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s a t u r d a y j u n e 5 1 9 9 9
Only a few days left, and we decide to head towards Edinburgh and walk through the city center a bit. A quick stop to snap pictures of Invergarry Castle, which is completely fenced off, and we head into Edinburgh. We had a hard time finding a B&B that had a room, but called ahead and then took our time getting into the city.
We stopped in Linlithgow to have lunch and see Linlithgow Palace, which is enormous. This huge stone building housed the King and Queen (in separate wings) and was set up around a huge courtyard, complete with fountain. Five stories high, with tunnels and hallways and alcoves, including two huge kitchens stacked one over the other. I nearly got lost, and definitely got turned around a few times while we went from side to side.
There is a widow's walk along one wall, where the queen was reputed to wait in the window, watching for her husband to return. Her suite of rooms has a long set of windows on the inner wall, but does not open to the exterior wall at all. The king's, below hers, face out. The original gate to the palace opens two stories up on the wall, and the ramp is missing. The new gate is at ground level and guarded by two gates.
A leisurely lunch in a local pub, and we decided to head into Edinburgh early so we could find our B&B. It's very cozy, the first floor of a Victorian town house that is set up as a very luxurious hotel. Our room was narrow, but it was very comfortable. The B&B does not serve dinner, but the proprietor gave us a map of Edinburgh and sent us off in search of a restaurant.
We passed on the Rugby Bar -- some sort of chain restaurant/bar/gaming place when we couldn't see through the smoke, and kept on walking down one of the main drags until we found a tiny little Italian place a dozen blocks or so away. Crowded, noisy, and lots of fun. Walking back we meandered around the apartment houses and new construction in this suburb before heading back to the hotel.
We stayed up late to watch Billy Connolly and the cricket matches on BBC, and crashed, planning tomorrow to go into Edinburgh and see the castle.
I don't understand Cricket. We must have spent an hour watching the game, and every so often the numbers would change on the scoreboard, but we could never figure out just what caused them to change...later, someone tried to explain Cricket to me as something like American Baseball. I just don't get it.
©1999-2001 R. Fingerson