Free Cookies are not always free

Today we got up early so we could see Edinburgh Castle and the Palace of Holyrood. We caught a new bus to take us to the castle. On the drive there we saw Hogwarts! And I don’t mean that phoney stuff that you see in the movie, I mean the school that JK Rowling actually based Hogwarts after! My life is just THAT much cooler now.

When we reached the castle it was starting to rain. Oddly enough, both of us were smart and brought our Bellingham rain coats. The rain is Scotland is very strange, it barely drizzles and then all of the sudden it’s POURING.

Then all of the sudden it’s sunny and beautiful out.

Freaky

Edinburgh castle is really awesome. It’s on the top of the city so it has amazing views. It’s a very weird castle because some parts of it are really old (13^th century) and then works its way up to the 18^th century. It also has the royal crown museum and Scottish military history museum inside. By this time the rain had finally let up, and allowed us a spectacular view of Edinburgh.

Moving on to the Palace of Holyrood. This is a newer (for Europe) building, maybe 17^th century. It’s just your typical castle and another place to practice our audio tour syncing. It was enjoyable to learn about the crazy shenanigans that happened to Mary Queen of Scots. The only old part of the castle is a 12^th century monastery that’s now in ruins, but it was one of the most beautiful and yet melancholy places I’ve ever been. It inspired Mendelsohn’s Scottish Symphony, and if you listen to that music you really feel what the emotion of the building is.

We decided to visit Scottish Parliament after the Palace (and free cookies!) because it was across the street. This building is creepily modern (don’t get me wrong it’s beautiful, but it doesn’t really fit in with the rest of Edinburgh) and apparently went about 400 million pounds over budget. Wow.

Fantastic day filled with amazing sights, history lessons and bus rides. Oh, and Hogwarts.