After a gourmet breakfast, we set out to experience another day in Edinburgh. Gladstone's Land, a Rebus Tour (huh?) and Holyrood Palace. Gladstone's Land is a 16th -17th century house/rooms/ apartments and is quite interesting. Some of the original interior decoration (ceiling painting) survives. Life during that time could be harsh and sanitation nonexistent. Be very thankful for plumbing, sewage treatment, garbage pick-up etc. Dodging hazardous waste was part of day to day life. From the stuff being hurled from the windows- chamber pots dirty dishwater garbage- to the garbage/sewage -human and animal- already present on the street, it must have been quite the obstacle course to do a bit of window shopping in Gladstone's Land. Hmmm, wonder if that's where the expression,"Look out below!" originated. And since it was believed that bathing was unhealthy-, your family, friends and neighbors were on the nose- as they say. Not to be left out is the menagerie farm animals, and pets that lived both outdoors and indoors. It was shall we say a bit of a noxious stew on the street, and a really really malodorous environment.
We finished with Gladstone's Land just in time for a Rebus Tour.OK, yours truly did not read the brochure details closely enough and what I thought was a historic tour through some of the back alleys was a tour of the places in a book series written by a Scotsman by the name of Ian Rankin. The main character is a seasoned detective in the Edinburgh police name John, wait for it, here it comes, you'll never guess it.. Rebus. Here it is again in case you forgot, John Rebus. Apparently, the series is very popular but I'd never heard of it. And if I'd not heard of it, you can be darned sure The Big Fella was not an avid fan. I knew that something was not right when our first stop was the backside of the city morgue. Our guide, Colin Brown was quite entertaining as he walked us through Detective Rebus' haunts stopping from time to time to read passages from various books from the series. Not what we were expecting-lots of eye rolling from the Big Fella and nuts no stops that included military hardware-but we made the best of it and found a pretty good lunch stop before heading on to our next stop -Holyrood Palace.
When the Queen stays in Edinburgh, it is at Holyrood Palace. It is a grand place with beautiful grounds and opulent rooms. We walked into the King's bedroom -however it is unlikely that a royal ever slept there -although there was a bed in it. The room was used to receive guests and conduct official business. A peak into the room where Mary Queen of Scots gave birth to her son James IV who later became King James I of England -I think. As I said before, a road map would be helpful to keep all of these people straight. And of course Mary was executed by her half sister Elizabeth I. Families are funny, no? Exiting the palace is a glorious view of Arthur's Seat and Salisbury Crags. What a great place for a palace- location, location,location! Now on to...
Our last full day in Edinburgh and the goal was Arthur's Peak. It's hikeable and yes even with my bum wheel I did it -with an assist from my walking stick. The sunny skies brought out many with the same idea but there was enough room at the top for all to enjoy the 360 degree view of the city and The Firth of Forth. In a hunt for the "easy way down" we encountered a lovely woman named Jenny also trying to located the easy way down. Jenny had about 10-15 yrs on us and in great shape. Off we went until the trail came to an abrupt end that came with two choices: 1. meadow scramble straight up where we knew the "hard way" was or turn around and try again. This time taking a slightly different path headed us in the wrong direction. The Big Fella was prepared with a compass but no map-because there wasn't one- and we found our way back to the road. Jenny stayed with us until she arrived at her bus stop. Funny though we did not introduce ourselves until the end of the journey. Then we were off again to find...
Souvenirs! Back to the Royal Mile we went where we had a most unusual encounter with a shop owner. Curmudgeon really is what he was. He insulted customers, told me I was stupid for not knowing the ingredients of Haggis, went on about the Masonic Lodge a bit, asked me if I belonged to the Eastern Star. When I said nope I didn't think Catholics were allowed, he bristled. Apparently,the organization was founded by Catholics and Jews. Huh? I haven't googled it yet but by this time my head was spinning, the Big Fella chose to remain silent -probably a good thing. I bought a can of Haggis and left. A final bit of slow wandering on the Royal Mile and our days in Edinburgh were done. Oh, boy do I ever want to come back to Scotland. Next time it will be to the Highlands and maybe a wee bit of Edinburgh too as we barely scratched the surface of what is here to see and do.
Next up Ireland!
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