Edinburgh, etc.

Although my dad was here for only a few days, we still "had time" to travel. And since all of my friends told me great things about Edinburgh, I thought this was the place to go. With less than a week before he came, I booked train tickets and a hotel and the day after he arrived we were off to the land of the Scots (aka Scotland).

NOTE: the day before we went, we went to Maze Grill (a Gordon Ramsey restaurant) and it was a great dinner. I just thought I should make some sort of mention of such a great dinner.

After a little runaround about passports and train stations, we made it on to the train on time and found two seats next to each other. I was reading for one of my classes while my father was working on a Christmas present. I would say it was a pretty productive train ride. Once we got to the hotel, which was a stone throws away from the train station, and checked in, we decided to get some food. We decided to walk to Old Town which was across the valley for lunch.

Here is the Scottish memorial, which was right across the street from our hotel. There was also a Ferris wheel right next to it since they were setting up for their Winter wonder Land, a carnival thing for Christmas. London's is in Hyde Park.

Castle of Edinburgh, which ended up visiting the next day.

Here is the street we ate lunch at.

After eating a good meal at the Arcade Bar we decided to take a Bus tour of the town to see which things we should visit the next day. Little did we know that the temperature would get very cold and uncomfortable.

Me enjoying the bus ride. Also, my dad took his very Nikon so most of the really good pictures are on there.

Here is a picture of the Castle from our Bus tour.

Once we got off the terribly cold bus tour and defrosted in our room, we made a pit stop at H&M so my dad who did not compensate for the cold weather could make some much necessary purchases to make up for his lack of layers. After the pit stop, we walked across to the Old Town again for dinner. We ended up getting dinner at this really good Italian restaurant. Afterwards we back to the pub where we went for lunch for some drinks (some aged Scottish whiskey and pints). Sticking to tradition, we played Rummy 500 where he beat me multiple times. Once I got tired of losing we went back to the hotel for some rest.

After waking up at 10am the next morning and getting breakfast at this chocolate shop, we headed off to the castle.

Here is the castle from the end of the Royal Mile.

My dad in front of the Castle.

View from the base of the Castle.

After waiting for about a half an hour for tickets, we made our journey to the top. Here a some of the pictures that we took:

View from one side of the Castle.

View from the steep climb up.

Me trying to pick up a huge cannon ball (unsuccessful).

War Memorial (I think).

View from outside one of the canons near the top.

A lion in front of the memorial.

After making our way down from the Castle and getting some souvenirs, we ate at this place called Deacon Brodie's, which is named after the inspiration for Dr. Jekyll. Here is the wiki link: Deacon Brodie. Lunch was done and so was our short trip.

Once getting our luggage and getting to our train, I finished my reading and we had a little rematch of Rummy 500 (I won both games). Although short, Edinburgh was a great and beautiful.

The next day we went to the Tower of London and then ended up doing a bus tour of London since it was raining. I didn't take any pictures with my camera so it will not be too exciting, therefore I will keep it short and sweet.

Lunch @ Harrods: Great!
Dinner @ the Sports bar: Great!
Watching the Eagles at the sports bar with my dad while having a drink: Great!
Watching the Eagles suck: Terrible!
Spending time with my dad for a few short days in London & Edinburgh: Priceless...