Edinburgh, Day 4!

The final day! In the morning, it was raining again but I'd say we really lucked out with the weather. The 2 full days we were there, it was sunny and a lot of people (hotel staff, waiters, etc) commented on how lucky we got with the weather. The weather tends to be worse the farther north you go so 2 days of sunshine is noteworthy in Scotland! lol.

We visited the Cathedral first but there was some restoration going on and a photography permit costs £2 so I didn't think it was worth it. Hence no photos of the Cathedral.

Lastly before leaving Edinburgh, we stopped at the National Museum of Scotland. By this point, Steve had blisters on his feet and I could barely go up or even down any stairs my legs were so sore, lol. So we only browsed the first and second floor before giving up. We used the audio guide but it was disappointing compared to the one at the Palace. There was only about 6 items on it. At least it was free.

On our way out of Edinbugh, we stopped in the village of Roslin, home to Rosslyn Chapel. It's become more famous for being featured in The Da Vinci Code (both book and movie) but that's not the only reason I wanted to visit it. It's a beautiful chapel in it's own right - there's a reason it was chosen to be featured in the Da Vinci Code.

Unfortunately, there was no photography allowed inside the chapel and outside, the chapel was under extensive restoration so that was disappointing. You can see how difficult it was to get any photos without the restoration showing:





We then grabbed some fish and chips at the restaurant of Roslin Glen Hotel. It was easily the BEST fish and chips I've ever had!



So that's the end of our trip! I think we packed in a lot and both had a great time. I was sad to leave but I am now looking forward to Jamaica! I'm still working on the videos but they will be up soon!

Edinburgh, Day 3!

Our luck held and we had another day of good weather. In the morning, we visited Holyroodhouse Palace (yeah, it's a bit of a mouthful), the Queen's official residence in Scotland. We couldn't take pictures inside but we could take pictures within the entrance, the courtyard, gardens and the Abbey, which is in ruins.



We decided to try the audio guide because it was free. We've never used them before and Steve was really pleased with it. He seemed a bit bored with the castle the day before but he really enjoyed seeing the palace and listening to the audio tour.

After the palace, we saw another comedy show which Steve enjoyed but I definitely did not. The guy was weird and often just not funny. He did some songs and poetry which just doesn't appeal to me.

After that, we headed back to Holyrood Park. We debated climbing the moutain but by that point, our feet and legs were really sore from all the walking we'd be doing in the last few days. Keep in mind we'd been walking almost everywhere and also considering all the walking around the castle and palace, we easily walked 4 miles a day. So we kept the climbing to a minimum and just kind of wandered around while I took pictures. We did climb a little ways up to St Anthony's Chapel, which is also in ruins.





Since it was our actual anniversary this day, we had made reservations at a restaurant called Vittoria. It was a huge restaurant with 3 floors and seated 200 people - and it was PACKED. It was a good thing we made reservations because otherwise, we wouldn't have been seated in time for us to make the show for that night. But even being so busy, the staff did not appear stressed and we didn't have to wait too long for our food. Both and food and the wine was very good - I had the risotto in goats cheese and sun dried tomatoes and Steve had a meat filled pasta in a bolognese sauce.



After dinner it was off to . . . the Ladyboys of Bangkok! We've seen them before in Manchester and Steve is not afraid to admitt it finds it very entertaining, lol. I've said it before but some of those men look more like women than some women do! At one point Steve said to me "That's clearly a woman" and he overheard another guy saying "That's confusing" lol.

So that's the conclusion to day 3. The videos from the Tattoo are still uploading so I'll be back with those, as well as day 4!

Edinburgh, Day 2!

In my last post, I forgot to mention that Steve managed to rip his pants (right in the crotch, lol) while getting into the car. By that point, all stores had closed since it was Sunday (in England, there is a law that says shops, excluding restaurants and pubs, can only be only for a certain amount of hours) so first thing on Monday morning, we set out to get him some new ones since he only brought that one pair with him. After that, Steve had been talking about this mini camcorder Paul has and how it'd be great for while we're in Edinburgh so we went to check it out. I was not opposed to such a spontaneous purchase (though it does not compare to Dad's spontaneous Land Rover purchase) because I originally wanted to get a camcorder I first came to England (though I make do with the video clips on my compact camera).

Unfortunately, after purchasing the camcorder (we got the HD version too), we realized it only charges by USB and neither of us brought our laptops. We had a USB charger for the car but we couldn't really drive around aimlessly for hours while it charged! We did manage a slight charge and got a few test videos around the castle but I haven't gotten them onto my PC yet so more on that later.

Anyway, all of that took up the whole morning and we walked everywhere so I was also grabbing pictures along the way. Luckily, the weather was very nice and stayed that way the whole day! By the time we got to the Edinburgh Castle, it was lunch time. So we quickly got a bite to eat at one of the cafes next to the castle before heading in.


Inside the castle was the Scottish Crown Jewels. Unfortunately, they were nowhere near as impressive as the crown jewels at the Tower of London. Oh, and we weren't allowed to take pictures of them. But I did get some of the castle itself. It was crowded so most of the pictures inside are just your usual touristy pictures.

As you can see, the castle is perched on a hill/cliff so I got some pretty good pictures around the outside of it with no people in the way.

After seeing the castle, we went to another comedy show. It was an improv show, like Whose Line Is It Anyway? and a few of the comedians were from the original English version of the show. It was really funny!

We then had dinner at the hotel restaurant, which wasn't great unfortunately but our waiter was really nice.

After dinner, we went to what I felt was the highlight of the whole trip: The Military Tattoo. It was AMAZING. They also had military bands from different countries like China, South Africa and Switzerland. There were also dancers, fireworks, singers, etc. I'm working on getting the videos I took of it on my compact camera on the internet but it's proving near impossible. Apparently, my laptop just HATES the network, I've always had problems with it... so Steve has to upload the videos for me. For some stupid reason, my laptop just refuses to upload them and not only that but when I try to upload them, it causes the whole internet to stop working and I have to disconnect to the router and reconnect. It's not frustrating WHATSOEVER.

So anyway, hopefully I'll be back with the videos that Steve has uploaded.

Edinburgh, Day 1!

Our adventures in Edinburgh were so eventful that I'm going to make an entry for each day! Some of the photos were taken with my compact camera, some with the DSLR. That really depended on whether it was raining or not. I've also abandoned Picasa Galleries and uploading straight to blogspot because the quality is so poor so I created a Photoshop.com account for family/personal photos.

On Sunday, we set off an hour late because the sat nav wouldn't recognize any Edinburgh postcodes so Steve was struggling to get the hotel address up. Eventually, we got on the road and passed the driving time with the book of "If" questions.

Once there, we checked in and then got a Sunday roast at a pub called the Royal McGregor. It was a small place but we got seated right away. The food was pretty good but the gravy a little salty.



Not surprisingly, it was raining! I took some pictures but later got some of the same area when it wasn't raining. We wandered around in the rain and stopped at the "West End Fair" which was a disappointment. It was supposed to be an arts and crafts fair but there was all of about 10 stalls and a kind of creepy street performer, lol.

We then went back to the hotel to relax for a hour or so before going to the "Foodie Tents" - a bunch of stalls of local restaurants, farmers, etc selling products. It was much better than the West End Fair. Mom would have really liked the stall for "The Really Garlicky Company". We tried some "Fruit Ice" which I thought would be like water ice but it was much creamier - which is weird because there was no ice cream in it. It was really good but only available locally: Belhaven Fruit Farm. I don't normally drink hard cider but I tried some from a stall that was really good so I bought a bottle. Lastly, we got some dried apple crisps which are super healthy and apparently sold at Sainsbury's so we'll be looking out for those: Snapz Crisps.

Rain Factor: off and on by that point. It stopped long enough for me to grap a picture of part of the mountains/park next to the tents (I got more pictures of that another day so this is just a preview).



Later, we saw comedian Jimmy Carr. Steve really likes him, I think he's just okay. He does make me laugh sometimes but I'm not fond of his delivery style. He's big on one liners and I just feel like after every joke there should be cheesy drums going off.

I think I mentioned everything from Sunday. Check out the Photoshop Gallery for more pictures and stay tuned for Day 2! There will be video! Ooooooo!

Edinburgh, here we come!

Last night, we had our second to last game of the season. Although I enjoy doing the sports action photography, I couldn't wait for it to be over because it was the last thing I had to get done before we go off to Edinburgh tomorrow! I can't wait! Edinburgh is supposed to be a great city and we'll be there for the Fringe Festival and our anniversary! And we're seeing the Military Tattoo which will be great but I know I'm going to be wishing I had a press pass for it, lol.

We have so many things planned, we had to make a schedule to fit it all in. We'll only be there for 3 days and now I wish we'd planned for longer. Steve says he'll be able to post blog updates from Edinburgh on his iPhone but that's probably easier said then done, lol.

I just hope the weather is okay. Yesterday, it was sunny when I got up, then it rained, then the sun came out, then it rained again, then sun came out again. I was just grateful it didn't rain during the game, I HATE shooting in the rain! This morning, the sun has been out but the weather gets worse the farther north you go so I don't know what Edinburgh will be like.

Anyway, I should go start packing! I will leave you with my photos from the game last night. Expect lots of pictures from Edinburgh when I come back, although they may not be any good depending on the weather (it certainly didn't cooperate in Wales!)