Edinburgh Day 2

 Today we're doing one of the Hop On; Hop Off city bus tours.  Great way to get oriented.  We sit up top in order to get the best views and pictures.  The guide is friendly, tells the history and stories in an entertaining way.  

Seems like there are several places that were gathering spots for public hangings.  One woman survived her hanging!  They decided they couldn't hang her twice for the same crime.  She went on to live another 40 years!  Then there were the serial killers who sold the bodies to the medical school.  I guess they were a little too ambitious and finally got caught.  It was decided that a public hanging wasn't enough punishment for them.  So, they were donated to the medical school where they were publicly dissected.  Their skin was made into leather to bind medical books.  That seemed to satisfy the crowd.  

Hmmm.  somehow the macabre is what I remember.....  

The city has a lot of what they call underground because it is a lower level than all of the bridges that were built to connect different hilly regions.  Sir Walter Scott was born here in Edinburgh and we went past his birthplace.  Mother always claimed that we could trace our roots back to him.  DK if that is true or not but Grandmother Becker's maiden name was Scott.  

We rode the whole circuit (about 1 1/2 hours and then planned out where we wanted to explore further.  We decided to go back to the science museum, Dynamic Earth.  We took a time machine way back to the big bang!  It was all well done and quite interesting.  Had a bit of a Disney feel with the special effects and crowd management.  

Touching an ice berg.

We hopped back on the bus to where we could start the ascent up Cantrell Hill.  It was a nice view but I must admit that I wasn't real impressed.  

Back to Castle Rock where we relaxed and ate our left overs from last night.  The hostel is quite large and has several big common rooms and lounge areas and a big kitchen with lots of small fridges with signs on them of the day of the week it gets cleaned out.  

Melodie, Connie and I went out after to dinner to a little pub that advertised live Scottish folk music.  On the way there, we met 4 guys wearing kilts who wanted their picture taken.  Turns out 3 of them were from Spain and I from England.  They were planning to have a wild, fun night.  A coulple came up and asked if we were familiar with the area.  Well, we were one day more familiar with the area than they were.  They joined us to go to the pub.  Rebecca and Toby, on holiday from a suburb of London. 

 

The whisky flights paired with chocolate or cheeses caught our interest.  They were wonderful!  The brie was amazing and I really like the whisky paired with a blue cheese.  We were not in the room with the music but Lauren and Jeremy (our new good friends) alerted us when space opened up.  The camaraderie was  heartwarming.  

A leisurely walk back to the hostel along Victoria Terrace before turning in.