U.K. 2013: Thursday 9/26/2013 - Edinburgh Castle, Royal Mile, Palace of Holyroodhouse

Today was our first of two full days in Edinburgh, and the sun was out and it was a beautiful day!
The temperature today reached into the low 60's.

We started the day by talking a walk in the direction of the town center to drop off some laundry. Paul told us about a full service laundry which will wash, fold and deliver the clothes the next day back to our B&B. Awesome! We dropped off our clothes in the laundry bag which we had packed, and we were off to the castle.

We continued our walk north and in just a few minutes we reached the Royal Mile. The Royal Mile is essentially a one mile road which stretches from the Edinburgh castle downhill to the Palace of Holyroodhouse. The road changes names about three times along the way. It is clustered with heavily toursitic shops and pubs and street actors, but it is enjoyable to take the walk downhill from the castle to the Palace.

Once we reached the Royal Mile we took a left and headed up to the Castle. It was a sunny party-cloudy day and the views from the castle were fantastic. The guides mentioned several times how lucky we were to have such a clear day. The castle has protected the city of Edinburgh for 1,300 years. It has been both a fort and a royal residence since the 11th century, and it is the home of the Scottish Crown Jewels, which are claimed to be the oldest original Crown Jewels, dating back to 1503, having been upon the heads of James IV, Mary Queen of Scots, and Charles I. Many people are not aware that Oliver Cromwell sold off England's Crown Jewels in 1653 when he deposed Charles I and became Lord Protector of England. Next to the crown, sword and sceptre is the Stone of Scone, the coronation stone of Scotland's ancient kings (ninth century). Swiped by the english it sat in Westminster abbey from 1296 until 1996 when Queen Elizabeth agreed to let the stone go home to Scotland.

The castle contains several interesting buildings and museums, and the oldest building in Edinburgh, St. Margaret's Chapel. There is even a dog cemetery for the pets of the soldiers living at the castle.

After the castle we stopped for lunch at Saint Giles Cafe. We both had tea, tomato soup and we split a BLT sandwhich, which was warmed. The soup was home-made and was just amazing, not to mention the BLT!

After lunch we continued our stroll down the Royal Mile towards the Palace.
Along the way we came across Cadenhead's Whisky shop. We had read about this shop in the Rick Steve's book. This shop buys casks direct from distilleries and bottles them before the whisky is filtered, flavored or watered down. They will even let you sample one or two to help you decide on your tastes. We picked up a 24 year old one-quarter bottle of Cragganmore single malt. It is from a single cask, and is 54% alcohol. We both like the Cragganmore you can buy in the stores, and the sample we tried in the store was similar and I decided to pick up a small bottle. This should be a nice treat when we get home :-)

From here we continued down the Royal Mile to the Palace of Holyroodhouse. This is still an official royal palace/residence of the Queen Elizabeth. Since the 14th century this Palace has marked the end of the Royal Mile. Scotland's royalty actually lived here the majority of the time, preferring it to the drafty castle on top of the hill. Mary, Queen of Scots also lived here. Queen Elizabeth also frequents this palace from time to time, and comes here for official matters of state between England and Scotland.

A nice dinner at a nearby restaurant, The New Bell, finished off the day.