May 28th - Edinburgh

We started our first day in Edinburgh with a free walking tour of the city. It was great except really shitty weather and I felt like crap. We learned a lot of legends of the city as well history and a few Harry Potter spots. Such as the story of Greyfriars Bobby, a skye terrior who loved his master so much that when he died the dog spent the rest of his life living on his master’s grave. He became a legend in the town and now there is a bar named for him. Several bars through Edinburgh are named for legends around the city. Another is Maggie Dickson who lived in the early eighteenth century. In 1723 her husband left her and she had an affair with the Innkeeper’s son which led to her becoming prego. Not wanting anyone to discover it she hid the pregnancy but had a still birth and lost the baby anyway. She left the baby on a riverbank and when it was discovered and traced backed to Maggie homegirl got in trouble. She was charged with concealing the pregnancy (a legal offense at that time) and sentenced to hang on the Grassmarket in town. After the hanging she was pronounced dead, she was put in the coffin, and taken to her burial place. During the trip they heard banging in the coffin where they found Maggie still alive. They took her back to hang again but it was determined that the sentence had already been completed and she lived for another 40 years.

After the walking tour we went to the St Gile’s cathedral, the principle place of worship of the Church of Scotland, and home to the spot where the Queen installs new knights and ladies, Sean Connery for example. Also, home to the Order of the Thistle Chapel, the highest order in Scotland and second highest in the UK. The order consist of the Sovereign and sixteen Knights and ladies as well as extra members of the British Royal Family. The Duke of Cambridge (Prince William) was recently included in that. Each person has their own seat in the chapel where their heraldic devices are displayed.

After all of that we found a lovely place to eat called Le Monde. It was beautifully decorated and had great food. We had the Haggis appetizer so we could cross that off our to do list and I had a fantastic steak sandwich. Allison wanted to go taste some Whisky and ask the waitress for recommendations. She brought over the manager of the hotel (the upstairs of the restaurant is a hotel, each room is designed for a different city in the world) who told us several lovely places to try and he also showed us the Berlin room in the hotel! We ended up talking so long he decided to take us to a place for Allison to have a tasting and on the way he gave us another small tour of the city! We saw the new parliament building and Holyrood Palace, where the Queen stays for one week a year. We made it to another restaurant and Allison tried several Whiskies and we had a great time!

Edinbugh Castle as seen from our walking tour

Old graveyard where we heard several other legends, to
the left of the photo over the word furniture is the spot
JK Rowling sat to write the first to Harry Potter novels

The school Hogwarts was based off of

The coffee house where Harry Potter was written

The spot where Maggie Dickson was hanged

The Dog's grave

The bar and the statue of Bobby

Someone here is haunting this place and there have been
numerous reports of people getting hurt here so they keep
it locked now

St Gile's Cathedral

Order of the Thistle Chapel

To the left is the Earl of Strathearn (in Scotland, William
is the Early of Strathearn) to the right is the Duke of Edinburgh
who I have now seen in person but that will be in a later post

Haggis