luckykaa

Day 3: Castle and spoopiness

Can't visit Edinburgh without visiting the castle, so that's wat we did on day 3. A fairly steep climball the waqy to the top but nothing too strenuous. Really quite a lot to do and see. A war museum, a walkthrough of a prison, a display of the Scottish crown jewels, places to view the city - it is built at the top of a very large hill after all, so the views are very good. One of the highlights was watching the 1 o'clock gun be fired at 1 o'clock. This was originally a signal to allow ships to synchronise their chronometers but carried on as a tradition.

Next we went to the Edinburgh Dungeon. Same general idea as the other dungeons, with focus on Sawney Bean - who was apparently a cannibal before starring in Sharpe - and a few other local legends. The performers select random visitors as part of the act. Poor Nicole seemed to get picked on a lot. Event finished with a ride, which was meant to simulate hanging... Involved being raised into the air, and then dropped suddenly, as the camera flash goes off a fraction of a second later. The photo grabbed me looking very surprised.

Finished up the day with a Ghost Bus Tour. I'd worn my "Who you gonna call" t-shirt in preparation. This was a fun, but silly tour on an old Routemaster, decorated in a very funereal style, sith Spooky Samuel giving us information on the various ghosts who haunt the city. Various other spooky things happen on the tour - it's all a lot of fun. Bus did have a bit of trouble starting... It's a Routemaster, so while they were pretty darn reliable, this had to be at least 50 years old.

Day 4: Age is but an illusion

Next day was my birthday. I wanted to do something nerdy, so we went to the World of illusions. This is right next to the castle, so involved another epic trek up the hill. Really good though. Lots of visual and illusiony things like 3d images, infinity mirrors, optical illusions, also some cameras that can be steered and pointed at various places around the city - kinda cool although there's a disturbing lag between pushing controls and cameras moving. Really liked the Vortex tunnel. This was a rotating cylinder of lights around a bridge. The sense of tipping is really quite disturbing.

Stopped for lunch at what appears to be a temporary gin festival. There was a musician providing background music. Really quite good. They had a catering van that did lots of cheese. Flickums had a cheese and ham toastie, and Halloumi fries. I had a mac and cheese toastie and stole some Halloumi fries. I also felkt the need to try a banana rum. As far as I could tell it smelled overpoweringly of banana. Flickums thought it smelled overpoweringly of alcohol.

Finally, we went to see the sea. Had a quick look at the Royal Yacht Britannia but couldn't really get a good view, and we were a bit too late to actually book tickets to go on board. But that was fine. We could sit by the sea and chill and have drinks before going to a birthday meal. Lovely pub that overlooks the sea. Pub actually overhangs the beach slightly and we were right by the window. I had Mussels. Flickums had steak.

So that's another birthday. I am feeling old. We've done a lot of walking, so my feet are feeling older. Happy to have a comfy hotel to return to.