Games, Lunch, Street Performers

 

After we stormed the castle, we altered plans slightly to visit a card shop Ethan had found. That sent us in a different direction from the lunch option I found, so we had to wing it. That was probably a poor word choice because there was a fly baked into my "pizza." We should have known better, but there weren't a lot of options. Following lunch, we started in the direction of our walking tour and encountered a street performer. The Fringe Festival was set to start the day after we left, so there were a lot of folks gearing up for it.

Edinburgh Castle

 

 

We started our day with a tour of Edinburgh Castle. We walked up and up and up and finally arrived- we walked through a stadium that goes up AND comes down every year for a festival. The castle is a UNESCO heritage site, so they can't put a permanent stadium there. The history was fascinating. I opted for the guide book while James and Ethan listened to the audio guide (I got a built-in souvenir!) The first few of these pictures were on our walk. The castle also served as a royal residence, prison, and garrison. It included a chapel and a pet cemetery. It was set high on a hill for protection, but with only one way in or out, it became one of the most sieged castles in Europe. It was an interesting contrast to the Irish castle we visited.

Outdoor Adventures

 We had a few outdoor adventures on Tuesday after we left the zoo. We went to St. Andrew Square Garden to sit on a bench with Paddington. We walked around the outdoor exhibit about the Stand Comedy Club. After dinner, we went to Princess Street Gardens and saw the world's first floral clock and walked through St. Cuthburt's Kirkyard where we hoped to go up the Bodysnatcher tower. The information we found online was wrong, and it was not open.

Edinburgh Zoo!

  

 

This zoo was just incredible. It was built on the side of a hill, so there was a lot of steep climbing, but the views made it worthwhile. I have never been to a zoo with better views. We went to see Haggis the Pigmy Hippo more than once, and we saw his mom Gloria and dad Otto also. They are solitary, so the adult male has his own enclosure. The young stays with the mother for a while. We listened to a keeper talk also, and witnessed the reason why one should be very far away if you see a pigmy hippo back up to a tree. There were so many other species there. The penguin habitat was also really great, it was very open and there were so many penguins.