Edinburgh Excitement Continued!

This is a souvenir shop on the Royal Mile. I couldn't help thinking of Thistle when I saw this.


Exhausted from visiting the castle, we settled in for tea at the nearby Elephant House, famous for being the birthplace of Harry Potter. Rowling wrote the first pages on a napkin in this very tea house.



I thought the Elephant House would be really touristy but it was actually full of locals and served delicious tea, baked potatoes, quiche and desserts. Definitely worth a visit for its charm alone.


This picture was dutifully taken for Kaija Bergen. It's the Balmoral Hotel where Rowling finished writing Harry Potter....Not nearly as quaint...


While Lydia was doing work, Lexi and I also checked out the Writer's Museum which was down a long narrow passageway called the James Court Close.


Me and tiny Robert Louis Stevenson in the Writer's Museum which was a little underwhelming but free and it was snowing. I'm sure it would be way cooler if I had tons of Scottish literary pride?


Lexi and I had to make a trip off the beaten track of Edinburgh city central to retrieve the sleeping bag Lexi borrowed and then left on the bus Friday night. The good news is we found these awesome giraffes! I tried to climb one...


A Scotsman in traditional garb waiting for the bus:


Here's me and Lexi on top of the Scottish National Museum or maybe it was the Royal museum. Anyway, we were kind of tired and didn't have enough time to see much of it but we did go on the roof and see the great view of Edinburgh and have our picture taken by some other nice American tourists.


Oh yeah and we played with all the stuff in the kids section, teehee.

After the national museum we met up with Lydia to go in St Giles Cathedral which was incredibly beautiful. Gorgeous stained glass windows and woodwork I couldn't hope to capture properly on camera.

Groovin on the Royal Mile. Thanks to Lexi for this picture and the one of stained glass above. She paid the two quid to take pictures inside the cathedral, but I didn't because I was really poor because I still had no debit card :( Anyway, this souvenir shop was playing some funky Scottish music so we felt the need to dance to it!


In Lydia's favorite pub with a fake fire.


Awwww, and that's the end of Scotland pictures, folks. Soon to come: London Weekend and a visit from Jack Poole!