Nope, we’re not back in California, and that was not a typo, and it wasn’t engrish. There really is a Holyrood Park here in Edinburgh, and it’s about the only point in the city that has a higher altitude than the castle.
Like most days in Scotland, the rain will come and go hour by hour. When we started on the hike near the uber-modern parliament building it was a beautiful sunny day.
But once we reached the base of this extinct volcano, the dark clouds started moving in.
We already came this far, so there is no tuning back now… Onwards ho!
Jay wasn’t too happy with his choice of attire once we got further up to find this was more like a hike through the Nile river.
But every few hundred yards, the slipping and slidding through mud puddles was all worth it when the sun would break through and reveal amazing views.
Both far away…
and close up…
The summit was INCREDIBLE! Both an incredible view…
We hiked back down the other side of the mountain, and explored the ruins of St. Anthony’s chapel that was built around 1426
It provided a nice place to practice rock climbing
After dominating Holyrood, we waked back up The Royal Mile, grabbed a bite to eat at a Thai/Indian restaurant, and then rushed off to one of the most popular comedy shows of the festival.
There was a Canadian on a unicycle juggling flaming clubs, but that was nothing compared to what we saw next.
Another Canadian in a nearby plaza had just rode in (from Canada) on a motorcycle! He was a Santa Cruz trained juggler with multiple world records. He was juggling chainsaws, grenades, machetes amoungst other things. He must have sensed his fellow Santa Cruzians in the audience as he selected Jay out of the crowd for a little assistance.
Check the video for the rest of the story as words just wouldn’t do it justice.
Today we woke up early and headed out to see some of the many sights the city had to offer. Our first stop was to be the Edinburgh Castle that just dominated the city skyline.
But first we had to fuel up…
After a 15 minute hike up Castle Rock we reached the summit…
…where we passed through the first line of defence, the outer castle gates…
…to the the first line of offense, the dozens of cannons…
…overlooking the entire city below.
After winding around the inner castle roads, and climbing a few flights of stairs…
…we breached the inner walls of the castle! Before us now was The Crown Room, where the infamous Crowned Jewels of Scotland are housed.
We instantly agreed that taking the Crowned Jewels back to America would be the ULTIMATE souvenir. Based on the history of the jewels (not to mention the vault they were stored in) we knew the Scotts would not lay down easily when we stormed the castle. So we first popped into the War Museum and suited up in armor…
…and selected our weapons carefully…
As you can see we opted for power over dexterity. Mons Meg was no joke when it came to POWER! This 6 ton bombard is capable of firing a 330 pound gun-stone nearly 2 miles!
Our choice of weapon backfired on us however. Turns out Meg’s barrel burst in 1681. So sadly we will have to return to The States empty handed. We fled the castle just as the drawbridge was closing.
And headed into town to check out some of the Edinburgh Festivals street performers. But wait, who is that guy on the far right?
Why it’s Jay! Stay tuned for the exciting story of Jay’s live performance…
We arrived from Glasgow this afternoon into Edinburgh (pronounced Ed-In-Burrow) by bus and I was instantly mesmerized by the city skyline. Our host for the next few days, Linda met us at the bus terminal and escorted us back to her pad, and what would now be known as Casa-de-Org for the next few nights. We were greeted first be Neru, a solid 95lb rottweiler.
Upon befriending the dog and passing his sniff tests, we met Linda’s flatmates Tina & Eileen, who like Linda are Germans studying language here at Uni. In addition, we met her other flatmate Ricardo from Lima. He later gave us some good travel tips for the South American leg of our trip.
This CouchSurfing thing just keeps getting better and better each time. Linda was so nice, and even donated her entire room for us to stay in. So hospitable!
We’ll venture out into the city early tomorrow to see what adventure we will encounter. Tonight we’re hanging with the hosts and getting recommendations of must-see-sights.
