Our trip to Edinburgh started at King's Cross Station at 5:40...our train departed a little after for what would be about a 4 hour trip. King's Cross station is featured in the Harry Potter books where students board the Hogwarts Express to go back to school. In the book, the train leaves from platform 9 and 3-quarters. The secret platform is only accessible to people with magical powers who run through a brick wall that separates the Hogwarts Express from the rest of the station. After the books were released, a special sign was erected inside London's King's Cross, and a luggage trolley sawed in half was placed coming out of the wall so that children and tourists could take pictures "pushing the cart through the wall." We didn't have time to see it then, but plan to go back for pictures!
The train was great...nice and comfortable, plenty of room, and free wifi and power outlets for computers. A snack cart came around several times that we took advantage of to get some tea. Kevin and Darren (pictured above) decided to skip the tea and went for rum and Coke. The trains between London and Edinburgh are part of the National Express rail service...a national consortium made of up most of Britain's passenger train companies. They travel up to 120 mph...it is quite something when 2 trains pass each other going opposite directions. It makes a huge "whoosh" and only last for 3-4 seconds (and these are long trains)! The British government just awarded the contract to several companies to replace the current trains with newer ones that are more efficient and can carry 20% more passengers. The deal is worth 7.5 billion pounds, and will safeguard over 12,000 jobs. The trains will be phased in between 2013 and 2015.
We arrived in Edinburgh around 11. The platform is pictured above. The train station and rail lines divide the new and the old cities. We had to walk up a huge flight of stairs to reach one of the main streets through the new city. From there, the walk to our hotel was only about 5-10 minutes. We checked in, and many people went straight out to the pubs. Jessica and I took a walk over to the old city, as I remembered walking down many of these streets when we were here in 2000 (it's not that big of a city). Then we made our way back to the hotel to turn in early for the night...we had to be up and have breakfast early because our walking tour (led by one of our professors) started at 9 am sharp.
A nice view of a clock tower in the morning sun. This is part of an elegant hotel in the new city right near the train station. Along the street there are trimmed hedges with large flower boxes full of flowers down the length of the building. It is also in the picture below...the building on the right hand side.
The view looking from the new city across to the old city. The bridge carries traffic over the rail lines below. It was a beautiful sunny morning, nice and cold out and a little misty...perfect to start our morning walk.
One of the first stops was a graveyard. Scotland has a lot of these little cemeteries tucked around their cities...they liked to honor their past, especially important members of society. This applies to Edinburgh in particular because it historically has been known as bourgeois city. There may have been more significance, but I stopped paying attention at certain points to take pictures and to make sure that I wouldn't break my neck while standing on the icy hill.
Mountains and rolling hills surround the city on three sides, making Edinburgh one of the most picturesque urban centers in Scotland. Along with a rich history, it also accounts for a lot of tourism that benefits the city's economy.
Looking out at Arthur's Seat (the cliff in the background). The top is supposed to provide great views of the city. It is supposed to be easy to climb, as there are sloping paths that take visitors to the top. It is a popular attraction for tourists. I did not climb it, electing instead do some more exploring of the city, but several people from our group did and said it was amazing.
The gate in front of the Queen's official residence in Scotland.
This is the Queen's Palace itself. There is more to it than this, but having to stick my camera lens through the bars of the gate, this was the most I could get. While it is very nice, it certainly is not one of the grandest of the Royal palaces.
Completed in 2004, the Scottish Parliament Building was very controversial. There were public disagreements on nearly every part of it, including its location, design, architect, and even its construction company. To top it off, it opened three years late and 10 times over budget (original estimate: 40 million pounds, final cost: 414 million pounds). At least it won several architectural awards once it was finally finished and the dust settled.
The Debating Chamber is where Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs, as opposed to MPs who meet at the British Parliament at Westminster in London) convene to make decisions and discuss issues. While Scotland is still represented by MPs in London, a referendum in 1997 restored limited authority back to a separate Scottish Parliament (hence the need for the new building). This new governing body mostly deals with domestic issues, such as the healthcare, education, and infrastructure systems in Scotland. Education has always been a big issue in Scotland - something the country takes great pride in. Scotland historically has had more colleges and universities than England, and to this day many of the UK's top leaders where schooled in Scotland (former and current Prime Ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, respectively, among them).
I seem to have a fascination with taking pictures of gates and doors. I really liked this gate that I saw along the Royal Mile (the main drag through the old city). And I will like it even more when I get around to cropping the garbage can out that appears in the background to the right.
Already saw the gate, so here is a door to prove my obsession. This was in a little church yard that is in the valley (if you go back to the earlier picture of Arthur's Seat, you can see the church yard in the lower left. Not really sure why we stopped here, but I liked how the red door pops.
I should have mentioned that I like alleyways too, and Edinburgh is full of them. There are a lot more of them once you get up on top of the hill (the old city is built on a hill) because they were originally used as garbage and waste chutes. People would dump their garbage and their chamber pots out the window into these channels, and when it rained it would wash the waste down the hill and out of the city.
Edinburgh Castle is at the top of the hill. The castle itself isn't all that interesting, but does provide amazing areal views of the city. It is also the inspiration for the Hogwarts castle in Harry Potter.
Looking out over the new city from Edinburgh Castle.
And looking out over the old city from the castle. I love the mountains in the background, it makes it almost look like we're in Switzerland!
Only in Scotland: Scotch flavored condoms. What can I say...
After we walked through the old city, we stopped in the National Portrait Gallery and then continued on to walk around the new city. We finished at this really elegant luxury tea house called the Dome. Syracuse was nice enough to pay for it, which made it even better.
So there could have been nothing better than to end the afternoon with a nice cup of tea, and a table discussion with Forbes, our professor guide for the trip who was always down for a nice chat.
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