Chris and Lindsay's European Adventure - Edinburgh

It makes me very happy to tell you that the very first thing we did after checking into our hotel in Edinburgh was to have dinner with Sophie. She (and her wedding) was, after all, the whole reason for the trip. And she was kind enough to spare and entire evening for us just 3 days before her wedding so that we'd be sure to have time to catch up. We met the day we moved into our dorms when I studied abroad at the University of Edinburgh in the fall of 2003 and become best friends almost instantly. Although it had been 7 years since we'd seen each other face to face, it was like no time had passed at all. Still the same Sophie, but an improved version now with Tim in her life. Oh yeah, and we got to meet each other's husbands, which was a bonus! And I got to see her beautiful flat, and meet her mom, and it was just wonderful to chat for several hours. I left that night truly saddened by the fact that we live worlds apart, and as I type this I am missing her dearly.

The next morning we were back to being tourists - Castle Rock was calling! Oh how I love this city! So unique in its structure with all the levels, Old Town and New Town, a 1000 year old castle overlooking a modern train station. Anywho, we took a short guided tour of the castle grounds and then went inside all of the buildings on our own. We went inside the oldest structure on the grounds, 900 year old Margaret's Chapel. I sweat the walls were 2 feet think and there would barely be room for 25 people to stand up in there! Of course there were royal banquet halls and chambers, a few military museums and a memorial to those killed in combat. There was also an old prison, used as recently as WWII I believe! In more "recent" times it was used mostly for prisoners of war, and they talked a great deal about how well all the prisoners were treated. Except, of course, for the Americans during their "war for independence, as they were traitors to the crown!"Over the next day and a half we explored the Grassmarket, my old university stomping grounds, and the Royal Mile, including The High Kirk of St. Giles. Being Presbyterian, we did a little reading while we were over there and learned that the Church of Scotland (of which St. Giles is a part) still actually holds many beliefs similar to that of the modern PCA. Another reason to like the country :-) We walked by many, and into a few, "closes" (small alleyways) along the royal mile. Look what this one was called...not too far off of Hunniford, eh? We went down a few of these closes at night during our "haunted history tour." Fun stories, but it lost a little something since it wasn't dark outside.



We also explored that Palace of Holyroodhouse. By the way, do you know why the street is called the Royal Mile? Well, at one end in the castle, at the other is the Palace, and its about a mile long. There you go. The Palace is still a "working royal residence" and is closed to the public when the Queen is in residence in the middle of the summer. So, even when its open you can only see certain areas. No one gets the see QEII's bedroom, bummer. Last time I was there the ruins of the old catholic church out back looked even sadder because it was cooooold and wet. BUT this time I got to see it in the summer, which means the gardens were open! Maybe someday I'll snag an invite to the Queen's garden party.

I had in my head that we would climb Arthur's Seat while we were in town. Arthur's seat is a dormant volcano that is over 800 feet tall and is in the middle of a large park in the middle of the city. It also happened to be right behind my dorm when I lived there, so we climbed it often. Truth be told, we were a bit worn out by the time we got to Edinburgh - we crammed so much into our 10-day trip, and were particularly worn out by the adventures in Oban. So we settled for looking at it from afar and crashing in our hotel. We spent 5 blissful, child-free hours relaxing on our hotel bed one afternoon. Ahhh.That brings us to the wedding! Saturday we switched hotels so we could stay close to the venue. We got ourselves all dolled up and headed to the castle where Sophie and Tim were to be wed. Pretty cool place for a wedding, huh? The ceremony was in the original chapel and to say it was a tight fit would be an understatement! But they squeezed us all in and I watched my Sophie get married! Since she is from Germany, the ceremony had several elements in both languages. That was a first for me!

Next was cocktail hour. I got to meet several of Sophie's friends that I heard about over the years. Fun fact, several of them knew who I was before we ever met. I felt like a bit of a celebrity! I even got to be in one of the formal wedding pictures with all of her college friends!

Then we moved out to the tent for dinner and dancing. Too bad it was a rainy day or it would have been lovely to walk around on all the castle grounds. The food was yummy, the picture booth entertaining, and the whole thing long-lasting. There were several toasts, and they were collectively some of the best wedding toasts I've heard in a long time! I tell ya, they know how to party over there! The ceremony started at 2 and when we left around 10 they were just starting the traditional Scottish dancing (we tried, we just couldn't keep up). It was so fun, so wonderful to see Sophie, to see her get married, and to meet her friends. The perfect way to end our trip.

The next morning we boarded a plane and headed home to our boy. More on his trip to come!