July 13, 2004 - Edinburgh

     Waking up in Scotland, with forecaster promises of good weather today, here's the view out of the front of our hotel.  Yesterday's pharmacy misadventure began when I started up the street just in front of the small white van in the left of the picture instead finding the alleyway between the small white tower and large building on the right of the photo.  When you realize there is a river running parallel to the picture just on the other side of the stone wall, you can see how I was getting farther and farther off course.  Anyway, we haven't been getting much exercise in the past few days, so I made up for it a little.

square

     We are still getting accustomed to the hotel, which is definitely a mixed bag.  Some things are very nice (did I mention free, full-time, high-speed internet connection in the room) and others will take some getting used to or simply surviving.

     This chair isn't nearly as comfortable as it may look.  (But I guess you could read real well with the spotlight.) (Maybe you aren't supposed to sit on it.) (Maybe it's a. . .a. . .something else.)
 chair

     After breakfast in the hotel, we set out to explore Edinburgh by bus.  Here are some miscellaneous street scenes to give you a sense of the city.

street
street

Princes Street

       The larger picture just above has us approaching Princes (sic!) Street.  The wall of buildings in the distance are more impressive in person than in the photo.  If you continued along them to your right, you would shortly arrive at the Number One Tourist Destination Spot in Edinburgh and our own goal for the morning:  Edinburgh Castle.  Once again, the photo doesn't do justice to the majesty with which it oversees the city.

castle

tourists
     If you wonder why I haven't provided any interior pictures, it's because this is the NOTDS (Number One Tourist Destination Spot) in Edinburgh.  Beyond the buses in this picture was a teeming mass of humanity pretending to be a queque for tickets to get into the castle.  We chose instead to have lunch in a pub and come back to the hotel.

     The bus system is quite nice, by the way.  We bought all day passes and jumped on and off, transferring in accord with our bus route map and bus-driver assistance.

     We plan a quiet evening tonight.  Tomorrow, we rent a car,
and I'll try my luck on the left side of the road again.  

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