Desecrating Sanctuaries (Day 6)

With no real aim of the day today, we were slightly lost. We had a few odds and ends to do, but we decided that wandering back down Princes Street and some parts of the Royal Mile seemed like a goal for the late morning/early afternoon. So that’s what we did. I wanted to buy a Vivienne Westwood handbag, but it turned out to be 435 pounds which eaquals almost a grand. Er, no.

The National Gallery Complex was having an Andy Warhol exhibit that ended the day before, but the soup cans were still outside when we walked by.



The castle from Princes Street:



After wandering for a hour or two, we decided to eat lunch. Upon the recommendation of a fellow backpacker we met on the bus in Glasgow, we found a restaurant for the chain called ‘Wetherspoons’ and decided on some Scottish fare.





It is strange eating a restaurant/bar that is more ornate than most Catholic churches back at home. There are many of these types of places where we were.

Back on the street, we did some shopping at H&M and wandered through the Princes Street Gardens.













The above picture is of Scott Monument and one of the first exceedingly cool structures I saw in Edinburgh. It has been criticized as looking like “the top of a church spire plunked onto the ground”.

Later that afternoon, we headed back to the National Gallery of Scotland and visited the galleries to broaden our range of art viewed on this trip. This meant more Monet, Titian, Rembrandt, and a few pieces from a crazy fellow named William Blake. Very interesting. After getting kicked out of a park (because it was closing at 5:30, apparently), we headed home for dinner.

Later that night, we went on the tour for “The Real Mary King’s Close”. Let me describe a bit about it so that you can get the exact idea of how awesome this tour was. My Frommer’s book writes:

” Beneath the City Chambers on the Royal Mile, lies a warren of hidden streets where people lived and worked for centuries. When the City Chambers was constructed in 1753, the top floors of the existing buildings were torn down and the lower sections were left standing to be used as foundations. This left a number of dark, mysterious passages largely intact. In 2003, groups led by guides…began to visit these dwellings for the first time in perhaps 250 years.”

Yeaaaaah! It was pretty freaking great. (I took the following images off the web since it was too dark to take my own pictures.)









Some of these places still had the wallpaper up. It was really like going back in time.

After we were done for the night, we sat out along the cobbled streets of the Royal Mile and did some of that chit-chat that people do and eventually headed to bed for tomorrow is our last full day in Scotland. Never fear…we saved some of the best for last! We explore Edinburgh Castle and down Scotch whiskey (aka hot death.)