Scotland 2017 - Day 7

Day Seven

Today we are leaving St. Andrews and will spend the day in Edinburgh (eh-din-burrow).

Before we left St. Andrews we stopped by the beach where they filmed the movie Chariots of Fire.  We filmed ourselves running using the iPhone slo-mo camera, but when we downloaded it, the video was regular speed.  So here's a pic from the beach.

After Anne dropped us off at the airport Doubletree hotel, we grabbed the local bus into town, which dropped us off on Princes Street where there’s a bunch of retail shops.  We figured we needed to find a way to get to the Edinburgh Castle which is within walking distance on the other side of a massive downtown garden and way uphill.  We heard bagpipes on the way, so we stopped at the Royal Scottish Academy (an art museum) and listened to the street performer – Shellie got her picture with him while he was playing.  You could literally hear him from the Castle a mile away.  Then we walked up this massive hill to get to the castle.  After standing in a long line (I’d advise Will Call), we got tickets and went in the castle which was still in pretty good shape.  There were a lot of cool exhibits – prisons, bunks, hall of armor, etc.  Shellie was disappointed the fancy tea room was closed for a private function.  We spent about an hour touring the castle.

The Royal Mile

Then we proceeded down the “Royal Mile”, a cobblestoned road heading from the castle down to the Holyrood Palace where the Queen stays when she’s in Scotland.  This was the best way to go – otherwise if we walked UP the street, we would have literally been walking UP the entire time.   Along the way we stopped at different stores and bought souvenirs.  We ate at a restaurant called Angels with Bagpipes which had good reviews.  They seated us in this small room with one table that overlooked the street.  We watched a kid doing some awesome soccer tricks for spare change.  The food was good and Shellie had a dessert which was basically Rhubarb five different ways.  Then we went to the Palace and got there with one minute to spare.  We toured the inside and then bought some souvenirs and headed back to the hotel for a good night’s rest.

Palace of Holyrood

Arthur's Seat

We spent Sunday flying back – it was nice to have a direct from Heathrow to Austin and we got back just in time to see the final holes of the Masters (Sergio Garcia won) – which was a perfect ending to my golfing week in Scotland.