Touring Edinburgh

We did take one day to go on a city bus tour—the upper level of a double decker bus. We got drizzled on a little bit, but it didn’t last long. Our tour guide looked like he gave the tour while half asleep. I don’t think he ever looked outside the bus once. He just lifted his hand and gestured vaguely towards the things he was talking about. We should have got off at one of the stops and got on the next bus, but we had some pretty good
seats and decided to endure him. He knew a lot, but just was not very animated or excited to be there. The main part of touristy Edinburgh is the Royal Mile, which is just a block and a half away from Ben’s apartment. One end of the Royal Mile has the Edinburgh Castle and the other end is the parliament and Royal gardens. Other than a few monuments a few blocks here and there away from the Royal Mile, everything worth seeing is clustered around the Royal Mile—walking distance for us! We did take another day to explore the castle. My favorite part is when you pass a lone bagpipe player all gussied up in his kilt.

Speaking of kilts - they only became popular as a tourist attraction and marketing ploy - along with the tartan fabric. In the old days, only the highlanders used to wear kilts and if they wore them into the cities they might get killed. Haha - maybe that's why they're called 'kilts!'




This School of Divinity is where Ben will attend all of his classes this semester. It is considered the ‘new campus’ - I guess the 1700’s is new. The ‘old’ campus is closer than Ben’s apartment. This campus is up the Royal Mile towards the castle—in fact the castle is just past this school to the left. Ben ‘pities’ those who have to attend a university that is not within a hundred yards of a castle. Silly boy.

This cafeteria is where we stopped a couple of times to log onto the internet using Ben’s school ID. Rather incongruous don’t you think? Internet in this old fashioned cafeteria straight out of Harry Potter’s Hogwarts, except for the ceiling—which was rather cool in it’s own way. Baby Sara didn’t care for this place too much—or else she liked the sound of her cries echoing… We weren’t there for long. We could either exit through the big gate in front of the building, or walk up a few flights of stairs and exit a side street just feet away from the Royal Mile and yards way from the castle entrance.

It was so frustrating not having internet at the apartment. In order to get the internet at home, you have to have a checking account, which Ben applied for soon after arriving in Scotland. For an international student to get a checking account, there is a 3 week holding period for some reason or other. After I came home, they received confirmation for their checking account, so now they’re eligible to apply for the internet which will take another week or so. Grrr. I hope they get it soon, so we can ‘skype’ which is like a visual telephone call using the computer. It worked pretty good when Ben logged on at the school library and Catherine logged on while still at home. I can't wait, but I'm not nearly as anxious as Ben & Catherine - especially Catherine who doesn't have the opportunity to log on at school each day like Ben!