Days Five & Six: Edinburgh (part 2)

Today, we started off with a tour of Mary King's Close, the underground labyrinth of medieval living quarters that the population suffered (raw sewage, plague, etc.). It was awesome and the kids loved it, although Dylan remarked, "I would not have lived here."

We then decided to walk down the Royal Mile towards Holyrood. It was crowded due to the throngs of folks lining up to catch a glimpse of Princess Anne's daughter, Zara, who was wedding some rugby player. We diverted into Dynamic Earth, a kind of hybrid museum/show about the planet. Frankly it was a bit overpriced and somewhat disappointing, but the kids seemed to enjoy it.

After that, we proceeded to Holyrood but skirted the crowds.




We did catch the regimental guard preparing for the procession, which was incredible to watch (and listen).



Holyrood grounds...


Holyrood through the trees...



With the need for extra security for the royals, they asked Dylan and me to stand guard for awhile...






We strolled up Abbey Hill...


And landed at Calton Hill, which was somewhat accidental, but turned out to be one of our favorite spots so far!























One last view of Holyrood (now complete with royal family therein)...



We then returned to Grassmarket for an incredible dinner at Petit Paris (getting ready for France!!)...






Tomorrow, we're off to London via train. Should be a nice ride!

Days Five & Six: Edinburgh (part 1)

Ok, last post got deleted somehow so will try to post fewer photos this time.

We left Dublin very early on Friday - with a 6:30 flight, we had to get up at 4:00am, so there was much grumbling in the car on the way to the airport. I also had to circle three times before finding the secret "after hours" drop off location for Sixt (see day three rental car rant). And, Ryanair tried to charge us an extra EUR 140 due to excess weight (baggage, not human)... Sharon did some emergency repacking in the security line and cut that amount in half, but there you go.

Anyway, it was all worthwhile as Edinburgh is spectacular. It reminded us of Rome with its saturated density of history and uniqueness. And, we happened to come during the weekend of a royal wedding! More on that later.

We started by heading up the Royal Mile up to the Edinburgh Castle and saw this bagpiper on the wall...




The Union Jack was flying due to the presence of royalty!




The view of the city from the castle - that's our flat behind the Belmoral Inn.




The girls with some local queens...




Wyatt was in heaven with an authentic (and heavy) sword:



Exploring the closes of Old Town:



Hangin' with the locals...




After the castle and exploring some of Old Town, we took an afternoon nap to make up for the lack of sleep from the night before, and then went over to Grassmarket for dinner at Mama's Pizza, recommended by Link, and it was quite good!

Argh!!!

Looks like Blogpress somehow deleted the long Edinburgh post I just wrote. Will retry tomorrow on the train to London. LOTS of photos...

Day Four: Kilkenny, Waterford

Just pictures today as we have to get up at 4am for our early flight to Edinburgh!! We spent most of the day in Kilkenny - what a spectacular place. We then drove back up the coast from Waterford back into Dublin. All in all, our best day yet.

Day Three: Dublin

Well, today's story is a little less inspired... definitely some Clark Griswald moments.

We rented a van so we could drive down to Kilkenny Castle, Waterford, and see the Irish coast. Unfortunately, about 30km outside of Dublin, this happened to us (and I swear I had a premonition just moments before):



Yep, the tire just decided to separate from the rim. And to add insult to injury, we were in the middle of nowhere on the M7, kind of an Irish autobahn. Luckily, we happened to pull over near an SOS terminal, where all of us could hide behind a guardrail while we waited for help. To be clear, this sucked.



Our rental company, Sixt, was unbelievably unhelpful - when I called them, they just told me to change the tire. Problem was, cars were hurtling by, and more importantly, our little Ford Max didn't come with a spare tire -- just a "tire inflation kit", which is useless when the tire is off the rim! Where's a Chevy when you need one???

Luckily, American Express came to the rescue (I could get used to this concierge service!) and called out a truck to help us. The driver was the nicest guy. He loaded up the car on the truck, us into the car (!), and drove us to Naas, where the really nice folks at the tire store stayed open to put a new tire on the van, for the low low price of EUR 167. Wyatt thought it was so cool that I could drive without touching the steering wheel.















So, we didn't get to Kilkenny, but we had a decent dinner in Naas at Winning Post:


We limped back to Dublin, and will try again tomorrow, vacation gods willing.

Three cheers for Amex, and a pox on Sixt car rental (I can't wait to battle it out with them for the new tire I bought them).