FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX: Exploring Edinburgh

Today's blog post is proudly brought to you by Elliot...

Today, we further explored the city of Edinburgh. Although this required a lot of walking, we were rewarded with piquant food, phenomenal experiences and fantastic views. Our first stop was the city’s own prodigious pile of stone and mortar, Edinburgh Castle. It was a stronghold that was once the residence of Scottish monarchs, overlooking the city of Edinburgh upon a volcanic crag called Castle Rock. It is one of the most attacked castles in the world, and it became obvious why it still stands sturdily today as we admired the steep walls and numerous cannons. Mons meg was a particularly large cannon -four metres in length- that would bombard its enemies with shells weighing up to 175kg. As well as the military might and scenic view that the castle offered, we also enjoyed gazing at the crown jewels (the crown, the sword and the sceptre) and exploring the depths of the dungeons.

The chaos that was the line for Edinburgh Castle...We were fortunate to meet a chef who told us to gun for St Margarets Chapel then the crown jewel before relaxing to enjoy the rest. He was spot on, everyone did their audiotour in order, so we got to see the good bits with no crowds!

Even with the olds, we were faster than most people...

The war memorial from the back

St Margaret's Chapel, built in 1130, the oldest surviving building in the castle. The arches are original

The stained glass windows a later edition

The displays with information about the Scottish monarchy leading to the crown jewels where we were not allowed to take photos

The Great Hall

In front of the MASSIVE fireplace in the Great Hall

After conquering the castle, we embarked on the Scotch Whiskey Experience. It started off with an educational ride, sitting in a barrel of whiskey, giving our legs a nice break. In the ‘small world-ish’ ride, we were enlightened in the process of making scotch whiskey, creating seven experts in the profession, all ready and able to make some of their own if needed to. Unfortunately, the ride had to end, and we were guided through the process and art of mixing whiskey, in which the adults even got to try some scotch whiskey for themselves. Although the general consensus was a dislike towards the spirit, the whiskey tasting glasses were for us to keep, making for a splendid souvenir. While the adults coughed and spluttered and the kids happily sipped their creaming sodas, everyone was able to lay their eyes upon the largest collection of unopened whiskey, the oldest bottle being 121 years old.

Needing something to replace the aftertaste of the scotch whiskey, we all headed over to Oink, where we ate lunch. We treated ourselves to either a small, medium or ridiculously large pulled pork sandwich, named Piglet, Oink, and Grunter respectively. Each sandwich consisted of a soft roll of white or brown bread, a generous serving of delicious pulled pork with the odd strip of crunchy crackling, a sauce of your choice and either haggis or onion and sage, all toasted and smelling great. After having our fill of tender pork, we traversed into a nearby joke shop that caught our eye. It was quite peculiar, boasting items such as an extendable poop stick, a self-inflating key chain whoopee cushion, assortments of fake candies that had anomalous effects and ‘baby hands’ small hand shaped finger puppets. We almost bought some of the lollies that would turn one’s mouth and teeth a striking blue, but refrained, only letting Jonah purchase a set of rattling magnets with his precious pounds he had saved.

A nearby cheesemonger’s store was next, but not after Malcolm mistakenly walked into a soap shop, wondering why he could smell such a pleasant fragrance. The cheese shop had a significantly less pleasant odour, ensuring we ran away to our next destination with minimum delay: Mary’s Milk Bar. This ice cream parlour hosted an array of interesting flavours, including blue cheese and hazelnut, milk, and peanut chilli cinnamon. Most people stuck to what they knew, but the kids, feeling a bit adventurous got the milk and peanut chilli cinnamon flavours, to which they gave mixed reviews.

Part of the largest collection of unopened whiskey bottles in the world

Room kept going around the corner...

Look what we spotted!

Lunch. Simple model of 1 pig per day from the farm. Once they're out, they're out!

The poor pig on offering today

Three different sizes to choose from

Very happy children

More strolling on the streets of Edinburgh

Apparently one of the best cheesemonger

This was why it was so smelly inside...

Bonus view of Edinburgh Castle on the way to Mary's Milk Bar

Small shop selling great ice-creams and milkshakes

Nutmeg and raspberry on top, chilli peanut cinnamon on the bottom

Our final destination for to day was the National Museum of Scotland. We planned to take down the 7 floors from top to bottom, but we gave up after completing the 7th floor, theinteractive activities of the first floor too alluring. The 7th floor was a terrace from which Belinda took many great photos of the sprawling skyline and the regal castle, unfortunately partly blocked by scaffolding. Only glances of trains, communication technology, Scottish history and more were taken as everyone made their way down to level one. Elated, the kids ran around, challenging each other to who could do each activity the best. The most notable activity was a reaction speed test, in which the competitor had 30 seconds to press the button which was lit up as many times as they can. The twist was, every time the correct button was pressed, the light would switch to illuminate a different button on the wall. The grand champion of this activity was Elliot, managing to achieve a score of 49, absolutely demolishing the competition: 42 by Lara and 27 by Jonah. That’s 1 button every 0.625 seconds!

Arriving back at the Hotel, we settled ourselves into the comfortable chairs within the executive lounge, enjoying some cool complimentary drinks before heading off to dinner at Field. Field is a ‘cow themed’ restaurant and turned out to be quite a good choice. Although we didn’t end up eating any cows, we relished the mackerel, scallops, chicken wings and pan fired chicken that we ordered. Even better than the mains were the desserts, especially the lemon curd mini donuts. Alongside this and still divine was a panna cotta and sweet sticky fudge cake with banana ice cream. More than satisfied, we ended the day, ready for a great big beautiful tomorrow, only a day away.