Greyfriar’s Cemetary, The National Museum of Scotland, and Edinburgh Castle

Greyfriar’s Cemetary, The National Museum of Scotland, and Edinburgh Castle

This morning we woke up and had a solid breakfast on a recommendation from the bellman at the hotel. For the third day in a row Andrew had a full English breakfast. I had a smaller version with fresh squeezed orange juice. It was good, but I think Mickey’s smoked salmon was better. We then headed over to The National Museum of Scotland. It was closed until 10 so we took a minute to visit Greyfriars Cemetary in the center of town. What a beautiful place. Inside the cemetery walls it was so peaceful and quiet despite it being right next to a main road. The tombstones were amazing, some going back to 1500. This might be a good place to mention that it rained all day today. It really added to the ambiance here. The cemetery is also known for Greyfriar’s Bobby. In the late 1800s there was a policeman who owned a Skye Terrier named Bobby. The man died of tuberculosis and for the rest of Bobby’s life (14 years) he would sit all day on the man’s grave waiting for him to return only leaving to take meals and sleep. When the dog passed away, a statue was erected in his honor at the gate of the cemetery. It is an exceptionally sweet story and we were glad to be able to see his little statue.

By the time we were done with the cemetery, The National Museum of Scotland was open so we headed across the street to see what it had to offer. There were many interesting artifacts most having to do with current and past Scottish life. My favorite were the Lewis Chessmen which were carved from Walrus ivory in the 12th century and were found 700 years later on the Isle of Lewis. They have a lot of personality. Another interesting if not creepy artifact was a ram head on wheels that acted as a cigar dispenser. Just pop off the top of the head and get your cigar out. I was joking that it would be funny to put a remote control car under it and drive it around “biting” people’s ankles.

Next we moved on to Edinburgh Castle, the mighty fortress on a large rock formation towering over the city. It was much different than the other castles we have visited. It’s definitely not a comfortable castle where you would want to live. This one’s a fortress and is all about protection. Here we saw some pretty impressive cannons, the oldest structure still standing in Edinburgh, and the Scottish Crown Jewels. Since it sits so high over the city, the views were amazing. We finished the day off with Cashmere scarf shopping, a walk to Holyrood House-the Queens third residence (now we have seen them all), and a great dinner at a restaurant called The Outsider. The best dish was Andrew’s suckling pig. We were all pretty tired so no late-night whiskey drinking for us. Tomorrow we pick up a car and head to Turnberry in the West of Scotland. It’s supposed to stop raining so we are looking forward to that although I can’t complain too much. The rain really added to the ambiance of Edinburgh. Cheers, Chelsie and Andrew

Our breakfast place.

Greyfriar's Cemetery

Greyfriar's Cemetery

A monument in Greyfriar's Cemetery.

We loved the green moss that was covering everything.

Greyfriar's Bobby

One of the Lewis Chessmen

The original cloned Dolly the sheep. She is now stuffed and resides in the museum. She was the first mammal ever to be successfully cloned.

Creepy Ram head rolling cigar box. It actually has wheels on the bottom!

The pathway up to Edinburgh Castle

That's one big cannon. In it's prime it could shoot a cannon ball 2 miles!

Edinburgh Castle from the bottom of the hill.

Suckling pig. Yum!

2 Comments

  1. OMG! Does this look fun or what? Love the graffitti art! So just a question? Do you like Scotland better than Amsterdam? Looks really fun. Love and miss you both! MOM :)

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