that have very little car traffic. Intriguing for another trip sometime!

We got out the door around 10am and went straight to hike up Arthur's Seat -- an extinct volcano very near where we are staying. It is about 850 feet high, which seems to be quite high for these areas. It took us about 25 minutes to hike to the top, which afforded some great panoramic views of city. The day looked like it was going to be a great sunny day but it turned out to be a mostly cloudy and cool day after all. I (Jeff) was sick of wearing my pants and longer sleeve shirts so I braved it (thinking it was going to be sunny of course!) with shorts and a roll-up shirt. That worked out well for the hike. Even without the sun, we were a bit sweaty. The train was frequented by quite a lot of people, young, old and even many doggies, including one without one of its front legs. There is a massive flat field at the bottom of it and all we could think about was how much Athena would have loved the hike and the park. Surprisingly, there was no complaining from the little man. He hiked up and down without a problem. Since there are very few gyms here that allow non-members to come use their facilities for a day, I used this as part of my daily workout. Karen's achilles was starting to voice its disapproval.

We went straight from the hike to a kids show that was part of the "Fringe Festival" that runs here all month long. We bought tickets for a show called "I hate Children Children's Show". They have a TON of shows -- the program for it is very thick. Somehow, this one caught the eye of Karen and Josh. We got lucky. This show apparently one the award for best kids show last year and they got 4 stars this year. It was set in a courtyard where there were several indoor stages together in different buildings -- all devoted to kids. In the middle were 3 or 4 (I kid you not) beer/alcohol tents as well as a few places to buy kids food/drinks. The show was really well done. It was run by two guys from San Francisco. One of them is the lead and the other is his sidekick who helps mainly by playing guitar. He runs it as a comedy/magician show. He promises (and delivered!) on bringing up every single kid over the age of 8 up on stage. He would do tricks with them and ask them all sorts of questions. He was very spontaneous and witty with them. Josh loved it and couldn't wait to get on stage himself. Of course this is Josh. Josh is a ham. Every other kid gets up there and is either very nervous or just following orders from the lead Not Josh. Josh is looking for every opportunity to do something or say something funny/witty. The magician had fun with him but really didn't have a lot of time to deal with Josh's tactics. :) I could tell that if he had time to chat with Josh, they would probably sit and chat like old buds for an hour or two.

We headed out to the Scottish National Museum next not quite realizing that we were a bit hungry and getting tired. The museum is quite amazing. Well rested and fed, we could easily spend a few days there. Their displays were very well put together. Karen was in heaven in their pre-historic section. They had a very good interactive section for the kids which Josh enjoyed. In the end, Josh and I were not totally into the museum (for me, it was mainly a fatigue and hunger thing) so we left to grab a quick bite to eat and head back to rest. Tripadvisor guided us to a place called "The Piemaker" which had cheap "pies" -- pasty's and other savory pies. Like ham and cheese, steak & ale, etc. They were very good and just what we needed to fill us back up.

At that point, Karen headed back to the B&B to rest her feet and Josh and I headed to a bakery that was ranked good -- Cuckoo's. Turns out it was (mainly) a cupcake place. We got 5 cupcakes and a crushes Oreo and Salted Caramel Brownie. We hiked those back to the B&B to enjoy and relax.

Josh's red velvet cupcake was pretty good. Not exceptional. But the Sticky Toffee Pudding cupcake was insane. I don't know what it is with toffee, caramel or brown sugary deserts in this country, but they make them much better than anything in the U.S. The Oreo brownie (with caramel sauce) was also divide, again because it had Scottish caramel sauce!

Karen has been on the search for Mackay's Ginger marmalade sauce. The B&B here has it for breakfast and she's in love. Of course, we can't find it anywhere. But leave it to Amazon.com -- they have it for sale for $9. :)

We took a late afternoon (earl evening) stroll out after some rest and headed up to the nearby Calton Hill area. There are several older structures here but the most infamous one is the replica of the Parthenon that is only partially completed. They ran out of money for it (in the mid 1800s) and they never completed it. While it is called the "National Monument of Scotland", the locals dub it "Scotland's [or Edinburgh's] Disgrace". The views were excellent from this point.

We took a stroll down the New Town section but it was already getting "late" (but the sun's still out) -- 7pm. We found a nice restaurant on Rose St. Josh had another hamburger and mash (the burger was very good), I had the Steak and Ale Pie (quite tasty), Karen had the chicken sandwich (lots of shredded cheddar!) and we shared a plate of onion rings. The onion rings were smaller shaped (like normal onion slices -- not the gigantic ones we get in the U.S.) but very very tasty. Karen and I shared a jug of Pimms and Lemonade. I'm starting to wonder if they consider that a "girly drink" here. I've been ordering it a lot so it wouldn't surprise it. And honestly, I could care less. Just curious, that's all!

The town seems remarkably clean and graffiti free for a large European town. There are very few homeless people -- and I'm sure they're out in force with the festivals here. It's really a pleasant city to spend time in. They love their pubs and drinking establishments. As our friends Tony and Lisa mentioned on their trip to Edinburgh earlier this year, there are several restaurants and pubs that can't serve minors after 8pm. Even higher end restaurants. Very strange. And it's not obvious which restaurants can and cannot serve minors after 8pm until you go in. (they tell you right away)

This is our last full day in Scotland. It has been an amazing birthday trip for me -- it has been everything I had hoped it would be. We have found another gem of a country and most certainly will be making it back here in the near future. We felt totally comfortable and really enjoyed talking with everyone we met, in the small or large cities.

Tomorrow, we check out and take the train to York and begin our week-long trip in England with the Halters.