Day 15, June 28, Aberdeen to Edinburgh, Scotland

Up early and worked our way through cleaning up our Airbnb apartment and then down the stairs, four flights to this place, and one last walk about 10 minutes to the train station where we would catch our train to Edinburgh.

It was a very full train and it was clear when we arrived in Edinburgh that this is quite a large city. Getting out of the train station was complicated and crowded. We were able to find on our Google maps on the phone that would be about a 17 minute walk from the train station to our Airbnb hotel. It was crowded and noisy as we were walking through the streets. We reached our AirBnB , almost like a hostel, and figured out how to use the lockbox to get the key to come in. We planned to just drop off our luggage and head out, but the woman who was cleaning said  she would have it ready for us in just a few minutes. So we ate a little salad that we had brought with us down in the dining room and then we’re able to come and, get our room. This is obviously an old building and they went through and added in bathrooms into each room in a very crowded and odd way. The toilet is actually basically in the same space as the shower. Kind of funny but it works. 

So after we regrouped, we headed out to do a little exploring of the city. We wanted to visit the National Museum of Scotland, which was a massive free museum. It was a combination of history natural history science museum. We spent a couple hours there and it was wonderful and overwhelming. We were both rather tired, but were particularly enchanted by the millennial clock, which was this huge project that was made for when the new millennial happened turning to 2000. The clock was made of all kinds of found material and recycled junk from Scotland. It went off in this spectacular manner several times each day. We were pleased that we got to watch it. 

In addition to that, we saw many things out of the history of the Romans, and some of the archaeological findings that have been dug up. There is also a really powerful display about the museum trying to make decisions about which stories they were telling about their collection. Another theme that we had heard about at the boat museum in Windermere.

Following the museum, we made a pilgrimage to a statue honoring a dog called Grayfriars’ Bobby. This dog whose owner died, refused to leave that gravesite for 14 years. People were so taken by his loyalty, that they fed him and took care of him, but he would not leave. So his spirit continues to be honored.

One of the fun things that we’re seeing Edinburgh is the street musicians tend to be bagpipe players. We would see them throughout the city.

After having a walk up to the main attraction of Edinburgh: the Royal Mile, (more on this tomorrow), we needed to have some dinner. So we ate in a little café and rested because we were headed to a fun event: the Edinburgh storytellers from the Storytelling Center of Scotland sponsor a monthly Story program entitled “Guid Crack”. Crack or Craic is considered a good time a fun gathering. And this gathering in a local pub was a time for a guest performer to share several stories, and then some of the 40 people who gathered  offered a story or a song or a poem to add to the evening.

It was really a fine event and the main teller told some really great stories. “Old tales told new” was the theme. The songs that people shared were traditional, Scottish ballads and sea shanties. And there were many different stories. Patti shared her version of The Paperback Princess which was well received. There was also a teller from Germany and one from Hungary, as well as many local people. It was really a fun event and it went until after 10 PM.

We were struck as we were walking down the street at 10:30 at night. The sun had just set, but it was still quite light. And there were so many people out and about walking throughout the streets. We made our way back nearly a mile to our Airbnb, happy and tired. We had walked over six miles today. Time to sleep.