Day 11: Edinburgh

Day 11       7/6/17

We had our breakfast and started towards Edinburgh's down town center. We picked up our tour guide for the day, Laura. She took us up and showed us parts of the new town. We couldn't get too close to Edinburgh castle because the Queen was in residence and so we couldn't see much.

We stopped at a mall and got the chance to see the Queen's yacht, the "HMY Britannia". We also stopped at Pound World to get things pretty cheaply. It is sort of like Dollar General.

Continuing the tour, we went to Greyfriars. We saw the statue of the dog Bobby, who dutifully came to his master's grave everyday until he died. Such loyalty warmed the hearts of the people who were there and it made a nice story. A statue was made in honor of the story.

The statue of Bobby at  Greyfriars


Laura figured that the dog came to get fed everyday, not to come and watch his master's grave.

We also visited the Greyfriars Kirk, which had a cemetery that had names from the Harry Potter series.

J. K. Rowling wrote a few of the books while having coffee at the nearby Elephant Bar. She may have taken some names from the cemetery like Thomas Riddle and McGonagall to use in her books. A nearby school, George Heriot's  school could be the template for Hogwarts.

I witnessed some Harry Potter specific tours that has rejuvenated Edinburgh a little more.

We went to the Royal Mile and said goodbye to Laura. We then had the afternoon free to do as we wanted.

Eight of us had a burger before heading to Holyrood park to do some walking up a steep hill. As we ascended, the view of Edinburgh got better.

Edinburgh from the hills of Holyrood park

Mr. Miles on a hike















After about an hour, we turned around and headed for the Museum of Scotland. We went through the exhibits and passed the time for a couple of hours. While we were there, it rained outside and so we considered our timing good.

We left the museum and did some shopping as we headed towards our rendez-vous point on the Royal Mile. We saw street performers and shopped until 6:15. We did have one brief shower to remind  us about all the nice weather we've had this past week.

Some of the sights in Edinburgh (Cowsgate)

Travel club walking the streets of Edinburgh


We met and had dinner that consisted of pizza and ice cream. The groups have gotten along very well and we had a good time chatting about the day's events.

Supper in Ediburgh


We met Alan and headed back to our hotel. We said our good byes to him and told him how much we appreciated his 6 days with us.

We went to bed knowing that tomorrow would be an early day.

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