Day #2 in Edinburgh!

It was another fun (and rainy!) day in Edinburgh! We slept in this morning after fully intending to go to the hotel's gym for a workout. I mistakenly thought 8 hours of sleep was enough! Apparently we're still a bit jet lagged and needed more sleep this morning. Bill got up and went to his meeting and I got an extra hour of sleep. Then I headed for breakfast and tried haggis for the first time... I was very hesitant, but it actually wasn't that bad! I did not eat it all, but it was very nicely seasoned. I can now say at least that I've tried it. We went to the Spouse Meeting which was fast (nice!) and were out of there by 10am! I think that's the fastest one yet! We decided to walk down Princes Street before lunch and it was well worth it! We got to see some pretty cityscapes, a beautiful park with fall leaves, and even a bagpiper! (I don't care for them, but it added to the feeling of being in Scotland!) We got a picture in front of what the locals call the Gothic Rocket-- a tribute to Sir Walter Scott. I found a beautiful blue door on one of the MANY churches here! Then we ate lunch at Mowgli's Indian restaurant...the food was sooooo good! It was so full of flavors-- other than curry! They used a lot of tamarind, cilantro, ginger and of course also curry-- but that wasn't the main seasoning like usual. It was such a good lunch! And the restaurant was beautiful with all the lights and mirrors everywhere. This afternoon we went on the Edward Jones walking tour of Edinburgh up to the Edinburgh Castle. Along the way our guide (same one as yesterday) gave us a lot of history. We walked along the Royal Mile to get up to the castle. We got to see the Crown Jewels and the Stone of Destiny but couldn't take any pictures as they wouldn't allow it. It was only one room and A LOT less stuff than the Crown Jewels in the London Tower in England, that's for sure! We also got to see the oldest building of the castle which was built to memorialize Queen Margaret who was canonized as a Saint after her death. It was VERY small and simple, but had very nice stained glass windows. We also got to see the many prison chambers where they kept criminals and also their military prison which was working all the way through WW11. In the first prison there were doors "graffiti" inscribed by the prisoners and there is one where the first American flag is depicted. I took a picture of it, but you can't see it very well, so I took a picture of the model of it. Pretty cool! You can see the stripes but not the 13 stars, but it resembles the first flag! After the tour we decided to walk down the Royal Mile and take in all the shops. I found a bagpipes charm for my bracelet in a cute little shop along the street. I was hoping to find one of these, but didn't think I would! We got about halfway down and stopped for dinner at an Italian restaurant that was SO GOOD! AND, the service was fast! (We'd stopped at another restaurant where we waited and waited at the hostess desk, but they acted like we weren't even there-- and they had tables! So they lost our business!!) Bill and I shared a yummy formaggio pizza drizzled with hot honey, some yummy roasted mushrooms and some amazing sweet potato fries. I got a brownie for dessert that I mostly ate and it was all so YUMMY!!! A+ for Bella Italia! It was dark when we came out but wasn't raining so we decided to walk the rest of the mile. The Palace of Holyroodhouse at the end of the Royal Mile wasn't super visible because it was dark but this is where the Royals stay when they are in town. I would've like to have seen this in daylight, but time just doesn't permit us to see it while we're here. We walked back to our hotel, which was close-- about a 15 minute walk. We were glad to get back! It's COLD outside!!!