We arrived in to Edinburgh Waverley around 11am, as we couldn't easily spot a sign for the station in a convenient point for a photograph we left that for another time and found the tourist information instead to pick up maps and leaflets for things we'd got planned (plus Lyndsey picked up some early postcards). After that we wandered to the hostel (finding it surprisingly easily) and dropped our bags off. Despite the booking form which had asked when we were checking in it turned out we had to wait until 2pm so we headed out for lunch at Pizza Hut instead. Lyndsey, Tom and I each had the buffet lunch whilst Lizzie had a pizza; when the bill arrived at the end it seemed our waitress had forgotten to add the three buffets to the bill (making the total only around £12 for the four of us) - when we asked if their had been a mistake she very kindly only charged us for two of the three buffets making it only about £7 each once we'd split the bill.
Once we were done at lunch we headed out to wander for a while until we could book in to the hostel. We were accosted by a monk on our wanderings but it was a poor time to catch us as we'd all just spent our change on food! We hadn't especially planned to do any particular activities on the wanderings but to see what we found and to do anything we thought appropriate. Stumbling around we found ourselves in Chambers St and so we did the following:
On entering the museum (photos on the way in), we started with the
Kingdom of the Scots on the ground floor: most memorable things for me on this floor were the quotations written on the entrance, the huge ceremonial sword (and I mean huge) and a very clever looking metal chest whose lid was entirely taken up by it's complex locking mechanisms. Following this, we moved on to the
Connect and
Move It interactive galleries: I designed a robot that could perform surgery (followed by one that was completely unsuited to this purpose - think of hoover on wheels and then add a huge radar dish!) and together the four of us powered some wind-up electrical stuff. Finally we popped up to the roof and looked out over the city and wandered back out of the museum via the shop.
Leaving, we came back out onto Chambers Street and looked round for a photo spot and took them in front of a statue in the middle of the road before heading back to the hostel.
So, part two... after sorting ourselves out in the hostel we went out to find a number 35 bus (from right outside the hostel) out to Ocean Terminal to pick up:
- Prince Albert Quay (Community Chest)
- Royal Yacht Britannia (Station)
- Leith Walk (Green)
- Easter Road (Pink)
Despite my wad of Google Map print outs, the first two of these were suprisingly hard to find - particularly when it turned out that we couldn't physically get to the first one (there was a rather large set of gates in the way) and that the second wasn't quite where Google Maps thought it was. Still, we got reasonably close to the first and took some photos next to one of those lifesaving ring things - complete with reflective strips for flash photography :) The Royal Yacht turned out to be inside a shopping centre (somehow - I never did quite work that one out) and was well and truely closed by the time we found it but none of us had much of an interest in actually seeing the inside of a boat anyway. Walking back from the quays, we followed as much of Leith Walk as we could (it's apparently one of the longest roads in Edinburgh), stopping somewhere near the start at a Tesco to pick up whatever we fancied for breakfast the following day (pancakes with lemon and raisins for me) and taking a quick break away to visit Easter Road. Coming back into Edinburgh proper, we passed the St. James Centre (which appeared to be mostly taken up by John Lewis - mmm... haberdashery goodness!) so at least we now know where that one is.
Once we'd got back to the hostel and rested our feet for a bit be stumbled out to a nearby pub for dinner. Lyndsey, Tom and I had
haggis/veggie haggis with tatties and neeps (which I learnt were turnips not parsnips as I thought someone had told me once). Getting back we played
contract whist before crashing out :)
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