Scotland day 2, Edinburgh continued

We were awake early, and figured we might as well get a head start on sight seeing for the day. Rain was coming, but we had a few hours before it would make its appearance. We grabbed breakfast from a bakery. Mine was a sausage roll. You would order your pastry from the glass case and they would warm it up before serving it to you. The sausage roll tasted fine (it sounded British/Scottish and like something I should try) but sat heavy in my stomach. 

This is just a random backside of a cow we saw on our walk. There are a couple of weird sculptures around town. 

Onto climb Calton Hill! It's an easier climb than Arthur's Seat but still offers nice views of Edinburgh.

The building on the right (above) reminds me of a poop emoji. The swirl roof is a bold choice.

First cannon of the day.

Nelson monument.

Skyline view

The National Monument was meant to be the Scottish version of the Parthenon in Greece, but it was left unfinished due to a lack of funds.

Then we took a stroll through the "new town" of Edinburgh. I would just like to point out that their version of a "new town" is buildings built during the 18th and 19th centuries. 

I liked this potted plant garden.

Georgian and neo-classical architecture, cobblestone roads, Scottish Parthenon, and modern cars. It's an interesting mash-up.

A nod to the author of Sherlock Holmes.

Fancy cathedral that was closed when we walked by.

The Sir Walter Scott monument. Founder of historical fiction.

King George IV. He visited Scotland in 1822, the first monarch to visit Scotland in about 200 years. This sculpture was kind to the personage of the king. Accounts reference a corset made in 1824 to hold his 50 inch girth.

I found this hilarious: The Shoogly Peg. What does Shoogly even mean?

In the West Princes Street Garden there is a whole flowerbed display to celebrate 200 years of Braille, with a working clock made of flowers and plants. There is a fence keeping people away from it. I found this a bit ironic- How is this to celebrate Braille for blind people? Don't get me wrong- this is super cool. I've never seen a clock made with live plants and flowers.

Onto Edinburgh Castle! We had tickets for 11 am, and as we were strolling up to the castle at 10:40, the skies opened up. I asked the ticket scanners if we could come in early and they said yes. 

Little did I know how inadequate my rain jacket would turn out to be.

More cannons on the rampart.

I had no idea how much of a military museum this castle was. There was a whole lot of military history information and displays. But the indoor displays did allow us to dry off.

This was a 14 year old boy, er lieutenant put in charge of grown men during the American Revolution. Actually in Scotland, our little difference of opinion with England is called the "American War of Independence." Potato, pah-tah-to. The reason we won became a little clearer to me if the other side was putting 14 year olds in leadership roles. It's all about who you know, you know? 

Awesome model ship.

This gentleman was doing a great impersonation of a statue for quite a while. I thought his outfit was really something special. I asked him what time period his uniform was from (1497) and got a 10 minute history lesson on Mons Meg the cannon. She is very heavy and extremely expensive to pull around and fire.

Mons Meg could shoot these giant cannon balls up to 2 miles!

St. Margaret's Chapel. I discovered later that this is the Queen Margaret our train station (and nearby hospital) was named after (from the last night of our Scotland trip).

Very fancy dining hall. This is how weapons were stored when not in use.

We stuck around for the cannon firing at 1 pm. 
 

This is the courtyard by the dining hall. The castle was becoming very full of people, and we opted not to see the Scottish crown jewels. The queue to look at those was quite long. 

It was raining a fair amount, so we meandered down to the National Gallery of Scotland and looked at art. It was fun to see that I could name a couple of the different art styles Elizabeth has told me about from her art history classes.

We walked 20,000 steps this day and we were getting pretty tired. Everyone was making use of the indoor spaces due to persistent moisture, so we couldn't find a place to sit down inside. So we sat next to the bike rack and decided we had made good use of the day and we were ready to go back to our hotel.