Edinburgh (Ed-din-bur-row)

On Thursday-Sunday, everyone went on a tour to Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Thursday was mostly spent on an 8-hour ride in a bus all the way to Scotland, but we did take a short break at Fountain's Abbey, which was this monastery from the 13th century. It's mostly in ruins now.



A modest walking distance from the abbey took us to Anne Boleyn's seat, which overlooked the abbey . This was definitely worth the walk.


And apparently, this is wheat!


We arrived in Edinburgh on Thursday night. I felt extremely displaced because I didn't know where I was, and I was just getting used to Cambridge.

On Friday, we went on a short trip to the Edinburgh City Centre to visit the National Gallery.


The city is extremely old, and there are some really interesting buildings.



This next picture I didn't take (my camera isn't this good), but I thought it was a good representation of Edinburgh's structures that are sort of built on top of each other.



Then I went on a trip to Rosslyn Chapel outside of Edinburgh. Supposedly, according to The Da Vinci Code, this is where the holy grail is thought to be buried. Unfortunately, no pictures allowed. This is one of the most interesting places I've been to.




The next day, I met up with another group of people and we went to the Edinburgh castle, which overlooks the city on a hill.



There were lots of photo opportunities, and since the admission fee is GBP 15, we thought we would just take our time.

One of the many group photos we took.

Afterwards, we headed to a souvenir shop near the castle because one of the guys wanted to buy a kilt. They posed with the shop owner in the center.


Then, David, the guy who bought the kilt, decided to wear it around town.





Lots of people stared. But at night, there were plenty of men who wore kilts around! We were all surprised at the number. Later, after David changed back to normal clothes, we went on a ghost tour of Edinburgh. We took more group photos while waiting for it to start:


Adam Smith: Visible hands!

And the invisible man.

Sunday, it was time to go back to Cambridge. But we did a stop over at Richmond Castle in Yorkshire, England.

This is the view from the castle.


See what I mean about the really green grass?

I also got some tea and ice cream from Richmond.



Then it was time to board the bus and head back on another 8 hour trip.