Tales of an Amorphic Destiny

Edinburgh via Liverpool & Hadrian's Wall

August 22nd, 2007 at 10:03pm James

Dad and Sue’s much-anticipated trip to the UK finally became a reality and they arrived at Heathrow in good shape considering they’d just come off a 23 hour flight from Sydney.

After a day to settle in to London we were off on our trip to Scotland – a destination that’s been on our todo list since we first came to Europe. Give the long-haul flight that the parents had just been through we thought it best to make our journey to Edinburgh in two stages and so our first port of call was Liverpool.

We spent the afternoon at the historic Albert Dock, where we paid a nostalgic visit to the excellent Beatles Story exhibition and then enjoyed a quick drink overlooking the water. An excellent afternoon that was only slightly let down by the horrendous ASDA sausages that we took back to the hotel to have for dinner.

On our way north the next morning, we negotiated the sheep along a small country road near Carlisle to see one of the surviving stretches of Hadrian’s Wall. The cold winds that greeted us when we got out of the car gave us pause for the poor Roman soldiers stationed here to keep the barbarians out back in the day.

After checking in to our hotel, we spent the evening exploring the south side of the beautiful city of Edinburgh. We’d accidentally timed our trip to coincide with the annual Edniburgh festival and so the place was alive with tourists, street performers and musicians – including our first glimpse of a piper.

We wandered in to the national gallery to see a small exhibition of etchings and watercolours by William Blake, and eventually ended up in the amusingly-named "Dirty Dick’s" pub/restaurant. Dad had his first taste of ale, (he’s not thoroughly convinced but the stuff does grow on you after a while) and we all got our first taste of haggis. The unanimous decision was that it was absolutely excellent!

With some time to kill before our bus, we went for a stroll in the Princes Street Gardens as the castle lights came on – a lovely sight.

The next morning we climbed the hill to Edinburgh Castle and went inside for a look around the important historic fortress. The tiny Chapel of St Margaret still stands inside and has the honour of being Edinburgh’s oldest standing building.

We enjoyed the amazing view over the city…

…and then had a look inside the various buildings that make up the castle. It was amazing to be able to see the Honours of Scotland in the flesh after their turbulent history. Photos were forbidden but I managed to get a sneaky one of the crown and the Stone of Destiny, used in the  coronation of the earliest Scottish monarchs.

We split up with Dad and Sue for the afternoon and after a quick spot of lunch and we spent a few hours wandering down the Royal Mile, taking in the festival atmosphere. The streets were once again filled with performers as well as people handing out flyers for every kind of performance imaginable – from stand up comedy to musicals to Shakespeare. These blokes were trying hard to get publicity for their Blues Brothers show – not quite sure what the mysterious hooded figure in the background was advertising though…

We met up with the folks for a couple of beers and a hearty pub dinner – pies, beans and chips for Dad and myself as we we’re both trying to watch our weight. They’d had a very early start and so they went back to the hotel to crash while we did a tour of Mary King’s Close – a 19th Century street that the Edinburgh council chambers was built on top of. The street itself is still in excellent condition and after descending we wandered through houses that’d last been inhabited hundreds of years before.

We made it out just in time to get in to see the stand up comedy of Steve Hughes. We’d been looking for a show to see earlier in the day and a banner of Steve holding a B.C. Rich guitar with the heading "Heavy Metal Comedy" was all we’d needed to convince us to buy tickets. Steve turned out being an Aussie and his show was brilliant – satire taking the piss out of modern religion and politics with a healthy dose of conspiracy theory and a plenty of metal references as well.

After the show we had a few beers and a chat – turned out that back in Oz Steve had drummed in influential bands Slaughter Lord, Mortal Sin and Naxzul! Had a great, (and late) night and we’ll definitely be going along to see him next time his show makes it down to London.

Getting up the next morning was a bit of a struggle but we made it OK and bid farewell to Edinburgh on the banks of the Forth river with it’s famous railway bridge.

There’s many more photos of our Scottish travels here.

Entry Filed under: United Kingdom