It was a very cute cafe with lots of pies and biscuits. Those two words mean something a bit different here than they do in TN. Pies are savory, like meat pies or veggie pies. Biscuits are sweet, they are cookies. Imagine the look on some of my work friends' faces when I explained how to make country gravy, then said we pour it over biscuits.
As the name may suggest, there were elephants everywhere. Including this clever kid's chair.
Of course they are getting as much mileage out of Harry Potter as possible. Here is an homage to Rowling's work in the cafe.
From here we walked down to the Grassmarket. It is a part of old town that has a lot of shops and pubs. Here was a vivid site we found along the way. Pulled pork anyone?
We also tried our first real haggis on Wednesday. Traditionally served with neeps and tatties (turnips and potatoes), I can't say I loved it. It's veggie haggis from now on for me!
The lentil soup was super tasty though.
In the evening we were off to the castle with the conference for a reception. Since we had been in the shadow of it all week, we were excited to actually go inside. Of course we were greeted in style by bagpipes.
This was the view walking in.
It was like a tiny village inside.
There were LOTS of cannons. I suppose when you have to constantly fight off your neighbors, they become necessary. This cannon below gets fired everyday except Sunday at 1:00 PM.
The view of city was amazing.
This cemetery is for the dogs of the soldiers.
All of the Science division at ESS attended this conference. From left to right is Melissa (my office mate), Arno (my boss), Camille (payed by ESS, but works in France), Me, Esko, and Hanna. There are 5 countries represented in this picture, and half of the people live in France!
One of the rooms in the castle was where Queen Mary of Scots gave birth to King James. He was king of both Scotland and England. She was Scotland's only queen and was held prisoner most of her life. She is called Queen of the Scots, and not Queen of Scotland because the Scots believe the land cannot be ruled, but only it's people.
We left at about 9:00 and headed out to find some dinner.
Between the castle entrance and the city, there is a large stadium. We never found out what kind of events they have in there, but it was as easily seen around the city as was the rest of the castle.
This is the road leading away from the castle. It is called the Royal Mile.
Here is a random statue we saw on the walk home. We enjoyed being in a city with such old history and interesting things to see.
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