Edinburgh

After our Inverness extravaganza Amy and I arranged to stay a couple nights in Edinburgh before ending our Scotland visit.  Our bus arrived downtown about 10 minutes before the next scheduled free tour was about to start.  We had planned to do the tour that day because of our limited amount of time in Edinburgh.  We stashed our packs in lockers at the bus station and took off as quickly as possible to the meeting point (theres been a recurring theme of us running to catch tours).  Unfortunately the meeting place was difficult to find and a ways away, by the time we arrived the tour group was long gone.  We made the best of the situtation and decided to go on an underground walking tour.


The church where our tour started.

The tour started out with some history of the city.  The old town of Edinburgh is built on a hill in between two valleys.  During the wars between Scotland and England, Edinburgh decided to build huge walls around the old town.   These walls drove the people to make use of as much of the old town space as possible, building up and close together.  You can say that the first skyscrapers were engineered within the city walls.  The old town grew down one slope of the mountain within the walls and in order to add a level place to build on, a bridge was constructed within the walls.  The South Bridge (as it was named) was made from 19 stone arches, 4 stories deep at its highest point and was a marvel of enginnering back then.  In order to utilize thr space on either side of the bridge, the city began selling land plots.  Eventually, as these plots were developed, buildings were erected on either side of the bridge, concealing all but one arch.  Within these arches, workers worked, goods were stored and sold.

 
Our guide





Eventually, when the war between England and Scotland had ended (Scotland lost) the city opened the city walls and built a new town.  The rich, tired of the cramped conditions in the old town, flocked to the new community, allowing the poor and the hooligans to make their way in.  The archways became a haven for criminals.  They did everything from making illegal whisky to using the archways as temporary storage and thoroughfares for the trafficing of dead bodies between the cemetery and the medical institute (the medical institute paid big money in those days for fresh bodies to disect).

When the town got wind of the dealings in the archways they filled them in with rubble and dirt and sealed them from the public.  Now, centuries later, the archways have been excavated and are used for storage, night clubs, and tours.

After our tour Amy and I met up with our couchsurfers, a nice french couple Antoine and Alice.  We made them dinner (americanized versions of burritos and pepsi) and shared some good conversation.  Alice is a midwife and had a long shift the next day so we all headed to bed fairly early.

We got up the next day and took a bus downtown to catch the first walking tour.  Of course we took the wrong bus and by the time we sorted everything out we missed that tour as well!  But hey, again, we made the most of it and walked around the city's antique and vintage shops.  I bought a scottish flat cap (which you'll see below) and Amy got a dress.  When 1 pm rolled around (the next tour scheduled) we decided to continue to walk around and catch the 3 pm one.  We finally made it to the tour meeting place around 2:45 (the last tour was at 3).  We waited and waited and the guide never showed.  Apparently he wasn't going to give a tour in the light drizzle for only 6 or so people, bummer!


Edinburgh Castle


I'm in a glass case of emotion!

We planned on having dinner with one of Amy's oldest friends (Jackie) who is living in Edinburgh and filled the time as best we could before hand.  We had dinner at a cool little pub called "Holyrood 9A".  Burgers, fries and beers, mmmm.  Afterwards we went back to our couchsurfers place and turned in early before our 6 am flight to Rome.




New scottish flat cap!