Slainte Mhath

Saturday January 5, 2008

We left Friday evening after work to fly to Edinburgh for a quick weekend trip. This trip was a little different since wee went with Dan and Rebecca, our relatives from New Zealand. We stayed in a little apartment close to downtown which was really nice and spacious, especially for the cheap price that we got it for! We didn't do much Friday night since we got in rather late and didn't want to be too tired.

Dan and Greg hanging with the natives:


We got up on Saturday morning and had breakfast in the apartment (which was provided!) and caught the Open Top Tour bus to go around town. We stayed on the bus until we got to the Royal Mile. We walked up the Royal Mile towards Edinburgh Castle until we got to the Whiskey Experience. We did the tour, which started out good (a whiskey tasting and you keep the glass), but the rest was just so so. They covered how Whiskey was made, but we already knew most of it from touring the distillery when we were in Scotland before. At the end, we went to the bar and Dan and I tried another whiskey. Also, Tami got me a really cool birthday gift.... a bottle of whiskey that was distilled the year I was born... 1975.

Tami and Greg in front of Edinburgh Castle:


After we left the Whiskey Experience, we headed up the Royal Mile until we got to Edinburgh Castle. When we got in, the first thing we did was to head to the cafe and have lunch. The food was good, though overpriced and the One o'clock gun went off while we were there (they fire a cannon at 1:00 everyday which used to be used by locals to set their clocks.) We walked around more and some of the highlights were Mons Meg... a huge cannon, a pet cemetary and the prison vaults. All of the architecture was amazing to see, but that was true of the whole city.

The pet cemetary at the Castle:


Tami at the Castle:


We were cold and tired by the time we finished, so we hopped back on the Open Top bus and rode around the city.... although we stayed downstairs where it was nice and warm. It ended when we got to the center of town, so we walked around a bit admiring the city and eventually made our way to a pub called Dirty Dicks where we got a beer (and the girls had tea.) We sat there for awhile and plotted what we were going to do for supper. We eventually decided on a place that was BYOW (Bring Your Own Wine), so we pick up some wine and headed over there. We were adventurous since we were in Scotland and tried haggis. I won't say what is in haggis here, but you can find out if you follow this link. It wasn't as bad as we were expecting, but we were glad we got a small order and split it between the four of us.

Tami and Rebecca:


Afterwards, we made the long walk back to our hotel and stopped off at a pub on the way back. It was fairly late by the time we were done, so we didn't stay up too long. Although, we did get to see a little bit of the Seattle Seahawks game.