Robot Claw

We must be getting tired. Each day we’re taking fewer and fewer photos.

On our full day in Edinburgh we went and visited some of the tourist attractions of the city while JBF took a full day train trip to Inverness.

Our first stop was Edinburgh castle, which is built on the rocky cliff overlooking the city:

This was the fourth castle of our trip and was different from the others. For a start a good portion (maybe one half) of it is still used by the military. Secondly much of the castle was restored within the last hundred years or so making it a more modern attraction than the others we’d seen.

Even so it was well done, in particular the exhibits on the Scottish crown jewels (called ‘The Honours’) and the exhibit on the history and use of the prisons underneath the castle.

In addition, we were intrigued by this:

It’s a ‘time gun’, fired every day at 1pm so the populace can set their clocks. Obviously it is not necessary now, but tradition holds that the gun remains in use. There was a good history on the whys and hows of such guns, and I was surprised to see that Sydney still has a functioning time gun as well…

After the castle we took a guided tour into the vaults below one of the larger bridges in the city. These bridges do not span water – rather they span the glacial valleys carved into the bedrock of the city aeons ago. One such bridge (the South bridge) was built with an extensive network of vaults underneath it, which for a few hundred years were used as homes, shops, pubs, storage and hives of scum and villians. The tour was very good and I recommend it if anyone visits Edinburgh.

Here’s lunch:

Yep, a sausage roll 🙂

In the afternoon I solo climbed the Scott Monument which is on Princess Street opposite the castle:

287 sometimes very narrow spiral stone stairs allow the brave to climb through four separate levels to reach nearly the very top. It’s a bit scary and a lot claustrophobic, but provides great views of the entire city and well out across the bay. I was dead tired after, but I’m glad I did the climb. KLS waited below and took a snap of me on the lowest level… can you see me in this picture?

I had a kebab for dinner which was delicious but would come back to haunt me the next day…

Got any questions? Put them in the comments…

After Keswick we headed north into Scotland. But not before a morning walk to get some (English) money. As you can see, the weather had changed overnight:

Again, lovely British weather 🙂

The drive to Scotland was uneventful except for the bit over the mountain. I include the following shot not only to show how low the visibility was, but also because it is the only shot of the car I ended up taking!

On many of our long drives we have stopped at rest stops to get vittles. This has often been M&S Simply Food, especially such things as fruit cups, cheese and lemonade. Brunch therefore, has often looked like this:

Edinburgh is a very, very old city (the first inhabitants occupying the location of the current castle 6000 years ago) and there are a great deal of old buildings in the downtown area. But more on that in tomorrows entry!

Today we just frittered around the city to get our bearings:

As you can see the chameleon circuit makes the Tardis look a bit different up here. And yes, that’s a Nessie hat!

This bill poster demonstrates the cavalier attitude the scots have toward copyright:

And here’s a couple of food shots, of KLS and JBF:

And here’s a shot of what I absolutely positively did not have for dinner!

Five days without internet. We’re now back in London for the very last phase of the trip and the hotel (which seems very nice) has complimentary internet. But it seems dodgy…

At any rate over the next few days you can look forward to new entries!

Scarborough, oh Scarborough. What can be said about you that hasn’t already?

Maybe it is better to just see…

See, there I go being silly again. Deliberately taking the most outrageous photos and opening with them in an attempt to shock the reader. Sure, Scarborough is the place to buy gollywog souvenirs, and sure the streets are lined with amusement arcades and silly family attractions. But it also happens to be beautiful:

Scarborough has been a seaside resort town for over 400 years now. To the English, such places are a popular annual trip and the town (along with many others around the country) has built itself into a tourist mecca.

The lower shot was taken from out on the pier visible in the above shot. There is a small amusement park (named Luna Park, strangely) on this very pier:

How many of the badly-painted celebrities on the ‘Dance Zone’ can you identify?

Scarborough has two beaches. KLS and I only looked at the southern one; whilst JBF took a walk to the north (we had limited time and wanted to look closer in the souvenir shops). Here’s the southern beach:

And if you scrutinize that photo you may have a question right now. Here’s the answer:

Scarborough was truly fantastic. Beautiful weather, beautiful train ride and a great destination with much to see. I wish we had a couple of days there (as opposed to four hours), but am glad we managed to squeeze so much in our short stay.

Such as two Tardises!

And… well and this arcade game:

And the fish’n’chips the town is renowned for:

And – happily – since souvenir shopping has proven somewhat problematic, Scarborough managed to supply a simple gift that turned out to be appropriate for everyone on my list. Here’s a sneak preview:

Yesterday we rode a choo-choo train to the (east coast) seaside resort of Scarborough. This left from the very impressive York train station:

Anyway, here’s a better shot of the choo-choo:

It is called the Princess Elizabeth, it was built in 1936 and the one hour trip to Scarborough was the most comfortable train trip I have ever been on! Jim agrees:

The train is owned and operated by enthusiasts on a half-volunteer basis, which means they need to raise money. One of their ways is very clever. They take two pretty girls, dress them in too-small schoolgirl outfits with see-through shirts, and let them walk through the train selling raffle tickets and souvenir pens. The fogeys eat it up!

Here’s an example of one of those fogeys 🙂

Let us end this entry now as a record of the trip *to* Scarborough, and dedicate a new one to the town itself…