The third day in London, Kellie and I had a leisurely breakfast and rearranged our backpacks for dirty clothes at the hotel rather than getting up and about early. Our train did not leave King's Cross Station until 11:00, and it would take us about 45 minutes to get there via the Tube. However, we wanted to be there plenty early because neither of us knew how the train system works, and our tickets gave us nothing but the seat numbers, the train line, and the time of departure. Upon arrival at the station, we discovered that the train's platform was only announced on the digital boards, kind of like at the airport. Shockingly, some of the trains scheduled for King's Cross departures actually departed from St. Pancras International Station that was about a 20 minute walk from King's Cross. Luckily, ours did not depart from St. Pancra, but we did end up sitting in the station for nearly an hour. Here is a picture of the station roof that Kellie took.
Not in Kellie's picture is the famous Platform 9 3/4 from the Harry Potter movies. There is also a Harry Potter shop right next to the famous brick wall. A big sign said that the Platform 9 3/4 was not actually used in the filming of the movie, but the set for the movie was modeled after Platform 9 3/4 just as it still is. Why no picture of it? Well, of the probably 2000 people in the station, 500 were waiting in the rope maze to get pictures of themselves "stepping through the wall" at Platform 9 3/4. It was a disgusting display of commercial tourism to me, and neither Kellie nor I are Harry Potter fans anyway. At 11:00 straight up, our train departed for Edinburgh. Which reminds me...in England a train's departure time is when it is leaving the station, not when you need to show up. Unless a train is late, and some were, they leave exactly when the departure time shows up on the clock. At 11:00, we rolled away from Platform 6.
To me, the scenery as we rode through middle England was very reminiscent of parts of Oklahoma on I-40 except the flat fields had sheep in them instead of cows. There was some row cropping of things like oats, wheat, and some soybeans, but, as I mentioned yesterday, I never saw a tractor on the trip north, not even one. You don't drive far in farm country in the USA without seeing a big John Deere. I could not help but wonder where and why they were hiding all those tractors. They obviously use tractors.
Another thing that I noticed, but noticed because of the decrepit state of them, were the famous English hedgerows. Oh! Every field and pasture had a hedgerow, but there were many and often huge gaps in the hedges. Almost every field had some kind of wire fencing, not barbed wire, but wove metal wire of some sort. That didn't seem very British to me.
The photo above is my first glimpse ever in my life of the North Sea. It was a profound moment for some reason. I don't know what I had expected, but I did not expect to see the North Sea. This first sighting of the North Sea occurred somewhere between Middlesbrough and Durham. Of course, I did not know it when I took this picture, but the train would pretty much run along the sea shore all the rest of the way to Edinburgh. Luckily, on the way up, we were sitting on the right side of the train, facing the sea. On the way back to York, we sat on the right side of the train facing the other way and barely saw the sea.
The picture above shows the old bridge and part of the cathedral at Newcastle-on-the-Tyne. The train did not even make a stop in this old looking city.
The shot above is of the same bridge, but this time you can see the point at which the River Tyne flows into the North Sea and the little lighthouse on the point in the background.
We arrived in Edinburgh around 3:45, and after using the bathroom, finding a taxi, and checking in to the Edinburgh House Hotel, it was a little after 4:30. We hadn't eaten since breakfast, so we also ate a late lunch or early dinner before we went exploring. The restaurant where we ate was a fancy Italian place that Kellie felt we were not appropriately dressed for. I didn't care how I was dressed. I was hungry. I had a seafood dish that was very good, but incredibly messy because the shrimp was served head and all. Who serves a dish with all the other seafood prepared for eating with a fork and the shrimp left whole? According to Kellie, a fancy restaurant.
Anyway, by the time we were done eating, it was late. Most everything was closed, so we took a walk up the famous Calton Hill. The direction we entered from was the "back side," but a plaque told us the we were walking on the path where the famous Scottish philosopher David Hume took his daily constitutionals. Let me tell you, Calton Hill was steep. It seems almost straight up. While I am telling you about Calton Hill, let me tell you that Edinburgh is one of those mythical, magical places where, no matter where you start or where are going, everything is uphill. You never walk down hill, only uphill. On the Hume path that was almost straight up, I took a couple of pictures of some Scottish flowers. You know how I like taking pictures of flowers, and how much I needed to rest after walking 1/4 straight up.
There are several different things on top of Calton Hill: The Monument to the Scottish Parliament, the Scottish National Monument ( a replica of the Parthenon in Athens), The Lookout Observatory, the Dugald Stewart monument, the Observatory House, and the Nelson monument. From the top of Calton Hill, one can see everything in Edinburgh. Here are those things:
Arthur's Seat, shown above, is a crag of volcanic rock that juts out over the North Sea to the east of Edinburgh. Supposedly, King Arthur kept a watch for Nordic invaders from this point.
This is the view from Calton Hill to the North. This is primarily a business and residential area with the harbor and its piers on the right side of the picture on the sea. Our Hotel/House is somewhere in the upper left corner by the trees.
To the west of Calton Hill is the only point higher than Calton Hill, and that happens to be where the Edinburgh Castle sits. This shot of Edinburgh Castle (The Chapel built for Queen Mary by her son David is the oldest building in Edinburgh.) has some other old buildings in the foreground. Honestly, I couldn't tell you what they are.
To the Southeast of Calton Hill is the royal palace of Holyrood. It has been the official Scottish palace of the royal family since the 16th century.
Sitting square in the middle of the top of Calton Hill is the Scottish National monument. This monument is a replica of the Parthenon in Athens, Greece. There were dozens of people taking selfies on the monument as Kellie and I approached, but I do not see many people in this picture that I took. The Horatio Nelson monument is in the background and below.
You may or may not know that Nelson is considered the greatest British Naval officer of all times. He was never defeated in a sea battle during his tenure in the French Revolution and the Napoleonic wars. He tragically died in one of his most famous of victories, the Battle of Trafalgar, when his forces defeated the combined Spanish and French navies. They lost 22 of 33 ships while the British lost none. See reading plaques can teach you something! Now, how long I will remember that...?
I accuse others of shamelessly taking selfies, but here I am taking a selfie. As on some of the previous days, you might wonder why I am wearing a hoodie with the hood up. Well, it was a pleasant day of around 60 degrees, but as you can see from Kellie's hair blowing across her face, the wind was whipping at a good 20 mph or so. I don't think there was day that we were in Britain that the wind was not a thing.
The adventures of Tuesday, May 23 end with a picture of what Kellie and I started calling Turdtop or Turdtower. Doesn't that look like the turd emoji to you? One thing about Turdtop was that you could see it from just about anywhere, so you knew if you were walking in the right direction if you kept Turdtop on the correct side. Oh, and wherever you walked it was uphill.
More Edinburgh and walking uphill tomorrow!