Hi everyone!
Sorry for the overload of blog entries but they are just going to keep coming as I find the time to go through more photos, luckily this entry will give you a break from that LOL!
Well the family is gone now... they left this morning and should be arriving at home in a couple hours from now. It's crazy how fast two weeks goes by! I miss them already! But in a couple of weeks Wendy and Kyle will be here to visit!! Then eventually Kirsteen and Jason!
Ok so this entry is going to be completely from memory of the weekend so we'll see how much I can remember... my sister or parents can always fill in some details if they wish haha. After work last Thursday we met up at the tube station and took the long journey to Heathrow airport. Once we arrived in Edinburgh we picked up our rental car - my dad driving on the opposite side of the car and road was an adventure in itself!! I don't recommend driving in the UK if you can avoid it LOL. We got completely lost trying to navigate the city in the dark but when I wasn't scared for my life because of the driving I actually saw some really lovely sights haha! We eventually found the place we were staying at - Canon Court Apartments. Our apartment was really big (at least comparatively to my dorm!) - it had two bedrooms, a bathroom, living area, and kitchen. And it was really quiet except for the snoring of my parents LOL.
Friday morning we woke up and decided to explore Edinburgh Castle and the surrounding area. We started off on a guided tour around the castle but gave up on that and decided to go off on our own instead. We got to see the Stone of Destiny, which was really cool in terms of significance but nothing really special to look at!! It is the stone that King Edward stole from Scotland a million years ago, they aren't really sure what it's original significance was I don't think, but since then it has been used as a part of England's coronation chair all the way up to our current Queen. England returned it to Scotland about ten years ago with the agreement that it will be leant to them again for the next crowning, most likely Prince William.
After the castle, we walked down The Royal Mile. We went into a tartan factory which was pretty cool and did a bit of shopping down the street. We were going to return later that night to meet outside of St. Gile's Cathedral for a "City of the Dead" walking tour but it ended up raining a lot that night so we just bought food from Tesco and spent the night in our apartment and watched "The X Factor" (basically like American Idol but a little different... haha).
Saturday we decided to check out the other end of The Royal Mile - The Palace of Holyroodhouse and Arthur's Seat. We went to the palace first, which is the official royal residence of the Queen when she takes her annual trip to Scotland every summer. The Queen's Gallery had an exhibition on at the moment of Canaletto, an artist who drew and painted many pictures of Venice - very beautiful and ridiculously detailed!! The palace itself was really nice and we all walked around like dorky tourists with our audio guides LOL. After visiting the palace we decided to find some lunch and explore the area a bit. We wandered around a graveyard we came across, went into the Museum of Edinburgh and The People's Story (not very interesting but oh well). Then after lunch at a nearby cafe, we decided to walk up Arthur's Seat (don't ask me why it's called that because I never found out... if I had the time I suppose I could Google it like I usually do but I don't care enough haha). It is basically a huge hill thing that has gorgeous views of the city. It was a steep and somewhat muddy climb with signs warning of falling rocks (eek) but the views were pretty good except that it was a little rainy and hazy.
That afternoon we decided to head to Leith to see the Royal Yacht Britannia and wander around the Ocean Terminal Mall. We stopped in the mall for coffee at Starbuck's first and went in a couple stores before going to investigate the yacht. Yet again we looked dorky with our audio guides LOL. The ship was gorgeous though! Apparently you can still rent it out for private functions but I'm sure that costs A LOT.
Well my memory is going to go really fuzzy now because my parents left me the camera card that supposedly had my photos on it but it is blank... so I hope my mom has them somewhere or else I'll be pretty upset!!!!! I guess I should've checked the card before they left...
Okay well I think it was that night that we headed back to St. Gile's to go on that walking tour - it was a haunted graveyard tour. Our guide was really enthusiastic and hilarious, and took us to one of the most haunted areas of Edinburgh. We got to enter the Greyfriar's Cemetery where Greyfriar's Bobby has a memorial haha (he was a dog that legend has it that when his master died the dog laid on his grave for 14 years, became pretty famous I guess. But according to our guide the dog was laying on the wrong grave and was probably just laying there for shelter between the tombstones not out of loyalty LOL). Anyway not important to the tour! It had been raining and now it was dark so we had to trudge through the mud, my Pumas are in pretty rough shape haha.
We walked to the side of the cemetery where all the bad guys and rogues were buried, no tombstones though because they apparently don't deserve to be remembered or visited. Standing in this part of the cemetery our guide told us stories about body snatchers and famous serial killers Burke and Hare, who killed people by basically sitting on their chests so they couldn't breathe thus keeping the bodies fairly intact and undamaged so that they could sell them to medical schools. From there we headed to the back of the cemetery where the Covenanter's Prison and the Black Mausoleum were... The Covenanter's Prison was basically like a concentration camp where "Bloody" George MacKenzie persecuted Presbyterians brutally. His tomb lies next to the Prison and it is said that his coffin is never in the same spot twice because he cannot rest peacefully after what he put his victims through. Now that area of the cemetery is haunted by what is referred to as the MacKenzie Poltergeist and our guide told us that in the last seven years there have been over 400 physical attacks within the cemetery. Very creepy to be there at night...
The following day we decided to go on a roadtrip out of the city and explore the area of Scotland around Perth and Stirling. We ended up visiting Stirling Castle... ok I'm going to stop this entry now for a couple reasons: 1) I am starting to forget details of what we did and have nothing to refer to, 2) I need to go shower, 3) I need to do some stuff for work tomorrow before I go to bed!
So I hope you all have a good day/night whatever time it is there! haha. And I will talk to you soon!!
Love and miss you all
Later days :o)
Sorry for the overload of blog entries but they are just going to keep coming as I find the time to go through more photos, luckily this entry will give you a break from that LOL!
Well the family is gone now... they left this morning and should be arriving at home in a couple hours from now. It's crazy how fast two weeks goes by! I miss them already! But in a couple of weeks Wendy and Kyle will be here to visit!! Then eventually Kirsteen and Jason!
Ok so this entry is going to be completely from memory of the weekend so we'll see how much I can remember... my sister or parents can always fill in some details if they wish haha. After work last Thursday we met up at the tube station and took the long journey to Heathrow airport. Once we arrived in Edinburgh we picked up our rental car - my dad driving on the opposite side of the car and road was an adventure in itself!! I don't recommend driving in the UK if you can avoid it LOL. We got completely lost trying to navigate the city in the dark but when I wasn't scared for my life because of the driving I actually saw some really lovely sights haha! We eventually found the place we were staying at - Canon Court Apartments. Our apartment was really big (at least comparatively to my dorm!) - it had two bedrooms, a bathroom, living area, and kitchen. And it was really quiet except for the snoring of my parents LOL.
Friday morning we woke up and decided to explore Edinburgh Castle and the surrounding area. We started off on a guided tour around the castle but gave up on that and decided to go off on our own instead. We got to see the Stone of Destiny, which was really cool in terms of significance but nothing really special to look at!! It is the stone that King Edward stole from Scotland a million years ago, they aren't really sure what it's original significance was I don't think, but since then it has been used as a part of England's coronation chair all the way up to our current Queen. England returned it to Scotland about ten years ago with the agreement that it will be leant to them again for the next crowning, most likely Prince William.
After the castle, we walked down The Royal Mile. We went into a tartan factory which was pretty cool and did a bit of shopping down the street. We were going to return later that night to meet outside of St. Gile's Cathedral for a "City of the Dead" walking tour but it ended up raining a lot that night so we just bought food from Tesco and spent the night in our apartment and watched "The X Factor" (basically like American Idol but a little different... haha).
Saturday we decided to check out the other end of The Royal Mile - The Palace of Holyroodhouse and Arthur's Seat. We went to the palace first, which is the official royal residence of the Queen when she takes her annual trip to Scotland every summer. The Queen's Gallery had an exhibition on at the moment of Canaletto, an artist who drew and painted many pictures of Venice - very beautiful and ridiculously detailed!! The palace itself was really nice and we all walked around like dorky tourists with our audio guides LOL. After visiting the palace we decided to find some lunch and explore the area a bit. We wandered around a graveyard we came across, went into the Museum of Edinburgh and The People's Story (not very interesting but oh well). Then after lunch at a nearby cafe, we decided to walk up Arthur's Seat (don't ask me why it's called that because I never found out... if I had the time I suppose I could Google it like I usually do but I don't care enough haha). It is basically a huge hill thing that has gorgeous views of the city. It was a steep and somewhat muddy climb with signs warning of falling rocks (eek) but the views were pretty good except that it was a little rainy and hazy.
That afternoon we decided to head to Leith to see the Royal Yacht Britannia and wander around the Ocean Terminal Mall. We stopped in the mall for coffee at Starbuck's first and went in a couple stores before going to investigate the yacht. Yet again we looked dorky with our audio guides LOL. The ship was gorgeous though! Apparently you can still rent it out for private functions but I'm sure that costs A LOT.
Well my memory is going to go really fuzzy now because my parents left me the camera card that supposedly had my photos on it but it is blank... so I hope my mom has them somewhere or else I'll be pretty upset!!!!! I guess I should've checked the card before they left...
Okay well I think it was that night that we headed back to St. Gile's to go on that walking tour - it was a haunted graveyard tour. Our guide was really enthusiastic and hilarious, and took us to one of the most haunted areas of Edinburgh. We got to enter the Greyfriar's Cemetery where Greyfriar's Bobby has a memorial haha (he was a dog that legend has it that when his master died the dog laid on his grave for 14 years, became pretty famous I guess. But according to our guide the dog was laying on the wrong grave and was probably just laying there for shelter between the tombstones not out of loyalty LOL). Anyway not important to the tour! It had been raining and now it was dark so we had to trudge through the mud, my Pumas are in pretty rough shape haha.
We walked to the side of the cemetery where all the bad guys and rogues were buried, no tombstones though because they apparently don't deserve to be remembered or visited. Standing in this part of the cemetery our guide told us stories about body snatchers and famous serial killers Burke and Hare, who killed people by basically sitting on their chests so they couldn't breathe thus keeping the bodies fairly intact and undamaged so that they could sell them to medical schools. From there we headed to the back of the cemetery where the Covenanter's Prison and the Black Mausoleum were... The Covenanter's Prison was basically like a concentration camp where "Bloody" George MacKenzie persecuted Presbyterians brutally. His tomb lies next to the Prison and it is said that his coffin is never in the same spot twice because he cannot rest peacefully after what he put his victims through. Now that area of the cemetery is haunted by what is referred to as the MacKenzie Poltergeist and our guide told us that in the last seven years there have been over 400 physical attacks within the cemetery. Very creepy to be there at night...
The following day we decided to go on a roadtrip out of the city and explore the area of Scotland around Perth and Stirling. We ended up visiting Stirling Castle... ok I'm going to stop this entry now for a couple reasons: 1) I am starting to forget details of what we did and have nothing to refer to, 2) I need to go shower, 3) I need to do some stuff for work tomorrow before I go to bed!
So I hope you all have a good day/night whatever time it is there! haha. And I will talk to you soon!!
Love and miss you all
Later days :o)
posted by Heather at 1:01 p.m.
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