UK trip 2014: Edinburgh day 1

Another tropical day in Edinburgh - sunny and 60 degrees. We saw so much today I'd be writing and posting pics all night, so I'll keep to the highlights. Started with a short guided bus tour hitting the top sights - the castle, Grassmarket neighborhood, then Univ. of,Edinburgh and its famous medical school, New Town with Charlotte and St.Andrews squares, Arthur's Seat (a hill right next to Holyrood Palace), the homes of Robert Louis Stevenson, etc. Our guide said that New Town emerged in the Georgian age when the well-off decided that they couldn't stand the stench and stunted living conditions of old Edinburgh, and decamped to build big townhouses and the American style of wide streets in a grid. In Old Town, you give directions using pubs! One key pub is Deacon Brodie - he was the real life secret criminal who inspired "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde".

After the tour we hiked up the extinct volcano crowned with Edinburgh Castle. For 8,000 years a fort or castle has have existed on that cliff. Now it houses the Scottish Crown Jewels, hidden from Cromwell and locked up for a century when Scotland and England united, and the royal apartments including where Mary Stuart, Queenof Scots was born. After tramping the castle we refueled with a delicious haggis-potato pie and apricot cake, and set off to the National Museum. We cut thru the packs of kids on holiday to see the exhibits on the history of Scotland and the roof terrace with the best views of the central city. We also rubbed the nose of the famous statue of Greyfriars Bobby, the faithful terroir who guarded his master's grave. In 1638 Presbyterians signed the National Covenant at Greyfriars Kirk in opposition to the Suarts who claimed divine right to mess with their church, and the rest is history. For the next 50 years the government brutally suppressed them, until William of Orange (of William and Mary fame) took over. But, the guide said, all most of the visitors care about is the dog!

In the afternoon we trooped to the eastern end of the Royal Mile to tour the fairly small Palace of Holyroodhouse, the queen's official residence in Scotland. These Royal museums are expensive but they deliver with great audio guides, cool artifacts, and perfectly groomed rooms and gardens. Holyrood is still used for official and family events, and there are actually 2 thrones in the big audience hall, but it's best known now for Mary QofS's rooms where her husband murdered her secretary and started the troubles that led to Mary's abdication and execution. She had a terrible short life after she left sunny France for cold grey Scotland.

Then a quick pint in a pub on Rose St., dinner and a soak for my aching legs in the hotel hot tub. We walked over 4 miles today. Last day tomorrow for touring, and farewell group dinner, and total repackimg. I'll add pictures tomorrow. Bon soir!

Looking up at the castle from Grassmarket St. Now a lovely tourist area, Grassmarket was an execution site, including for the intrepid Covenanters.