July 22. Rainy and cold Edinburgh

To make sure I had clean clothes until the end of the trip, I made an early run to the laundromat. One less thing to worry about! While I was at the laundromat, Ellie slept and (slowly) got ready. By the time I got back we were both ready to go. We have been traveling for over two weeks and we have had very little rain or cold. That changed today. There was a steady downpour all day long and it even got a little cold by the end. We did not have umbrellas (ella...ella...ella) so we paid £12 for two. They came in quite handy.

The reason we are in the U.K. is to look at universities for Ellie. The first one on our list was the University of Edinburgh. This is the only university I was not able to set up a tour for so we had to wing it. Since it was a summer Saturday there was not much going on. We did check out the library and talked to a student at information center who answered some questions for us. We walked around the campus for a little while and then walked to the University housing area. Once we had done all we could do, we headed back toward the Royal Mile and Edinburgh Castle.

There are a lot of tourists in this town and they were all visiting the Edinburgh Castle this rainy afternoon. The Castle was quite interesting. There are a lot buildings to experience and it offers great views of Edinburgh. Our favorite things were the Honours of Scotland (royal crown, sword, and sceptre) and the Stone of Destiny (A big stone that the rulers of Scotland were crowned on. All the British rulers were crowned on it, too.)

After the Castle the plan was to head down the Royal Mile to the Holyrood House, but we needed something to eat first. We grabbed a couple of burgers at a cafe and then I realized that the entrance to the Holyrood House closed at 4:30. We finished quickly and hustled down to the Holyrood House, but did not make it in time. We were bummed as it is the Queen's royal home when she is in Scotland.

We decided to head back to the hotel, get some warmer clothes, and check out Calton Hill. On our way back to the hotel we found another cool old cemetery.

Calton Hill is a park the overlooks Edinburgh and has a number of interesting monuments scattered around the hill. The views were great even though a fog was rolling in. We even climbed up the 143 steps of the Nelson Monument. After the hill we went to the grocery store, got dinner, and went back to the hotel. I let Ellie have some Ellie-time and went for a walk through the New Town. I checked out all the monuments along Princes street and got some great photos of the the Castle shrouded in fog. I went back to the hotel and called it a night. Tomorrow we are off to York.