Day 1 Scotland

We arrived late yesterday in Scotland. It was wet. Who would ever have imagined Scotland being so wet? Okay, so that is sarcasm. But by the time we got to our hotel, since we walked, we were soaked through. Even our luggage was soaked. Luckily, my stuff inside wasn't wet. Jeremy's was damp.

But we went to the Edinburgh Castle today, saw some great stuff, bought some cute stuff (I couldn't help it, found a great souvenir for my dad!), ate some food and then headed back to the hotel to charge my camera. Yeah. And then we saw Carlton Hill and did a bit of shopping.

I have to say, Scotland is beautiful. Even from the city. London didn't have much for trees and greenery except in designated parks. Scotland is green everywhere. It's pretty cool.

When we got to the hotel and got to our room, this is was the view outside our room. At first, we thought this might be a lighthouse. Well, it's not. We knew we were next to the ocean... but this is too far inland for it to be a light house. Whoop!

 This was a war monument. There are quite a few here. But you can see this from just about any point in the city. Or at least the middle tower. From far away, it almost looks like a cathedral.

 The castle itself! It's in the center of the city. Great view of the ocean from the castle walls.

This is the inner part of Edinburgh Castle. This was the main stair case of the castle. They finally made a roadway that slopes up to the top there to make it easier to get the cannons up there (the heaviest of them all weighing in at about 6 tons).  These guys were great. They let Jeremy take a picture of me with them, although that one is on Jeremy's phone.

One of the many, many cannons in the castle.

This is one of the coolest things about Scotland. Not just that this guy is playing the bagpipes in full Scottish clothing, but that just about everywhere you go, someone, somewhere, is out on the streets playing their bagpipes. We have someone outside the hotel now playing. I'm not complaining. At all.

 This was a little out of order. This was a shot from the greenway path we got on our way to the Edinburgh Castle. I hadn't meant to really get it framed like that, but I'm very happy with the shot I snapped up!

 Carlton Hill, Jeremy steps up to the plate to defend against the Zombie Apocalypse! I didn't have the heart to tell him he was a couple weeks to late for that.

 This is Carlton Hill from the bottom. We were at the base of the tower earlier.

This is Duke Wellington. We got tons of pictures from him in London, saw the Wellington Arch (The one with the horse drawn chariot at the top) and now we see him in Scotland. I guess being the man to defeat Napoleon makes you a rock star to the UK.