Parks and Hills in Edinburgh, UK [day two]

We woke up late – boo…

I said we should be happy; our friends with kids would probably love to have the chance to sleep in ‘til 11:00 am. But we were in an awesome city; adventure time should not be wasted on sleeping!

We made the most of our time and crossed over the royal mile and headed east down the hill toward the Scott Monument, a huge 200 ft. structure visible from many points in the city. It was erected in the 1840's for Sir Walter Scott, poet and author of the Waverly novels.

 We passed by the National Art Gallery, and sat on some park benches at the Princes Street Gardens. From the park we had some great views looking back toward the castle. 

 Walking south on Prince’s Street we could see the hill with the Greek-looking columns - Calton Hill. The climb up the hill was a bit strenuous for 5 minutes of stairs, but the rewards were great! We could look out and see back over the city and had great views of the sea.

 

We took a bunch of pictures on the column monument because it was such a cool prop! The Athenian acropolis is actually an unfinished monument. It was begun a year after Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo, intended to be a replica of the Parthenon in Athens as a memorial to those who had died in the Napoleonic Wars.

  We could also see the Salisbury Craigs, Arthur's Seat, and the Queens residence, Holyrood Palace. 

Arthur's Seat

Holyrood Palace

We scurried down the hill and raced back to the hotel, via many steps and a close that cut through the University of Edinburgh, to pick up our luggage and then took a taxi back to Waverly Station just in time to catch our train to Aberdeen.