"If it's not Scottish, it's crap!"

We ventured north from York to the capital of Scotland, Edinburgh, for four days of sightseeing. I travelled to this city 16 years ago, and was excited to show it off to Christine and the girls (and my parents). Plus, given that my ancestors are from Scotland, it was great to return to the old homeland. (Anderson is the ninth most popular name in Scotland!) There is so much history in this ancient city that it is difficult to run out of things to see – Edinburgh Castle, St Giles Cathedral, Holyrood Park, which contains the old volcano called Arthur’s Seat, and the new and ultra-modern Scottish Parliament building. Edinburgh is also the birthplace of modern geology, having been the home of James Hutton, who first realized back during the Scottish Enlightenment that geologic time operates on a much longer time scale than had been taught by the church.

The main section of Edinburgh consists of two parts: Old Town, which dates back over 1000 years, and New Town, which is actually over 200 years old. Old Town is the scene of the Royal Mile, the ancient core of the city that extends from the castle downhill for a mile to the east, where it ends at Holyrood Palace, the former home of Mary, Queen of Scots, and still the home of Queen Elizabeth when she is in Edinburgh. The castle sits atop an old volcanic outcrop that has nearly-vertical slopes on three sides. It has been the scene of fortifications of some type for millennia. You can see the castle from the southeast in this picture, with the Royal Mile extending to the right, past The Hub (the large spire to the right of the castle), and St Giles (the roundish church further to the right).

New Town was planned in the 1700s and boasts impeccable Georgian buildings and a gridded street network. It also lies on a steady slope to the north down to the Firth of Forth (Christine loved this name), so whenever we headed to the Old Town, we had to go uphill. The streets in this part of Edinburgh resemble San Francisco but aren't quite as steep. We stayed on the edge of New Town at the Ardenlee Guest House, where we were well taken care of by Kay and Kenny Farquhar. In this picture, the Ardenlee is to the right, and it is where we ate breakfast. Our rooms, on the other hand, were in the Eyre Guest House, just behind the policeman.

We spent our first afternoon in Edinburgh getting oriented to the city. We walked along the Princes Street Gardens, and on our way saw the monument to the author Sir Walter Scott, at 61 metres the largest monument to a writer in the world,

the National Gallery of Scotland, where in addition to the regular displays we were able to see some early works of Vermeer,

discovered that there are numerous paths to Old Town through “closes,” including Milne’s Court, which is the location of student housing for the University of Edinburgh, 

and had nice views of the Royal Mile, including the Mound.

The museum made a big impression on Gwendolyn, who pointed it out every time we went by the building the rest of the week. This brings up another point: although Scotland is a part of the United Kingdom, for all intents and purposes it functions as its own country. In addition to playing as its own entity in the soccer and rugby World Cups (and the Six Nations Cup), it also has its own Parliament, Scottish Pound banknotes, National Trust for Scotland, and fierce national pride. The music is also better. You feel as if you’re in another country when in Scotland.

Our second day in Edinburgh was a big day for our group – Christine’s and Dad’s birthdays, her 42^nd and his 75^th. Here are the birthday kids standing in front of St. Giles Cathedral.

We began the day with one of our favorite sites in Edinburgh – a tour through Edinburgh Castle.

Edinburgh Castle (http://www.edinburghcastle.gov.uk/) is strategically situated and dominates the Edinburgh skyline. It's also the perfect start to a tour of the Royal Mile because the rest of Old Town slopes downhill from the castle all the way to Parliament and Holyrood Park. Here is the view back down the Royal Mile from the castle gates.

We entered the castle through the gate, complete with portcullis.

Here is Gwendolyn at the gate. Notice the smart skirt that she's wearing - the Anderson tartan, of course.

There are some great things to do inside the gates. Kids can do the treasure hunt (of course!) in which they find the answers to various questions throughout the castle. If they complete the questions, they get a prize, which in this case proved to be a cool sticker. Gwendolyn and Rebecca had a great time doing the quiz. Note the nice basalt outcrop that Rebecca is using for a desk.

Answers to the quiz included Mons Meg, a huge cannon that really was more trouble than it was worth to the soldiers (it could only shoot up to eight times per day because it would overheat),

St Margaret's Chapel, the oldest surviving building in Edinburgh and dating back to the 1200s,

with a simple altar

and pretty stained glass,

and the Scottish National War Memorial. Notice Rebecca keeping guard.

Two of the highlights of the castle for me were the Banquet Hall and the Honours of Scotland. The Banquet Hall is still the scene of ... banquets! It also contained a collection of "keys" that various monarchs have been given when returning to the castle for a visit. There is a nice fireplace within the hall

in addition to some beautiful stained glass

and a banner showing the Scottish symbol, the thistle. The thistle is Scotland's answer to the rose symbol of England. Legend has it that the Scots were saved by a thistle that pricked the foot of an invading soldier, prompting him to yell out in pain and giving up the invading army's position.

The Honours of Scotland, or Scottish Crown Jewels, include the Crown, Sceptre, and the Sword of State. They were used in the coronation of kings and queens in the 1500s and 1600s, but when the Scottish Parliament was dissolved in 1707, by vote of the Parliament themselves, the Honours were feared lost. Sir Walter Scott found them in 1818 locked in a chest behind a stone wall, and they've been on display ever since. Also on display was the Stone of Scone upon which Scottish monarchs were coronated. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take pictures of the Honours, but this is the building in which they are housed.

The girls had a great time in the castle, and in addition to doing the quiz, they also enjoyed shooting pretend arrows through the arrow-slit windows as I did in York,

climbing on the rock outcrops (more basalt!),

and just being goofy (Rebecca is embarrassed by this photo). Note the crown in the upper part of the poster.

We all enjoyed the great views of New Town, here looking out toward the Firth of Forth,

and Arthur's Seat, an old volcano just off of the Royal Mile. We successfully climbed this peak later in the week (see below).

Some other views of the castle include the barracks, which now houses a cafe with surprisingly good food (no fake food ingredients for the Scots!),

plenty of cannons, here with Gwendolyn defending the Honours of Scotland,

and the Lang Stair, which leads to the upper part of the castle.

We said goodbye to the castle

and began our journey down the Royal Mile in the Castlehill area of Edinburgh. 

The Old Town has a cool feel to it, and not just because we were there in February. There are all sorts of small alleyways with views of building tops,

and plenty of old stone buildings.

The Hub, a Victorian church that was designed by the designer of the Houses of Parliament in London, now houses the Edinburgh Festival offices. The Edinburgh Festival began in 1947 in the aftermath of WWII. Edinburgh was chosen as the host city because it had not been extensively damaged in the war. Counting all of the elements of the festival, it is the largest arts gathering in the world with something like 15,000 performances.

Our next stop was St. Giles Cathedral.

My father was particularly interested in seeing St. Giles Cathedral, or the High Kirk of St. Giles as it is also known, because it was John Knox's church. St. Giles was the original parish church of Edinburgh and it dates from the 1400s. It is still just a parish church, not really a cathedral, but it serves as the setting for bigger services when needed, such as when the queen is in town or for the opening of Parliament. John Knox, who launched the Scottish Reformation and was a contemporary of Jean Calvin in Geneva, Switzerland, preached in this church in the 1500s. My family and I attended the Church of Scotland in Knox's old chapel in Geneva when we lived there in 1980 - Knox had had to flee to Switzerland when Mary, Queen of Scots, became queen. It was nice to visit another church of his. We were unable to take pictures of the inside of St. Giles, but really enjoyed our visit there. We returned a couple of days later to pick up some postcards and were given an impromptu tour of the Thistle Chapel, an annex to the church, by the merchandise director for the church. He also gave the girls some free posters. The Thistle Chapel is the home to the sixteen knights of the Most Noble Order of the Thistle, of which Queen Elizabeth is the head.

Outside of the kirk a bagpiper played. Surprisingly, this was the only bagpipe that we heard during our visit. The girls really enjoyed his playing

as did Mom and Dad.

We celebrated the birthday that evening with a dinner at the World's End pub in Old Town. We had a great wait staff and enjoyed our dinner. We ended up celebrating again the next night with a fancier dinner at a French restaurant across the street from our guest house.

We picked up where we left off on the Royal Mile the next day with a visit to John Knox's house, which is operated by the Church of Scotland.

This is one of the oldest buildings in Edinburgh and had some interesting features that had been discovered since it became a museum, including a painted ceiling that had been covered up during the Reformation. This would originally have been painted in bright colors.

The museum was well put together, with a number of rare manuscripts on display. Dad was impressed with the collection and the overall quality of the museum. Christine and I were happy to learn more about the Scottish Reformation. The girls enjoyed hearing a recording of an actor portraying John Knox giving a sermon - he was famous for his oratorical gifts. Here is a stained-glass depiction of the man himself. 

After lunch at a lovely (and inexpensive!) tea shop, named after a friend of the Scottish poet Rabbie Burns,

we proceeded down the Royal Mile (notice that Rebecca is now sporting an Anderson tartan skirt as well - she couldn't resist!)

to the Scottish Parliament. This award-winning building, which utilizes all sorts of green technology, was opened by the queen in 2004. Scotland has been undergoing a process of "devolution" in their government services as they wrest control of their country from London. The reformulation of Parliament in 1999 was the first step in this process. We actually attended the opening of the afternoon's session of government, so we were able to see the inside of the chambers. It was a beautiful room with plenty of natural light and nice woodwork. The interior reminded me of something that one would see in Scandinavia. Here is what the Scottish Parliament looks like from outside.

In the other direction, a spacious plaza continues on to Holyrood Park and the hill that comprises Arthur's Seat. The close views of these old lava flows got me excited for our climb of the next day.

Here's the Scottish Parliament from above.

The girls had their best time of the day just climbing around on this strange concrete sculpture.

We walked back to our guest house for the night via Calton Hill, which is the location of another park and several monuments including the Burns Monument, the Nelson Monument, with a ball that falls at precisely 1:00 pm every day, and the Scottish National Monument.

This involved a bit of hill walking, but it was a good preparation for the next day's climb up Arthur's Seat.

Our last day in Edinburgh was a beautiful one, and we were excited to do some hiking. We took the bus out to Holyrood Park, the location of Arthur's Seat, while Mom and Dad spent the day visiting the Royal Yacht Britannia and the Royal Botanical Garden. I have to say that this was my favorite activity of the week because it combined some physical activity, some pretty scenery, and some excellent geology. Rebecca was game for the hike (here she sits pondering the far-off summit)

and Gwendolyn eventually came around to the idea of walking up a mountain (we don't use the word "hike" around her).

It's really a gem of a park and you feel as if you are far out of the city. There are great little valleys along the way

in addition to peaks further off that resemble something you'd see in the western US.

Rebecca led us the entire way up the mountain and was the first to peak. We were rewarded with strong winds and magnificent views of the city and the Firth of Forth. Gwendolyn celebrated with a shortbread cookie.

We returned via the steeper back edge of the mountain, down the nearly-vertical faces of the dolerite lava flows

and down into an intermediate valley at the top of Salisbury Crags.

We climbed up the other side of the valley to peer over the edge, feeling generally silly at this point,

then realizing at the top that it was only about 5 m down on the other side.

Even better, this was the location of Hutton's Section, a famous geologic location at which James Hutton inferred that the magma intruding the section was much younger than the sandstone that existed at the site. Here is the particular spot that he visited in the 1700s.

Obviously, I was pretty happy to be here as I teach about Hutton and early geologic pioneers,

but so were Christine and the girls. Here they are for scale at Hutton's Section.

Gwendolyn even took an interest in the signs around the site now that she's reading so well.

We finally made our way back down the mountain for a well-earned lunch. This hike solidified for me that Edinburgh is one of my all-time favorite cities.

This has been an extremely long post, but I wouldn't want to sign off without speaking a bit about the pubs. Obviously, there are some great pubs in this city and all sorts of ales that you can't get in South West England. In addition to the World's End pub that I mentioned earlier, we were able to visit Deacon Brodie's Tavern one night for dinner

and also had a rest break at the Cumberland Inn around the corner from our guest house.

While Christine and I relaxed with a Caledonian Ale (80 Schilling),

or a Timothy Taylor's,

the girls were content to write postcards with a lemonade and some crisps.

Next stop: Durham!