Day 16-Last Day in Edinburgh

We were up around 7:30am to leave North Queensferry to travel over the bridge and into Edinburgh.  As a pleasant side note for all you Corrie fans out there, they show an episode at 7:00 am every morning, and then repeat it that evening at 7:00pm.  So when the schedual and TV reception permitted I tried to catch as many episodes as possible.  It seems that the CBC is doing a bang up job catching Canada up to the episodes being released here in the UK, and I was able to fall into the plot without too much difficulty (spoiler: poor Tyrone) But, I digress . . . We were up early to beat the traffic into Edinburgh to return Clyde.  After our navigation "issues" yesterday trying to find the local ASDA, we came armed with maps in both paper and Google form. While traffic was heavy, and we were headed into the tourist-y part of the city, we successfully found our way to the restaraunt we had to return Clyde to.  I must admit I was a little sad to see him go, but I was glad Liam didn't have to endure  the stress of driving with every limb and ounce of strength in his body.

For our last day (and night) in Edinburgh we splurged and stayed at a Mercure hotel, right on Princes Street.  From our hotel room we could see into Scott Monument, and up to Edinburgh Castle.  It was a lovely view, and we could actually see the people climbing the monument and we didn't have to do the climbing at all! I was done with climbing after the 246 steps of the Wallace Monument, especially when I found out that the Scott monument was about 40 steps more than the Wallace.

We spend the last day in Edinburgh visiting the things we couldn't squeeze in when we were here a couple weeks ago: the Camera Obscura, and Mary King's Close, and in the evening the Royal Military Tattoo.  Camera Obscura is an amazing, 360  degree set of mirrors, set on the roof of a building that somehow reflects a panoramic view of the city into a darkened room inside the building.  The Camera Obscura also features a bunch of optical illusion type of exhibitions, with things like a hall of mirrors and holographic photos. Mary King's Close is a medieval village, under the cobbles of High Street, that used to be street level.  Way back when,  the powers that be decided that they would kick out all of the people, and use their houses as the foundations for bigger houses, and better roads.  So now all these abandoned homes and streets are hiding beneath the ground.  It was an interesting tour, but Liam and I had a few questions about the authenticity of a few parts of the exhibition.

That evening we headed back up to High Street, to Edinburgh Castle to watch the Tattoo.  The show was fantastic, and Liam and I were particularly impressed with the drumline from Basil, Switzerland, and the James Bond finale of the show.

As I type this, I am sitting on a train, whizzing past the countryside of Scotland, headed for London for a last few days of touring before flying back home. Liam, in typical Liam fashion, is already planning out our next trips to Scotland, Europe, and DisneyWorld.  He hopes to follow in the footsteps of his Grandparents and take some of his beloved nephews and niece, on some future trips.  I on the other hand look forward to getting home to see my cats, and hope to catch a few last days of suntanning, before heading back into school to prepare for the upcoming school year.