The Bridges, City Center, from Calton Hill

Today we woke up to a pretty, though chilly, day. Jim, who had planned to go into work for the whole day, decided to meet me at 12:30 and we'd go into town for some exploring. After doing a number of domestic duties in light of the pending company, I walked over to Mayfield Road, which runs by the Kings Buildings, and met him there. We walked a block or two looking at bus opportunities. There are only one or two buses that run on Mayfield, apparently so we kept walking, just following Mayfield. It changed names a couple of times. One such name was Buccleuch St (pronounced Buck-loo, with accent on the the "loo"). As we walked along Mayfield, we looked for where Amy might have stayed...we saw a "Mrs. Smith's" or something along that line. That may ring a bell in my failing memory of what Amy said. She said they had Chinese take-out the first night here, and there was a Chinese place nearby. I'll have to ask her. We stopped at a "local bakery" (I bet) and bought some sandwiches(egg mayonnaise with salad...meaning that it has lettuce, tomato and cuke on it...and a chicken tikka sandwich) and a coke and a croissant for James the Thin. (There's a very famous and old bookstore in E-burgh called James Thin). Then I asked the woman behind the counter what a "bridie" was, and she thought I was ordering one. It's minced steak & onion in a pastry. I chose to going ahead a buy it even though it was a misunderstanding...for the culteral enlightenment, you know. I didn't much care for it. Then we walked on and found another bakery of French and Scottish goods, so we stopped in there for another coke, as Jim had downed the first one along with the Bridie, which he liked. I got a doughnut for dessert.

Moggie about to imbibe her lunch in front of St. Giles Cathedral.

We had walked from our home to downtown Edinburgh. It is about 2 1/2 miles.

We kept on walking and fetched up eventually at the Royal Mile, 2.4 mi from home, said the pedometer. We went over to a square, Parliament Square, I think, right in front of St. Giles Cathedral, which isn't a cathedral anymore, just the high kirk....once Catholic, now Presbyterian with a huge statue of John Knox standing near the back. He apparently preached there a lot. But I get ahead of myself...before we went into St. Giles, we had lunch in the square on a bench near a piper. It was nice, the weather beautiful.

In front of St. Giles Cathedral.

Flowers & front door of St. Giles Cathedral.

Jim on the lunch bench on the Royal Mile

Cathedral window reflecting the cloud

Piper waiting his turn to play.

Moggie and the flower pot

We went in the church. Jim headed off in one direction, and I stopped to ask this cute little Scotsman(a guide) if there were green men at St. Giles. He loved me after that question. Said there were 57 and said there was a woman named Kristin Nichols, who'd be back in a week, that loved green men and could tell me all about them. So I may go back after Va and Maynard and Wally leave and get some good info. He let me read a couple of pages about them in a loose-leaf binder there, and was going to Xerox it for me but the minister was IN and said that his secretary didn't have time to copy it. John, the St. Giles guide was reallly ticked and mumbled something about "that's Christian for you!" but was talking to his colleagues so fast that I couldn't follow it all. He took us around the church some, showing me the best of the 57 green men, offering to loan me his torch so I could look for more, then showed us and a number of other folks the important aspects of the Thistle Chapel...there were a number of stone cuttings of angels playing bagpipes in it. He also showed us the oldest part of the church and the stained glass windows which he got a bigger kick out of than we did. We found out there is organ music there at lunch on Thursday free of charge, so I may hop back down there for that. I think there was something from V.Williams on the program....can't remember what else. They also have Sunday at 6 pm music programs. The inside of the cathedral is pretty, Gothic mostly, I think.

We went into the cathedral. Moggie met a volunteer guide and he spent about 30 minutes with us telling us much about the history of the cathedral

The guide, in Thistle Chapel

Mog, in Thistle Chapel

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part of the Thistle Chapel. An angel in the carving. She is playing the bagpipe. Can you tell that?

A triple window in the cathedral

The guide, again.

View down the Royal Mile

After we finished at St. Giles, we decided to walk down to Waverley Shopping Center to see if the Moggie Shop is there, which it isn't. We saw it in a 3-year old phone book as being there. It must have bitten the dust. On the way we stopped in the bus office(Lothian) for some info and found out you can take the city bus tour for 1/2 price after 3:10, so we did that. We started out up top in the open air, but half way through I had to go down...I was freezing. Jim stayed above. The tour was a real disappointment....no guide, just taped descriptions of places. They often played descriptions of places we hadn't even gotten to yet on the road. I can see why it was 1/2 price. We could bearly hear, both upstairs and downstairs. I have seen those buses with live guides in Scottish garb, talking and laughing with the people on the buses...that must be before 3:10. At least we know not to take our company on a tour. The one thing we learned was that we've done pretty well finding the important things on our own.

We left the Royal Mile and decided to go on the Edinburgh Bus Tour

Sir Walter Scott Monument. Out of commission for renovation.

The Caley (The Caledonian Hotel) Edinburgh's fanciest hotel. Scott Peck stayed here.

Salisbury Crag viewed from Calton Hill