Edinburgh and Durham

Ah…Edinburgh, the city of…something, I guess.  And of course the capital of…well, something I guess (the confusing entity that is Scotland).  But what Edinburgh may lack in snappy city monikers and political influence, it more than makes up for in style and history.  And metal giraffes…

Definitely the best metal giraffes I've ever seen

We made a quick weekend trip up to Edinburgh in the great North with our A+ travel companions M. and B. Deimund.  Wait…those code names might be too obvious, let’s call them Mark and Blake D.  Anyway, we rented a car again for this trip and made the 6+ hour drive from Cambridge.  While last trip we hit the proverbial rental car jackpot and landed the snappy Benz compact…this time we came up with 3 lemons…that is a Ford minivan.  I was more than a little nervous about this turn of events because the last time I was behind the wheel of a mini-van I ended up scraping a parked car and getting shouted at by some random guy (wearing a cell phone on his belt, no doubt). This time it turned out better, thankfully…probably because of the driving on the left thing and because I paid more attention to where I was going.

The trip up was pretty uneventful…though we did see plenty of sheep.  And got to listen to plenty of Jessie J and Adele.  By the way, I didn’t mention Adele before, but I am definitely a fan…music for the soul.

After arriving in the Burgh…our boy Uwe met us and let us into our apartment rental.  Great find by Blake D. on this one…great apartment and great location.  We then settled in and did what everyone does on vacation…checked email.

How we roll

Apparently last weekend was some type of veterans/military personnel celebration.  So we got to see a pretty sweet military parade, complete with lots of kilts and bagpipes.  The ladies were all hoping for a solid breeze to kick up…but alas, no such luck.  Of course, I didn’t cheer for the military people or anything…they’re probably fighting on the wrong side, right?  Do we hate them…I can’t keep up these days?

Looking good boys

Edinburgh Castle is a pretty good tourist spot.  Lots of history and such…if you’re into that type of thing.  And plenty of opportunities for awesome photos (see below).

Classic

Classic

Hey...Chris Paul was there! Go Deacs! (Darn...Mom caught me...and she doesn't look happy.)

USA! USA!  (There's a US flag carved on the prison door of the castle, top left, by a prisoner during the Revolutionary War...I think)

Great Shot!

 And of course Edinburgh has some very famous native sons...like Adam Smith.

Professor Nolan says that you can't understand Smith unless you read his Theory of Moral Sentiments. The Wealth of Nations isn't enough. Lucky for me, I've read neither...so I'm good.

And what trip would be complete without a hilarious photo involving an oversized hand?

Classic

Oh yeah, almost forgot that we saw Bridesmaids Saturday night at the movie theatre down the street from our apartment.  Because, if there's one thing you absolutely must do in Edinburgh is visit a chain movie theatre. Pretty solid movie.  Not what I expected (as it was billed as a kind of Hangover clone), but it was pretty funny.  And the shout out to the fake boyfriend George Glass (of Brady Bunch fame) was subtle, but classic. I’m pretty sure I was the only person in the theatre to catch the reference.  Go me!!

On our way home on Sunday, we stopped off in Durham to have a look at their world-famous cathedral.  In Notes from a Small Island, travel writer Bill Bryson describes the Durham Cathedral as the greatest cathedral in the world.  Not sure if I would go that far, but it’s definitely in my top 7 (what…you don’t have a Top 7 Cathedrals list??).  Sadly, we weren’t allowed to take pictures inside.  On the plus side, it was free.  I’ll take that trade-off any day.  On a tangentially related note, visiting cathedrals always reminds me of The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett.  Epic novel.  You know the one…Tom Builder and the crew.  I’ll tell you what, building cathedrals was hard and dangerous work…and those medievals sure knew how to get their freak on.

Cathedral situation

Next up, Wimbledon men’s semifinals tomorrow (have I mentioned how awesome the Wimbledon ticketing process is?). Strongly considering wearing a sport coat for the occasion…if I only had one that is. Vamos Rafa!!

Full photo coverage of the weekend here.