This morning we got up at about 8, got ready and went down stairs to eat breakfast which was free. Wendy and Alyse meet us here at out hostel and then we headed for the Edinburgh castle. The coolest part of the castle was the fact that it was on top of the highest hill in town. The castle itself was nothing more exciting than the other castles was have gone to but it was really cool that it was on the hill. You see for a long ways from up there. It was really cool being able to see the whole city. Inside one of the rooms in the castle they had a kilt, some belt and a Scottish head wear that you could try on and take pictures in. So we all took turns trying it on and taking pictures. We walked around the castle some more and got to see where the king live when the castle was used.
After we left the castle we walked through a whole bunch of stores and then Wendy and Alyse went to check into the hostel while Rachel and I ate lunch. We at lunch ate pub called Mitre, they had a special to get two meals for 10 pounds, so that what we did. When we were done with that we went to the National Museum of Scotland. It was alright, it was mainly Scottish stuff so that made it a little more interesting but it was still a museum. After the museum, we went to The Royal Botanical Garden. I would love to see a botanical garden in the summer when all the flowers are in bloom. Even without very many things flowering, it was still pretty. We were only able to stay for about 30 minutes because it was closing. When we were walking around thus squirrel ran out into the path in front of us and looked like it was going to attack the group of people in front of us. When we got up to it, it was not at all scared of us. We were not able to pet it but it was running all around us. It was fun.
We then went to the Museum on the Mound. It was about the how the Scottish money evolved over the years. They also had a million pounds there in bills in one pile, other than that it was not real exciting. When were done there we went and found food for supper. We ate at this place called The Tass. It was alright, Wendy got Haggis, not sure what it is yet but it’s something that is a traditional Scottish dish I have been told, it was alight. When we got done eating we went back to the hostels for a while to relax. As we were walking back to the hostel, we saw a hummer limo that had three sets of axels. It was pretty sweet, not as good as the truck but still cool. We stayed at the hostel for a while and then at 9:30, we went to a ghost tour of the city. It was something unique and different. The first thing we were shown was the North Bridge, this bridge was built in the 1800 and is believed to be haunted because the first north bridge that was built collapsed during construction killing five workers. The when the second bridge was built, there was a huge opening ceremony where they oldest lady in the city was going to be the first person to cross it. Then just a few days before the ceremony, she died but she was still the first person to cross the bridge. The next thing we were shown was the Calton cemetery. In the cemetery there is a monument to the Scottish men who died during the US civil war. One thing about the cemetery was during the 1800 when they was a lot of discovery going on with the human and because of this the universities needed bodies to us for experiments and dissections. The problem was there was a huge demand for bodies but very few bodies were legally given to research. So to solve the problem there became a black market for bodies and people would go grave robbing and steal bodies then sell them to universities. We left Calton cemetery and went to Calton hill which at one time was part of a forest on the edge of town that was considered very haunted. This was also the place where many witch trials and execution took place. On top of the hill there were several buildings, one was an observatory for stars, there was a monument of some sort and there was part of a replicated Greek Parthenon. You could see for a long ways from the top of the hill. On the top of another hill that we could see from there, back in the 1800's there was a cave found on the hill, and in the cave there were 17 little caskets with dolls in them. It is believed that they were put there by two men who just years before had murdered many people and sold their bodies to the university for research. The men were caught and sentenced to death. We were told that at one time there was thought to be underground tunnels under part of the old city that allows a queen to be able to get from place to place. The last know attempt to find where the tunnels lead to ended with the disappearance of a bag pipe player. There have been no knowing attempts since too find the tunnels. This pretty much ended our ghost tour. When we got done, we got a free drink from a bar where I sat and talked to two guys we met on the tour. They were Marcus and Ted. Marcus was from California and Ted was from Texas. Both were serving in the Air Force based in Germany. When we were done with our drinks we went back to the hostel and crashed for the night.
Rick
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