Border Crossing & Edinburgh Day 1

July 17

Today we drove the scenic route from Keswick in the Lake District to Edinburgh in Scotland.  We passed a couple of places with funny names, and a number of places advertising Hadrian’s Wall.  We decided to pull off the main road and take a look at the famed wall, and maybe we picked the wrong place, but seriously, it’s not much to look at.  It’s not very high - any 5-year-old could breach it.   Darn - we paid Ł3 for parking and couldn’t see any reason to pay to go inside the ‘fort’.  So we moved along.  The scenery in the Lake District is fabulous, and the road through the Honnister Pass was a 25% grade at some points - fabulous!  Lots of sheep on the road - careful!  Fortunately we had a sunny day to drive, so it was a pretty day.  More interesting town names along the way . . .

Driving through the Honnister Pass - the road was about as wide as the car

Tiny roads, steep cliffs, and sheep on the road

A little lake we passed in the Lake District

It's hard to capture how steep it is, and how narrow the
road is.  This was part of the 25% grade.  Picture taken
from the car as we were driving.

This was the only name they could come up with for their town?

A little late - saw this sign about 5 miles past those little
lambs on the road.  

A section of Hadrian's famed wall.

Hadrian's wall with the fort in the background. I can't see how this
wall kept anyone in or out!

So . . . we get to the Scottish border.  There’s a flag waving, and a pullout, so we stopped to get a picture.  We got more than that - there was a piper welcoming us with his beautiful bagpipe music against the most fabulous backdrop of scenery!  I went over to put some money on his tray, and had a little conversation with him.  I got a big hug and a kiss  - what a way to cross a border!  I’m officially in love with Scotland!  I tried to upload the video here, but it's not working, so these pictures will have to do.  

View from the England/Scotland border

It says England on the other side of this rock

The Scottish flag

We then drove a short ways. . .  rounded a corner . . . and saw THIS in the little village of Jedburgh.  I think I’m going to like it here.

Jedburgh Abbey - founded in 1138.  

Mom and son playing giant soccer beach ball near the Jedburgh Abbey.  

Made it into Edinburgh around 4:30, and pulled up to our AirBnB.  Our hosts were at work, but had assured us that “Margaret” would be there to let us in and give us the keys.  Turns out Margaret is our hostess's “Nan”.  What a lovely lady.  All dressed up in a classic dress, high heels, full-on makeup and a string of pearls that said “WOW”.  She showed us around and then said she was headed out to pick up her car at the shop and go home.  We offered her a ride - she really wasn’t dressed for walking in my opinion.  But no.  Off she went.  

The sitting room at our AirBnB in Edinburgh

Our room for the next week in Edinburgh

This is a really lovely second-storey walk-up apartment, (although I’m always somewhat nervous around white furniture).  There is a nice package of Scottish shortbread on the dresser in our room.  These people know the way to my heart!  I think we’ll have a good place to use as a home base here.  Tomorrow - old town!

A perfect welcome to our room!

Edinburgh 

July 18 - we drove into the old town of Edinburgh, and enjoyed looking at all the old buildings along the way.  We were looking for parking . . . rounded a corner . . . and BOOM!  We see this!

Edinburgh Castle - magnificent!

We found a parking spot, and wandered up to the castle the long way around - it’s huge and spectacular and unbelievable!  The crowds were the same.  We considered going into the castle, but the crowds were insane - there had to be 300 people lined up for tickets, and another 1000 or so walking up the Royal Mile to get in -  so we decided to walk around the city instead. 
  

Uh oh.  Glen found a scotch shop.  

I liked the name of this one. I didn't like the price though.
I think it was Ł1400 or something stupid like that.  They had
it behind a locked glass door.  I just don't see how consumables
can cost that much money.  

They have built this stadium above the castle walls.  Kind of ugly.

I really liked this peephole on the castle door.  There's
a little door behind that metal grid

The famed Royal Mile - hordes of people walking up
to the castle.  

A small section of Princes Park - it's a massive park
in the middle of the city full of grassy areas like this and
beautiful flowerbeds.  So many people were using it and
yet it didn't seem crowded.

Glen beside a GIANT thistle.

Sculpture in Princes Park.  There are a number of
massive statues like this around the city.  

The castle from another angle

There are bagpipers everywhere, tartan shops, scotch shops, unbelievably beautiful huge stone buildings, antique shops, little alleyways, and the spectacular Princes Park in the middle of town.  

Men in Kilts playing Bagpipes.  Everywhere.  Magic. ;-)

Massive, beautiful stone buildings.  Everywhere.  Beautiful.

More beautiful stone buildings.

Princes Park.  With more beautiful stone buildings.  And a giant
archway - I believe this is the Scott memorial.  And a flowerbed.

Can you imagine how long it took to build that?  Stone by stone?

This one and the plaque below are for KJP.  Only
an engineer will appreciate it the way she will.

Plaque for the picture above.

It was a reasonably short walk to the Cross & Corner pub to meet up with our son Steve’s friend Tara, who has been living here for the past year or so.  We had lunch in the pub where she’s working, got some tips on places to go see, and an invitation to a birthday party on Sunday night, and then we headed off to the bus station to get some information on travelling to Ireland via bus and ferry next week.  With that squared away, we headed back to the car, dilly dallying through the park.  It’s a huge park and obviously well-loved and much-used by the locals.  It’s a lovely massive place to sit and enjoy the flowers and the sunshine.  Edinburgh traffic is really not too bad . . . the reason is probably the parking fees!  Holy cow - Ł16.50 for 5 hours.  I can see why everyone takes the bus.

Scotch eggs at Tara's pub

Not the best picture.  Tara was nice enough to take some time to
give us some touring tips.