One of the girls I went with discovered a free tour of Edinburgh that we decided to do the next morning. Kristie and I were skeptical about the quality of a free tour, but it was a really good experience. Our tour guide was amazing and we learned a lot about the history of Edinburgh. Since that is where JK Rowling lives and wrote the Harry Potter books, there were a lot of Harry Potter references. We saw the castle of Edinburgh and a school (George Heriots School) which were the likely inspirations of Hogwarts, the Elephant House where she wrote the first two books, and the graves of two men whose names are potential inspirations for characters: Tom Riddell and William McGonagall. At the end of the walk, I experienced a taste of real Scottish food - haggis! I was really concerned about it, but it ended up being really good. The only problem with it is that my stomach isn't used to eating food like that - it set off a two week long fight between me, my stomach, and food. I couldn't keep anything in and eventually succumbed to buying Pepto Bismol which turned my tongue black. That's why I called the unfortunate illness the plague. Seems accurate to me.
After lunch, we walked to the castle to kill time before the ghost walk. It's a really pretty castle but extremely windy. We could feel the sand on the ground whipping into our faces. Worth it though. Once it got dark, we started a ghost tour with the company that ran our free tour earlier in the day. It was a decent tour because we learned a lot of true stories about all of the crazy stuff that happened in Edinburgh. It wasn't one of the tours where they try to scare you in graveyards, so it was good in my book.
During our last day in Edinburgh, we just wandered around and took pictures of the city. We were supposed to climb Arthur's Seat which is this mountain with gorgeous views of the city, but I didn't trust my stomach to be that long without a bathroom. Unfortunate. But instead we went to Calton Hill which had AMAZING views of the city. There were gorgeous views of Arthur's Seat, the castle, the city, and the mountains in the distance. That afternoon looking out over Scotland made me fall in love. I would go back to Scotland in a heartbeat.
That night we flew to London for the second part of our week. Like Edinburgh, it was very rainy the first day. But after that, the sun came out and it was warm and sunny and we were happy. We started off our time in London with a free tour by the same company that led our tours in Edinburgh. It wasn't nearly as good as the the one in Edinburgh partly because our tour guide was new and partly because it only included the sights in Westminster, nothing in the City of London proper. We did get to see Buckingham Palace (not as impressive as I'd imagined), Trafalgar Square, the Admiralty Arch (the one with the nose on the side), Horseguards Palace, 10 Downing Street, Westminster Abbey, Parliament, the tower with Big Ben, and the London Eye.
For dinner we went to the Hard Rock Cafe, which was really awesome. I saw the guitars from Pete Townshend and Eric Clapton which started the whole thing. When we went to the Hard Rock Store to get our glasses, we discovered that a few times an hour, free tours are given of the vault. Apparently people used to be able to touch all of the memorabilia, but someone sweated off a signature and now the insurance company won't let anyone touch. There were all sorts of fancy guitars by famous people but mainly I was interested in seeing Madonna's outfit. Once it got dark out, we wandered around Westminster and took pictures of the city at night. Some of Piccadilly Circus but mainly the London Eye and Parliament. It's beautiful at night.
The next morning we attempted to see the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace. I say attempted because even though we got there early enough and had what we thought were good spots based on where everyone else was. Unfortunately, we slowly realized that the guards did not perform the ceremony out in the courtyard where everyone was gathered, but behind the fence where nobody could see. Soo we stood in the sun for over a half hour watching the soldiers go in, then watching them come out again. It was extremely disappointing, especially because I have no overwhelming desire to go back to London.
That afternoon we returned to Trafalgar Square to take pictures without the rain from the day before. Kristie and I attempted to climb the lions, but where little children succeeded, we failed epically. It was really sad. Afterwards we went on a tour of the City of London where we saw the Temple of the Knights Templar, the Oxo building, Millennium Bridge, London Bridge, Tower Bridge, the Royal Exchange, Bank, Monument, and the Tower of London. As we walked along the Thames, our guide told us about the new City Hall. The architect was very proud of his building but when the new mayor saw it, he was confused as to why he had to work in a building that looks like a giant testicle. Obviously our maturity level was very high and we did not giggle at all. Obviously.
Our last day in London took us all over to see the random sights not included in the tours and the wanderings of the previous days. We went to King's Cross Station to see Platform 9 3/4 which was conveniently located on Platform 8. Next we made our journey to the British Museum to see the Rosetta Stone. We checked out a little more of the museum and I saw another bog person as well as Napoleon's death mask - totally creepy. Unfortunately, as we left the museum I realized I no longer had my camera. We searched the area where we were but it wasn't there. We found lost and found only to be told that it was closed and the man near there had to call someone to open it. I took that as a "my camera cannot have been turned in because lost and found is closed. there go all of my pictures" because we had only left it for maybe 30 minutes. Amazingly, when the man came to unlock the room, my camera was in there. Of course, there wasn't much drama in this story because you've all seen my pictures. But it was a very stressful time.
We ended the week with a meal of fish and chips and peas, it was very tasty. Then Becky went to see Wicked and Kristie and I went on the Dick Whittington Ale Trail. After that, there is still no doubt in my mind that I dislike beer. One..tasted like an ash tray. It was disgusting. We mainly went for the free shirt and at the end we got one, so the trip was a complete success in our minds. And with a 7:15 am flight from London to Copenhagen flight the next morning, our fabulous tour of the UK ended.
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