Edinburgh, Scotland - Part 2

Monday

On Monday the two of us got going early to explore more of the Old Town. We wandered through the Princes Gardens past the majestic Ross Fountain. The Ross Fountain is a huge iron fountain from the mid-19th century. Figures depicted on the fountain include mermaids and four females depicting science, the arts, poetry and industry.

We were pretty hungry, so our first stop was the Elephant House Cafe where, as mentioned in part 1 of this blog, J K Rowling used to come and sit with her laptop while she was writing the early Harry Potter books. Back when she was very poor, it made more sense for her to sit in the warm cafe all day rather than heat her own house. The back of the cafe has great views of Edinburgh Castle, Greyfriars cemetery and a large public school for orphans, which looks rather a lot like Hogwarts, which may have been inspiration for her writing.

There was a long queue in the cafe, as it is very popular, but once we were served we had a delicious breakfast, while sitting at the back of the cafe with a lovely view out to the castle. Tim had a bacon and sausage roll and a hot chocolate and Megan had an apricot danish and an enormous pot of coffee. If you're in Edinburgh, definitely pop in for a snack, it's awesome.

After breakfast we walked down to the Grassmarket area, which is renowned for its bars and nightclubs. It was re-developed in a 2008 project costing £5 million, making it more pedestrian friendly with the extension of large pavement cafe/bar areas. Needless to say, it was a little early, even by Scotland's standards, for much action in the bars.

We enjoyed looking in some of the shops as we made our way back up to the Royal Mile, including a little souvenir shop called "Thistle Do Nicely" - brilliant. We browsed several souvenir shops on the Royal Mile and eventually had success finding both a fridge magnet for Megan's growing collection and a wee ornamental figurine of a bagpiper to go on our little shelf of nik-naks.

Having heard a bit of information about St Giles' Cathedral during our walking tour, we decided to pop in and have a look. The cathedral, which is actually not a cathedral (by British law a church needs to have a bishop to be called a cathedral), is a Church of Scotland place of worship, which decorates the midpoint of the Royal Mile. The church was very pretty, particularly the Thistle Chapel, which is where Scottish knights (such as Sir Sean Connery) are knighted by the Queen. The chapel is one of only two places on the planet, so we are told, where you will see a carving of an angel playing bagpipes...

Unfortunately Megan had to return to Julia and Casey's for a couple of hours to sort out some work matters. Meanwhile Tim continued down the to the end of the Royal Mile, where Holyrood Palace is situated. The Palace of Holyroodhouse is the official (government-owned) residence of the Monarch of the United Kingdom in Scotland. Founded as a monastery by David I, King of Scots in 1128, it has served as the principal residence of the Kings and Queens of Scots since the 15th century. Queen Elizabeth II spends one week in residence at Holyrood at the beginning of each summer, to host garden parties and official ceremonies. She then continues to Balmoral Castle (which she owns), which is further north in Scotland, for her annual two-month summer holiday. The palace is usually open for public tours but it was closed while we were in town - perhaps in readiness for Her Majesty's visit...

Opposite the Holyrood Palace at the foot of the Royal Mile is the new Scottish Parliament building. Scotland has its own parliament which deals with "Scottish matters", apart from big issues such as taxation, defence, etc, which are handled through Westminster. Construction of the new parliament building began in June 1999 and it was officially opened in October 2004. It is rather unusual looking, particularly for a parliament building - it has sticks all over the front walls and it is very "modern" looking. Needless to say, its appearance has been very controversial since it opened five years ago.

Tim continued back up the Royal Mile and popped in to Greyfriars Bobby's bar to read the newspaper and rest his legs. From there, Tim walked down to the New Town and met Megan outside the National Art Gallery. There was a bagpiper and some random crazy dancers performing in the busy little square, which made it a nice spot to sit in the sun. We had a look around the art gallery, which for its relatively small size, punches well above its weight! It has a fairly large collection squeezed into a small gallery, including works by Raphael, Monet and Van Gogh! To make it even more appealing, it's free! Definitely worth a look as well.

Just along from the art gallery in the Princes Street Gardens is an enormous monument dedicated to Sir Walter Scott. Scott was a prolific Scottish historical novelist and poet, extremely popular throughout Europe during his time (1771-1832). The Scott Monument is a Victorian Gothic monument, standing at just over 200 feet high. It has a series of viewing decks reached by a number of narrow spiral staircases giving panoramic views of central Edinburgh and its surroundings. We sat on the grass beneath the Scott Monument and ate an ice-cream in the sunshine - perfect.

We walked back through the shops of George Street and on to Julia and Casey's place, where we hung out with them until it was time to catch our train back to London. We had a fantastic time in Edinburgh, it is a beautiful and vibrant city and hopefully we will get back there one day. Thank you so much to Julia and Casey who played not only host and chef extraordinaire, but also travel guide, and made our stay really fun.







Ross
Fountain
in Princes
Gardens









Megs at
Elephant
House cafe











Tim by
Bobby's
statue











Thistle
Do Nicely -
mwah ha
ha















Former torture
cross - Royal
Mile










Statue of
Adam Smith,
most famous
economist of
all















Building
on Royal
Mile


















Clock
Tower















Royal Mile
pubs












Royal
Mile












Holyrood
Palace












New
Scottish
Parliament
Building










Balmoral
Hotel













St Giles'
Cathedral












Royal
Mile again














Views
from art
gallery












National
Art Gallery
of Scotland















Scott
Monument

Edinburgh, Scotland - Part 1

Friday

On Friday we left a very chaotic King's Cross station and made our way up to Edinburgh, in the lowlands of Scotland. We didn't realise that national trains in the United Kingdom are frequently over-crowded, so there were plenty of people standing (or sitting) in the aisles for part of the journey. Fortunately we had reserved some seats, so we were fine. The trip from London to Edinburgh takes around five hours, so we arrived in the Scottish capital at 11.30pm and made our way to Julia and Casey's place, where we were staying for the weekend.

Saturday

After breakfast at Julia and Casey's, the four of us wandered in to Edinburgh's Old Town and our first stop was the Farmer's Market, tucked away at the bottom of Castle Rock. Julia and Casey moved to Edinburgh from New Zealand last year so their local knowledge was brilliant. Casey had been building up the famous Hog Roast, so we had to try it and it did not disappoint. One of the market stalls has a big roasted hog that they carve big chunks of meat off and cram into a bread bun, along with a bit of haggis, some relish and apple sauce. Incredibly messy, but absolutely beautiful. There was all sorts of amazing looking food at the markets, including buffalo burgers, which Casey tried and recommended.

From the market, we climbed up Castle Rock to Edinburgh's main tourist attraction, Edinburgh Castle. Edinburgh Castle is an ancient fortress that dominates the skyline of the city from its spot on top of the volcanic Castle Rock. There has been a royal castle here since at least the reign of David I in the 12th century, and the site continued to be a royal residence until the Union of Crowns Act in 1603. As one of the most important fortresses in the Kingdom of Scotland, Edinburgh Castle has been involved in many historical conflicts, from the Wars of Scottish Independence in the 14th century, up to the Jacobite Rising of 1745, and has been besieged, both successfully and unsuccessfully, on several occasions. From the later 17th century, the Castle became a military base, with a large garrison. Its importance as a historic monument was recognised from the 19th century, and various restoration programmes have been carried out since.

Few of the present buildings pre-date the Lang Siege of the 16th century, when the fortifications were largely destroyed by artillery bombardment. The notable exception is St Margaret's Chapel, the oldest surviving building in Edinburgh, which dates from the early 12th century. Among other significant buildings of the Castle are the Royal Palace, and the 15th-century Great Hall. The Castle houses the Scottish National War Memorial and National War Museum of Scotland and it is also the backdrop to the annual Edinburgh Military Tattoo.

Unsurprisingly, the Castle and the Royal Mile (the main stretch of road in the Old Town that leads away from the Castle all the way down to Holyrood Palace) were packed with tourists - probably more so than usual, as Edinburgh was hosting the Heineken Cup European rugby final between Leicester and Leinster later on Saturday. We didn't tour the castle, but we went right up to the courtyard, where the Edinburgh Military Tattoo is staged and we saw the main gate, flanked by statues of William Wallace and Robert the Bruce, before turning and heading down the Royal Mile.

The Royal Mile was buzzing with excitement - aside from the throngs of rugby fans there were kilted Scots playing bagpipes and even a guy dressed up as William Wallace, war paint, sword and all! Our first stop was at The Whisky Experience - a big whisky shop/museum/bar. Casey is a bit of a whisky expert and he showed us around, pointing out which brands were good and which were not and explaining some of the different tastes you can get amongst Scotch whiskies.

We had decided to do a three-hour walking tour of Edinburgh's Old Town, so we continued further down the Royal Mile to our meeting point for the 1pm tour. The tour was really good and we recommend anyone going to Edinburgh to do it (New Europe Walking Tours). Our tour guide was an Australian guy who had fallen in love with Edinburgh and could not bring himself to leave. He was really knowledgable and extremely enthusiastic.

Our tour took us to many of the Old Town's famous spots, such as St Giles Cathedral, parts of the Royal Mile and some of the narrow closes (alleys) coming off of it, Edinburgh Castle, Grassmarket, past the Elephant House cafe (where author J K Rowling used to sit writing the early books of the Harry Potter series) and to Greyfriars Cemetery.

The cemetery was interesting for a couple of reasons. Firstly it is famous as the burial place of Greyfriars Bobby, a Skye Terrier dog, who is surely the best dog ever. Greyfriars Bobby became well known in 19th century Edinburgh after reportedly spending 14 years guarding his owner's grave until his own death on 14 January 1872. Bobby belonged to John Gray, who worked for the Edinburgh City Police as a night watchman, and the two were inseparable for approximately two years. On 15 February 1858 Gray died of tuberculosis. He was buried in Greyfriars Kirkyard, the graveyard surrounding Greyfriars Kirk (church) in the Old Town of Edinburgh. Bobby, who survived Gray by fourteen years, is said to have spent the rest of his life sitting on his master's grave. What a good dog. When Bobby died, he was buried just outside the cemetery gate, close to his master's grave. There is now a tombstone just inside the gate commemorating Bobby and also a statue of Bobby out the front of the cemetery, by the pub named after him!

The other interesting thing about the cemetery is the mausoleum of Sir George MacKenzie - said to be one of the most haunted places in Britain. MacKenzie was a Scottish lawyer, Lord Advocate and writer, who died in 1691. He is buried in a large mausoleum in the Greyfriars cemetery, where he lay in peace until 1990, when a homeless man looking for shelter inside the mausoleum alledgedly stumbled into the grave, disturbing the remains of MacKenzie. Between then and 2006, more than 500 attacks had been reported (more than one per fortnight for 16 years!). Visitors reported being cut, bruised, bitten, scratched and most commonly blacking out. Some complained later of bruises, scratches and gouge-marks on their bodies. Most attacks and feelings of unease occurred around MacKenzie's mausoleum. An exorcist, Colin Grant, was brought in to perform an exorcism ceremony, but soon claimed that the forces were too overpowering, and feared that they could kill him. A few weeks later, he died of a heart attack. The Edinburgh City Council have closed the mausoleum, but we didn't really fancy going inside anyway...

The tour ended in the beautiful Princes Gardens in the New Town and by late afternoon it was very cold. We sought shelter in a few pubs as we walked back to Julia and Casey's house. We visited a pub on Rose Street in the New Town and then we made our way down a host of familiar street names (Heriot Row, Queen Street, Howe Street, Great King Street, Dundas Street and Cumberland Street) to another pub on the corner of Cumberland Street. Finally we stopped in at Julia and Casey's local, called Hamilton's Bar, which was really cool.

We knew that Dunedin was largely modelled on Edinburgh, hence its nickname "the Edinburgh of the South", but we were surprised just how many street names and suburb names were copied directly from Edinburgh - it really felt like we were wandering around Dunners again! Back at Julia and Casey's, we were treated to possibly the best steak pie in the world ever for dinner and we had a nice relaxing evening, getting some more expert opinion on Scotch whiskies from Casey.

Sunday

We were a bit slower out of the blocks on Sunday morning. After breakfast, we all went for a drive out of Edinburgh through the Scotish countryside to the Glenkinchie Whisky Distillery. It was a beautiful sunny day - a perfect day to take in the views of East Lothian. The Glenkinchie Distillery is set in farmland near the village of Pencaitland. The Distillery was founded around 1825. Glenkinchie is a Scotch single malt whisky. The standard 12 year old Glenkinchie is a fairly typical lowland whisky in that it is fresh and light in character, a good light whisky for beginners! It is one of only three remaining lowland malt whiskies in production.

We went on a one hour tour of the distillery, where we learned a bit about the history of not only Glenkinchie Distillery, but of all whisky production in Scotland, as well as how the whisky is made. The tour ended with a tasting session. We both liked the Glenkinchie 12 year old single malt, so we bought a bottle of that.

We then drove on to a little seaside village called North Berwick. The sunny weather had brought all the locals to the sea and the little town was packed. We had fish n chips by the beach for lunch on our hosts' recommendation. They were so good. Fish n chips always taste amazing by the beach! North Berwick is a very pretty place and the beach is beautiful - probably still a bit chilly for swimming - but it would be a great place to hang out in summer.

After lunch we drove back in to Edinburgh and Julia and Casey dropped us off at the base of Arthur's Seat. Arthur's Seat is the main peak of the group of hills which form most of Holyrood Park, a remarkably wild piece of highland landscape in the centre of Edinburgh. The hill rises above the city to a height of 251 metres, provides excellent panoramic views of the city, and is a popular walk. We did not climb right to the top but we got stunning views right over Edinburgh from around three-quarters of the way up. It is a lovely walk and definitely worth a look if you're in Edinburgh!

We were pretty tired by Sunday night. Julia cooked an amazing fish pie for dinner and we had a quiet night in front of the TV, watching "Britain's Got Talent". The guy calling himself Darth Jackson, dressed in a Darth Vader costume imitating Michael Jackson dance moves would suggest that Britain does not have talent...

Farmers'
Market under
Edinburgh
Castle













Megs with the
famous Hog
Roast - yum!

Edinburgh
Castle












Main
entrance -
Castle











Top of
Royal Mile











The pipes,
the pipes




















Our tour
leader











Old Town



















MacKenzie's
mausoleum















Greyfriars
Bobby's bar










Familiar street
signs...but no
sign of Dundas St
Dairy here...













Tim, Casey
and Julia at
Glen-
kinchie










Beach at
North
Berwick











Megs on
Arthur's
Seat

















Views over
Edinburgh










Arthur's Seat













Views from
near the top

Krakow, Poland - Part 2

Sunday

On Sunday morning we had breakfast at our hotel and then caught a train out to Wieliczka. Wieliczka is a small town about 12km south-east of Krakow, famous for its massive salt mine. Until 2007, the Wieliczka salt mine had been producing table salt in continuous operation since the 13th century, making it one of the oldest operating salt mines in the world. Active mining ceased due to low salt prices and mine flooding. The mine remains a major tourist attraction.

The mine reaches a depth of 327m and the passages, halls and stairways combine to 300km in distance. It appears that miners kept themselves amused not only by extracting salt, but also by carving hundreds of sculptures and statues of historic and mythic figures. The older works in the mine were sculpted by miners out of rock salt; more recent figures have been fashioned by contemporary artists. The rock salt is naturally grey, in various shades like granite, so that the carvings resemble carved unpolished granite rather than having the white or crystalline appearance that many visitors expect.

The two-hour tour of the mine that we took covered 3km, less than 1% of the mine's passages. We visited three different levels of the mine between 90m and 130m below ground. The tour follows museum exhibits showing how the salt mine used to operate centuries ago and how technology changed over time to make mining easier. It also features many of the carved statues, a restaurant and an underground lake along the way.

The highlight of the tour, however, is the huge underground chapel, St Kinga's Chapel, carved completely from rock salt. It was laid out in 1896, in the space created after the excavation of a huge green salt block. It is over 54 metres long, 15-18 metres wide and 10-12 metres high. The chapel was created, mainly by three miners, over a period of almost 70 years up until 1963. The chapel features a magnificent alter, a Christmas crib, a statue of Pope John Paul II, biblical scenes carved into the walls and beautiful chandeliers made from salt crystals.

After the tour of the salt mine we caught a bus back in to Krakow and had kebabs for lunch in the square. Sunday was a public holiday in Poland so there was plenty of entertainment in the Old Town and it was another warm, sunny day. After lunch we wandered south of the Old Town to Kazimierz, the Jewish district.

Kazimierz was originally a separate town from Krakow. After King Jan Olbracht moved the Jewish population out of Krakow to Kazimierz in the late 15th century, the separate nature of Kazimierz became more pronounced. The town soon became a leading centre of Jewish culture. Although it was integrated administratively into Krakow in 1791, the distinctive character of the quarter is still evident today. Kazimierz was home to Krakow's 60,000-plus Jewish population until WWII. Today it is a peaceful and pretty area with markets, cafes and shops scattered between synagogues and other Jewish sites.

We visited the Remuh Synagogue and Remuh Cemetery. The Remuh Cemetery was established in 1535. In 1800 the cemetery was closed and a nearby New Jewish Cemetery was built. It is one of the very few Jewish cemeteries in Europe with such a large number of tombs and sarcophagi.

The cemetery was almost entirely destroyed by Nazis during WWII, who tore down the walls and sold tombstones for use as paving stones. However, the tomb of Remuh, which still attracts pilgrims from all over the world, was one of the few to survive. Many other tombs were excavated after WWII and it is thought that these had been buried during the Swedish invasion in the early 18th century. The cemetery has undergone a series of post-war restorations, including the construction of the Wailing Wall by the entrance to the cemetery, which was made using fragments of tombstones destroyed during the war.

It was very peaceful and quiet in the cemetery and throughout the Kazimierz district actually. We leisurely walked back around the Old Town through the Planty gardens, which provided welcome shade on another hot afternoon. We rested at the hotel for a couple of hours and tried out some of the local Polish beers, Tyskie and Zywiec, both of which were very nice.

In the evening we returned to the square and had a drink at Grill 15/16 - it was a stunning evening and the light on the old buildings around the square looked fantastic as the sun was setting. We went back to CK Browar for dinner, as we had enjoyed it so much the night before. It was pretty full and lively again. The food was delicious and quite cheap too. We decided to check out a jazz bar on the way back to the hotel, but there were just two people in there and they were both staff, so we snuck out again.

Monday

On Monday morning we had booked in to a half-day tour to the Auschwitz concentration camps. Auschwitz-Birkenau was the largest of Nazi Germany's concentration and extermination camps, established in Nazi German occupied Poland. The camp took its name from the nearby Polish town of Oswiecim, about 50km south-west of Krakow. Following the German invasion of Poland in September 1939, Oswiecim was annexed by Nazi Germany and renamed Auschwitz, the town's German name.

It is thought that around 1.1 million people died at Auschwitz, about 90 percent of whom were Jews from almost every country in Europe. Most victims were killed in Auschwitz II's gas chambers using Zyklon B; other deaths were caused by systematic starvation, forced labour, lack of disease control, individual executions, and purported "medical experiments".

The three main camps were Auschwitz I, II, and III. Auschwitz I, the original concentration camp, served as the administrative centre for the whole complex, and was the site of the deaths of roughly 70,000 people, mostly ethnic Poles and Soviet prisoners of war. Auschwitz II (Birkenau) was an extermination camp and was the site of the deaths of at least 960,000 Jews, 75,000 Poles, and 19,000 Gypsies. Birkenau was the largest of all the Nazi extermination camps. Auschwitz III (Monowitz) served as a labour camp.

Auschwitz I was opened in June 1940 and the camps were liberated by Soviet troops in January 1945. In 1947, in remembrance of the victims, Poland founded a museum at the site of the Auschwitz I concentration camp. By 1994, 22 million visitors (700,000 annually) had visited the museum.

We boarded our tour bus at 8am and during the journey to Auschwitz, we were shown a video about the liberation of the camps. We started at the Auschwitz I site, with a two-hour guided tour of the memorial museum and then we went over to Auschwitz II (Birkenau) for around 40 minutes. The museum is very well presented and our tour guide was excellent. Needless to say we were shocked and horrified by what we saw and heard during the tour and at times we both felt physically sick.

Back in Krakow we grabbed some lunch and looked around the shops in the Old Town. We enjoyed sitting on the steps of the huge Mickiewicz statue in the square, soaking up some sun and people-watching. Tim also had another look through some of the stalls and craft shops in Cloth Hall. Then we wandered back down Grodska to have a look inside the Church of Saints Peter and Paul.

The Church of Saints Peter and Paul is yet another wonderfully decorated Roman Catholic church in the Old Town of Krakow. The church was constructed between 1596 and 1605. On the wall in front of the church are 12 statues, one of each of the 12 Apostles. While not quite as stunning as the Church of St Mary, the high alter and several statues and paintings make this church beautiful and it is definitely worth a look.

Later in the afternoon we went to Pod Wawelem, a fantastic Bavarian beer house / restaurant, on the edge of the Planty gardens at the base of Wawel Hill. The restaurant was great - the food and the beer were brilliant and there was a really good atmosphere in the place. They have a big outdoor seating space in front of the restaurant and they also have a fun old-fashioned beer truck parked in front of the restaurant (photo below). We had a very tasty dinner there before heading off to the airport.

Tim noticed in the men's toilets that they had two big trough-like tubs with a hose in each that had been designed for people to throw up in. They actually had a picture above the troughs of a cartoon man throwing up, so that people would know what they were there for! While poor form that these would be needed, they are actually a very good idea for keeping the rest of the toilet clean and would come in very handy in a place like Dunedin!

Wieliczka
Salt Mine











90m
under
ground -
Salt Mine










St Kinga's
Chapel -
Salt Mine











Megs in
St Kinga's
Chapel












Remuh
Cemetery










Wailing
Wall -
Remuh
Cemetery











Kazimierz













Pod
Wawelem

Gate at
Auschwitz I

Roll call
square











"Wall of
Death"














Barracks

















Auschwitz I













Main Gate -
Auschwitz II
Birkenau











Barracks -
Auschwitz II












Megan in
square













Mickiewicz
statue -
square














Cloth
Hall














Big beer