Living the Royal Lifestyle

After our great visits to both Glasgow and Stirling we headed off to Edinburgh.  Not a new place for Jeff as he had visited here for work before.  I was super excited to check another Scottish city off my "To Visit" list.  Not sure if I mentioned this in a previous post, but my parents planned their trip partially around the fact that Jeff had Monday off for a bank holiday over here.  They were able to spend some more quality time with him, and we were able to get a bigger trip out of the weekend since we had 3 full days! Which meant...2 full days in Edinburgh.

We got in Edinburgh late and enjoyed the Fringe Festival that was going on during our couple days in Edinburgh.  It was just by luck that this huge comedy and street performer festival was going on the same time we were there.  We were wondering why it was so hard to find a reasonable hotel in the city centre. We were able to see quite a few performers and give them a few pounds.  Jeff and I have a rule that if you watch a street performer for more than a minute, you should give them money because they provided you with some sort of entertainment and they deserve to be paid.  So needless to say, we coughed up a few more pounds than we normally do because we were enjoying the acts so much.

 Comedy and street performers

We grabbed a quick dinner in the place with the least amount of wait time due to the large crowds.  We attempted to walk near the Edinburgh Castle to see it close up at night, but we were unable to due to a performance happening nearby.  We made it back to the hotel (well, actually we rented a small apartment) and rested before we had yet another long day of touristic attractions!

Since Jeff had visited Edinburgh before, he had already visited the castle, so he didn't feel the need to visit it again.  My mom, dad, and I walked to the castle and spent about three and a half hours exploring and enjoying the castle grounds. We really enjoyed the different rooms, reading facts about the castle, and spending time with one another.  I think my dad could have spent a whole day in the castle as he was loving all of the history.  Who knew he was such a history buff? I think one of our favorite things, or at least one of my favorite things was the view from the castle.  We were able to see the coast, islands, and of course the town of Edinburgh.

 Edinburgh Castle

 I really liked this part of the castle. Very sweet!

 The castle offered a lot of different exhibits and had some interesting rooms. The second picture had a variety of weapons hanging on the walls.  

 This was one of my favorite sections of the castle: Prisoners of War 

 Some snapshots of the view!

 

 The rations of food prisoners received. Note the Americans were thought of as pirates and did not receive as much food as the others. 

After the POW area, we went to jail...

We met up with Jeff after our castle visit, and grabbed a bite to eat at a local pub.  We all explored the menu, and then headed down the Royal Mile to the Holyrood Palace.  I think when we all think of castles, we think of what a palace looks like. Gold, finest finishings, and beautiful portraits on the wall.  I think "HollyWOOD" helped us believe that.  It was nice for my parents to see the difference that castles here were really used for war and safety whereas palaces are the fancy decorated places where royalty lives. Least that is my take on it.  Anyways, we were unable to take pictures inside the palace, but each room was decorated beautifully.  We each had a free audio guide, so we were able to learn more about the uses of each of the rooms where the Queen of Scotland lived.

At No. 1 pub. 

 The palace up close.  Look for the picture from King Arthur's Seat where you can see the bird's eye view. 

 A photo in front!

 The courtyard inside the palace.

An former cathedral stood here attached to the palace. 

Outside the palace grounds, you can see King Arthur's Seat (hillside in the background)

Afterwards we walked around the city, grabbed a milkshake, and headed back to take naps...well the boys took naps.  We grabbed dinner together, and then Jeff and I went out exploring solo.  We walked around the city, snapped some photos of the buildings lit up at night, and stopped in a whiskey bar called...Whiski Bar to have a pint and Jeff had a glass of whiskey.  There was a local band playing, and they were pretty good.

Edinburgh at night

The next morning we woke up with our walking shoes on and heading up King Arthur's Seat to see the beautiful views of Edinburgh.  Dad, Jeff, and I trailed up the hillside to get to a smaller peak. My mom sat this one out as she had hurt her knee in a minor walking accident.  No worries...she was just sore. Walking up the hillside only took about an hour or so.  We didn't make it the the largest peak as I didn't have the right shoes on. Hmmm...yet another pattern here. Fashion over comfort. 

 You can see how much of a drop it was!

 The Holyrood Palace

 We made it!

 Great shot of my dad

 The walk down is always harder than the walk up...

Jeff's "Living on the edge" 

We had a great walk up to the top, and headed back down to get on the motorway to head home.  Normally the drive would be about 5 hours, but we hit a lot of construction and it took about 6.5 hours.  We were all ready to get out of the car, but definitely enjoyed the views of the coast.  We even stopped to snap a few pictures.  My parents were amazed at the fact that nothing was built along the coast as it was all farming fields and undeveloped land.  It was just a shock, as in the states you can't find a spot on the beach where there aren't restaurants, shopping, or rows of housing.  All in all, a great first weekend traveling.  We accomplished so much in a short amount of time.

Onto the next adventure...

Colorful Buildings + Street Food + Street Performers= Prague

Prague was definitely the most beautiful city we've visited so far. The buildings were bright, cheerful, and so colorful. Gorgeous. But, I think one thing I will forever remember about Prague is the amount of street food we consumed in our two and a half days there. After the long train ride and sad attempts to find our hotel room we ate some chicken kabobs and walked around the city. Jeff and I also grabbed some dessert. He got a piece of cheesecake at a small little store, and I got a trdelnik (rolled sugary dough) at a nearby street vendor.

Colorful buildings along the river. 

They make the trdelnik on these long rods and they wind them up. 

During our first full day in Prague we stopped to snap a few photos of the "Dancing House". We were disappointed in this place as the internet made it appear way cooler than it actually was. I think a little piece of me thought the building was going to do something cool...like dance.

We headed to the Prague Castle and stayed there for a few hours to enjoy the giant area filled with museums, churches, restaurants, and little shops. We got a ticket to visit seven different buildings, but only made it to six of them, while in the castle walls. We visited the Old Royal Palace, The Story of Prague Castle (museum), Basilica of St. George, Golden Lane, St. Vitus's Cathedral, and the Rosenberg Palace.  We were most impressed, as always, with the cathedral. We even said a few times while we were inside that the pictures will not do this place justice. Jeff and I were in awe of the stained glass as a lot of it was new since the Cathedral had been through war and a major fire. We stood there and discussed the stories each of the windows told. They were beautiful.

 Outside of the cathedral. 

 The stained glass windows.

The Golden Lane, which had a bunch of houses, shops, etc. set up like that time period. We were also lucky enough to see the last bit of the changing of the guards. Pretty cool!

 I told Jeff this picture looks fake, but we found this little area in between the trees and saw the opportunity to take a picture. 

We walked around the city some more, and grabbed some food...you guessed it, street food! This time it was a goulash. Jeff got some sort of chicken, potato, & onion mixture as I got a potato, onion, & bacon one.

 My goulash is on the left and Jeff's is on the right. 

We walked around the winding city roads, saw the Astronomical Clock & Tower, the Old Town Square, and the New Town Square. I loved all of the shops the city had, especially the toy shops.  There were tons of puppets, wooden toys, and crystal shops. Jeff and I are not big on souvenirs, but I bought this little red/green painted egg.  There were quite a few stands selling these eggs at the Easter Market. It makes us wonder if half of the street food, performances, & set-up would have been there had it not been Easter weekend.

 Toy store. The puppets in the center danced around in a circle. 

 At the top of the Old Town Hall & Astronomical Clock. 

I do believe at this point our "thing" is to climb towers.

View from the top of the tower. You can see all the vendor stands selling merchandise and food. The other pictures is the side view of the clock. 

We headed towards the Petrin Hill & Observation Tower. It was an interesting attempt to get to the top. We traveled through the city and by accident found the Embassy of the United States of America. We headed up and reached a park where we could see a map that showed how to get to the tower. We knew there were shuttles and trams you could pay for to take you straight to the top. There were also paths that we found when it was too late. We headed up a super steep dirt path (huffing & puffing, might I add) and luckily made it to a spot that was close to a real path. We headed up numerous stairs and headed uphill to reach the tower. 

The tower was 299 steps and was not in an enclosed stairwell like other towers we've climbed. This completely freaked me out. I felt like I was going to fall out, and Jeff was amused by this the entire time. Once you reached the top, you could feel the tower sway...creepy! Needless to say, I was pretty excited to be at the ground level once we climbed back down. 

 Embassy of the United States of America. I was hoping for an invitation inside. hehe

 The Petrin Tower on the left and the tame part of the walk to the tower on the right. 

 Amazing view from the top of the tower. 

The 5-day trip was absolutely amazing and were so happy to be able to both a modern city and a picturesque one. 

Total Amount of Transportation Between the Two Cities: 

• 2 plane rides
• 1 train
• 2 airport shuttles
• 2 transfer buses
• 3 metro rides
• 1 boat
• 2 car rides to/from London.

Now, we rest.