SUNDAY   
 GRETNA  GREEN  TO  EDINBURGH

This was my breakfast just about every morning. Eggs and toast with a cup of tea. These eggs had salmon in them. Mmm, mmm, good.
A view of the back garden from the breakfast room.
Before leaving town, Catherine suggested we stop by and see the Famous Blacksmiths Shop. It is over three hundred years old and gained fame as a place where runaway couples used to come to get married.
It was one of the first accessible towns in Scotland where couples could get married. There was a law in England that stated that if a parent of a minor objected they could prevent a marriage. But that law did not apply in Scotland, hence all the running away.


We took the scenic route from Moffat to Edinburgh that took us through some rather nice country.

There was a sign along the side of the road that said this was the source of the River Tweed. I have no reason to doubt it.
And here it is looking a bit more rivery. It flows all the way to the North Sea.
I'm sure this is a farm house or something, but it would be great to live somewhere like this far away from nearby houses and noise. But then again it's probably pretty far from the nearest grocery.
We got into Edinburgh around midday. Near the B&B where we would be staying was this place, the Ukrainian Club. Given the events of the day, I'm sure this was an interesting place to be.
Here is the Adria House. It is part of a row of Georgian houses along Royal Terrace, once owned by wealthy merchant families.
The rooms still looked like they belonged in a residence. This was the sitting room.
Our bedroom was large and square with a high ceiling.
Once we got our things put away we headed out to explore the city.
The Royal Terrace is right near Calton Hill, so we climbed it.


From the top of the hill toward the Firth of Forth. There's a little bit of a rain cloud out there moving toward the city.
Down there is Easter Road, the home ground of Hibernian Football Club, the local rivals of Heart of Midlothian which I saw on a previous visit fifteen years earlier.
The National Monument of Scotland, begun in the 1820's to be "A Memorial of the Past and Incentive to the Future Heroism of the Men of Scotland." If it looks like it is unfinished, it is. It was supposed to resemble the Parthenon.
The view of the Old Town from the hill, with the Dugald Stewart Monument in the foreground. Who was Dugald Steward you ask? Look it up. What, I have to answer all of your questions?
The Nelson Monument is a couple hundred years old. There is a time ball on the top that beginning in 1852 used to be a signal to ships docked in Leith and in the Firth of Forth. The ball drops at 1:00 each day.


The Old Town is off to the left and New Town to the right. How new is the New Town? 18th century, which is older than most things in America.
The Royal Mile runs through the Old Town between Edinburgh Castle on the west to Holyrood Palace on the east.
The Edinburgh Fringe Festival is in August where there is a lot of performing arts going on in town, but there are people doing weird things in the streets just about all the time anyway. This guys had a long chain and a big whip. I mean an actual whip, not as a euphemism. I mean he may have a big one of those as well. I don't know him that well.
St. Giles' Cathedral, the mother church of Presbyterianism, dates back to the 11th century.
Here's a little bit of the inside. Like I always say, I may not be a Christian but I do love a nice old church.
Just be thankful this is only a still photograph. I could have taken video with wonderful audio of a whining bagpipe.

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