Wednesday was the first big day of exploring in Edinburgh. Below, art in the main room of the flat; the Royal Mile/Canongate street sign which was the view from my window; and Neanie Scott, a wonderful little gift shop where we met our lovely Scottish friend Kathryn. After being followed by the cashier around another gift shop and feeling like potential thieves, it was nice to have a personal and friendly experience.

Our flat, from across the street.

We rode the bus up to the North Bridge, then had to wait for the bus to pick up more passengers: a shot of the spire of the Walter Scott monument; looking out over Waverly Station; Janice smiles for the camera.

Riding along Princes Street, with a great view of the gardens -- and, of course, the Scott monument. It's so dark because, like many of the buildings in Edinburgh, it's made of very soft and absorbent sandstone that can't be cleaned easily.

Our first view of Edinburgh Castle, high above the rest of the city -- it sits on a plug of basalt rock in an extinct volcano -- and more images of the Princes Street gardens.

Heading down South Bridge, we passed Usher Hall and a variety of shops. This was also where we heard, the first of many times, about how a young man named Tom used to deliver milk in the area before moving to Hollywood and becoming famous as Sean Connery. Surprisingly (or perhaps not so), there seemed to be a Starbucks on every corner.

Approaching the castle. As we came around, I was fascinated by the rock and the way the castle seemed to almost have been carved from it -- or to have grown from it.

What looks like the underside of a stadium is actually the temporary seating installed for the Edinburgh Tattoo, a month-long celebration of drum and military bands that takes place through August. We had just missed it (intentionally); work crews were already hard at work taking the seating down.

At the top of the Royal Mile, we left the bus to walk the rest of the way up to the castle. Through Lady Stair's Close was the Writer's Museum, one of the few places I wanted to see but didn't get to due to time.

Gladstone's Land was another museum representing life in the 1800s in Edinburgh; the pigs showed part of that, apparently. Plus, you know, pigs! (Not real.) Continuing up the Mile, there were many, many, many more tacky little gift shops, all of which sold cashmere, kilts, and everything Scottish. I also had to take a picture of a woman holding up her closed umbrella to the sunny sky, because... huh?

Looking back down the Mile (the building with the tower is the Camera Obscura); then we stopped into the gift shop across the street. I found the tartan weaving machine quite interesting.

And onwards once more to the Castle itself! We had lunch here, in the Redcoat Cafe, and then worked our way up to the top.

Inside the Great Hall. All the windows had stained glass crests of the various clans, including, of course, the Wallace and Bruce crests. The names can be seen at the bottom of each set of windows.

After all this, we only had the energy to stagger up to Bene's to get dinner. Fried steak pie and chips and much too much food, but very good.