Edinburgh - Required Stops

Today we decided to basically be tourists. We visited Edinburgh Castle, the Royal Mile and then had dinner with a friend of mine down by the Shore. To be honest - well, the castle was...a castle. While grand and big and certainly a stand-out among the landscape here, it wasn't terribly riveting. Perhaps the best part was the actual Crown Jewels, though they didn't really give a lot of information and did not at all touch on the controversy surrounding the Stone of Destiny, which is housed with the crown and other jewels.

To wake up after what was a bit of a snooze-site, we headed down the Royal Mile which is mostly tourists however, Jill popped into a small hole-in-the-wall doorway that led to a what was a very authentic pub. The whole bar - including the bartender - cleared out when it was time to smoke, and the youngest patron was likely 65...in a nod to the locals, Jill started her tour of whiskey and scotch. The bartender asked Jill if she'd had any "nookie-nookie" yet and then, when she said "no," he retorted with, "well, come'on back then..." Oy! It was a fun, very salt-of-the-earth experience.

After, we decided it was nap time - and nap we did! Later, we met up for dinner with friend, and then despite lofty goals, did not go out to the big 'women-only' dance party that happens monthly, rather, we furthered worked toward our goal of "no jet lag!" which, despite how much we were telling ourselves "we have no jetlag" well, we did...

Btw - Jill has an odometer...today, the number of steps walked: 14,500






Some shots from Old Town (Castle & Royal Mile), including the Braille version of the crown; strange cukes, signs...there are *a lot* of fish, chicken & pizza all-in-one places here!