Rule Britannia!
The Drawing Room of the Britannia. Note the lack of opulence - apparently the first draft was too "fussy" for the Queen, and she had a new architect design it more to her tastes.
Cary in front of the Scott Memorial. It is kind of odd - it isn't "bigger" than memorials in DC (i.e. Lincoln, Washington, etc.) but it has a much more imposing feel due to the ornateness.
Emily in front of the crib where James I of England was rocked as a baby. It is odd to think of kings and queens as babies.
The replica tomb of Mary, Queen of Scots as seen in the National Museum of Scotland.
Today we took it a little slower than yesterday, although we still managed to do quite a bit. We got about eight hours of sleep last night, but yesterday was such a busy day that we were still pretty wiped out when we woke up this morning. We had another outstanding breakfast from the outstanding Colin – Cary went with the traditional breakfast again and I had the continental, which includes a lot of bread – my favorite food! We chatted with the family from Pennsylvania that we met yesterday, and also met a mother and daughter from Maui who were at the end of a five week excursion through Europe. It was a lot of fun to share travel experience with everyone, and to catch up with our friends from yesterday to see how their day was.
After breakfast we caught the bus and rode through some very heavy traffic to the Firth of Forth (the bay Edinburgh is situated on) to see the Queen’s former yacht, HMY Britannia. She used it as her personal yacht to travel around the world as well as vacation from 1953 until 1997. It was also where Princess Margaret, Princess Anne, and Prince Charles and Princess Diana had their honeymoons (more on that in a minute). The museum and entrance to the Britannia is, believe it or not, located in a shopping mall on the Firth of Forth, and you get a handset that explains all the rooms you see as you go along. We saw the Queen’s bedroom and sitting room, her husband Prince Philip’s bedroom and sitting room (apparently they sleep in separate rooms), the state dining room, the drawing room, the officers’ and sailors’ messes (very cramped), and the honeymoon suite. The honeymoon suite has the only double bed on the yacht, and wasn’t brought in until Prince Charles’ and Princess Diana’s honeymoon, after Princess Margaret and Princess Anne had honeymooned there. So my question was, what exactly did these people do on their honeymoons? I envision lots of bridge-playing. We were impressed with how low-key the royal apartments were otherwise – not fussy at all (in fact, the Queen designed it that way). It was all pretty simple, but still attractive. We had fun imagining the royal family relaxing onboard while we were there.
We had lunch near the Royal Mile, where I tried Irn Bru (pronounced Iron Brew), a Scottish soda which is very popular and tastes like old bubblegum. Ew. Then we went to the Scottish National Museum, which is huge! I don’t know what we expected, being the national museum, but we were definitely not ready for the amount of stuff there was to look at – everything from the formation of Scotland billions of years ago to the Jacobite rebellion to modern Scotland. We tried to take everything in, but after two hours we were experiencing museum overload and had to leave. We were going to try to take in another museum, but we needed a rest and so we did some quick shopping and went back to the B&B, where we figured out our train plans for Thursday, watched some TV, and took a nap.
For dinner we stayed in the neighborhood and had Chinese food at China Town. Weeeeird dining experience. The food was great, but the service was unusual. The two ladies who helped us were very nice, but spoke very little English, which made ordering interesting. They charged almost £2 extra for rice with a meal (almost $4), but were surprised when we didn’t want any. Then after we ate, they vanished. We sat for about 10 minutes staring at our empty plates, and then I asked if we could please have the bill (we were going to a pub next door to hear some folk music and didn’t want to miss it). So after both of them confirmed that we did indeed want the bill, they bussed the table while we were still sitting there, wiping every crumb off the table. Then they came back with the bill, waited for us to pay it, and saw us to the door. They were nice and the food was good, and maybe this was typical of restaurant service in China, but overall the whole meal was kind of weird. We really enjoyed the traditional folk music at the pub next door though – we both had a beer/ale and shared a bottle of pear cider, or perry. The band just sat a table with their own beers and played – two fiddlers and two drummers. We stayed for about an hour and a half and had a great time. I had been really looking forward to hearing some live music, so I was glad we went.
Tomorrow we are going to try to finish up all the things we haven’t seen yet – there’s a lot on our list, but none of it should take too long. I’m most looking forward to climbing Arthur’s Seat on the edge of town – should give us a great view of the city, although we’ll probably freeze at the top. Locals have told us that Edinburgh is an exceptionally cold city (actually, this is one of the first things they say when we tell them we’re from Florida), and I believe them! It’s been in the 50s (Fahrenheit) and drizzly all day today. I think I’m going to be really sick of the two sweaters I brought by the time we come home. We’re having a great time though, and we’re also really looking forward to going to Manchester on Thursday and meeting Andy and Sue and their family, who we’re spending some time with (including climbing Mt. Snowdon in Wales on Saturday!). We’ve been in touch with them since Christmas, so we’re excited to finally meet them. But for now, we’re going to enjoy our last day in Edinburgh. Cary will write more tomorrow.
-Emily
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