Edinburgh

Friday 25th May 2018

Tonight we are taking the train up to Edinburgh because this is the weekend Lewis finally runs the marathon! I met Lew at Kings Cross at 5.30pm where I decided to try and download our tickets off the Trainline app. Lew was rather stressed as there was no internet in the terminal and we had to walk back outside to do so. Why hadn't I done this today on my day off was the question from him but I had been rather busy with other housewife duties. After finally downloading it we were confused as to why there was only one ticket on the app and we wondered whether Lew had booked his on his own app or email. We hadn't got a platform yet as the train was delayed thank goodness but I really though at that stage we only had purchased one tickets for some bizarre reason. We brought these back in January and it would have been our first trip we booked using the trains. They announced our gate and Lew rung me saying he couldn't find anything on his phone but we just needed to board NOW. I tried to reason with him to just stop and talk to me a moment as I had looked at another ticket for a train leaving in 20 minutes that we could purchase for £140 ($267 nzd) but he wasn't having a bar of it. It was a long weekend so everything was insanely expensive which is why we booked so far in advanced. Next thing we were on the train with our luggage stored and Lew asked me where our seats were. I had to explain to him we only had a SEAT as we only had one ticket and not two. The train left the station and we remained very confused as to how we only managed to purchase one ticket. I think its because on the website when you have a railcard it comes up with 1x Adult and 1 x Railcard and if im not wrong 1+1 has always =2. In this case this is only the fare for one person and we infact needed 2x adult and 1 x railcard which usually =3 but this is what you need to get two tickets! Rookie mistake and after much deliberation and me not wanting to face up to the fact that we would probably have our tickets checked and could be thrown off the train or forced to pay a penalty fare Lew decided to go and speak to the train staff. Thankfully after explaining our situtation and clarifying that we did indeed book one ticket he decided to give us the benefit of he doubt because we came to him and didn't charge us the £140 ($268 nzd) ticket fare or any penalty fare. Man did we get lucky and we could now relax over the 4 hour and 20 minute journey from London to Edinburgh - however it was considered my fault as it was my visa card we used to book the tickets. The train journey was rather long and we were separated as expected since we didn't actually have two seats. I had planned to get a lot more trip planning done but because of this we just caught up on our favourite Netflix and I also continued to go through blogs and make notes of all places recommended to see within the UK. We arrived into Edinburgh Waverley station at 10.30pm and tried then and there to book a ticket home on Monday since it wasn't allowing us to do this online. The advanced ticket office was closed and we would have to come back in the morning at 9.30am when they opened. Neither of us were too happy and the walk to our Airbnb wasn't exactly pleasant, plus it was SO COLD! A 15 minute walk away from the station we made it to the Airbnb which was a very small basement flat down Dundas Street. If you have ever been to Dunedin in NZ then you will noticed that basically every single street name is the same! There was Heriot Row, Leith Street, Cumberland Street and Queen Street just to name a few. The settlers really did make Dunedin into their own little Edinburgh! Our Airbnb wasn't exactly the cleanest and it also had an army of ants parading its bench tops. There was a dehumidifier luckily since the place smelt rather damp but we did remind ourselves that we organised this trip when I was the only one working and we had very little money so it was only costing us £88 ($168.70 nzd) per night to be basically in the heart of Edinburgh. We called it a night with some reasonable plans for tomorrow (Saturday) before race day on Sunday.

Saturday 26th May

The bed was insanely uncomfortable and I don't think I got so much as a wink of sleep last night so I decided to get up early. I found a very cute and well stocked supermarket 5 minutes down the road with fresh baked bread and everything we could possibly need for breakfast. Spending £22 ($42 nzd) we were sorted for all breakfasts for the weekend and I probably went overboard and brought too much! Returning to the apartment I had some quick breakfast whilst Lew was still asleep and then fast walked to the train station for the 9.30am opening of the advanced ticket fares. They must have opened slightly earlier as I got there at 9.31am and there was already a line of 5 or so people. The Virgin trains ticket booth people we so nice and really taking their sweet time. I heard multiple conversations in regards to customer preferences as to which way they would be facing during the journey and whether they would like a power outlet close by for their trip at the end of the year. OMG just give me a ticket anywhere with any preferences for the price of £70.50 ($135 nzd) on the website that I have honestly tried 15 times to book but it won't allow me to and it states there is only 5 tickets left. Finally it was my turn and the girl was able to secure another seat so Lew and I would both be getting home to London Monday night. Whilst it was an expensive fare it did cost £84 ($161 nzd) for my return ticket so we ended up saving money since the man let us on without a ticket the day before. However this is most certainly not a tip and I don't recommend doing what we did on purpose to save money...you will end up with grey hair earlier than expected with the stress of it all. I called Lew and gave him the good news and he was on his way out for a short jog. We met at home and had breakfast and fresh focaccia before booking in a couple of excursions for the next few days - the Edinburgh Castle and a tour to explore the Blair Street underground vaults. We left the house still surprised by how cold it was up here in Scotland and laughed about the shorts, sandals, sunhat and singlet that I had packed. The first stop of the day was to a place called The Arches which is considered Edinburghs new shopping hot spot within the Waverley Arches below Jeffrey Street. There wasn't a huge amount of places that we were interested in but there was a cute cafe called 'Gannet and Guga' with origami birds littering the ceiling and a couple of other drinks places. It was a pretty walk down here anyway as you walk down a marble staircase called 'Scotsmans Steps' made up of 104 different colours. Whilst it is like any public walkway and smells of stale urine it is a distracting way to get yourself down that many steps as you can admire the colours. Not being coffee drinkers we didn't hang around the Arches for long and continued down the street and came across a small market called 'The Food & Flea Market' and Lew instantly was keen for a burger. We had basically just had breakfast and I told him we could come back if the place I had recommended to me for lunch wasn't any good. The street this is on then connects to the famous Royal Mile which runs through the heart of Edinburgh's Old Town and connects up to Edinburgh Castle. There were many many shops selling tartan items and horrendously touristy things but you do also pass the Scottish Parliament, many buskers and the beautiful St Giles Cathedral. There was a wedding happening when we were there and there were quite a few kilts or tartan pants in sight as well as a proper kitted up old man playing the bagpipes. He went on and on and on and I remember my brother Mason who used to play telling me how exhausting it is so we were quite impressed by his stamina! We hung around 10 minutes or so hoping to see a glimpse of the bride and also watching the strange buskers out the corner of our eyes. The rest of the Royal Mile leads up into Edinburgh Castle and we had booked tickets to enter at 3pm and it was 2pm now. Lunch was a necessity and we headed to 'The Edinburgh Larder' just off the Royal Mile on Blackfriars Street which I think was a place that I had read about in someone else's blog of Edinburgh. Sure enough it didn't disappoint and Lew got a homemade organic sausage roll with a date scone and I got the sweet potato, chilli and coriander soup with half a chicken sandwich for lunch. There was also a special treat of ginger beer and a chai tea to round off the meal costing us a total of £26.70 ($51 nzd). We had timed it perfect as we left the adorable wee cafe and made our way up to the castle. We downloaded our tickets on one of the machines at the door and continued to walk up the stone path and under an archway with a pointy iron gate just above us. We purchased an audioguide for £3.50 ($6.70 nzd) and decided to share this as we sat down on one of the small stone walls to gaze back up at the castle as the first recording played. Next to us a group was forming and it ended up being a free tour of the castle so our audioguide was a little pointless! Our guide had a heavy Scottish accent in which I mainly had to lip read to understand anything he was saying. Edinburgh Castle is a bit of a mis match that has been rebuilt and renovated many times since its earliest known occupation of 100-200 ac. It is built on Castle Rock which formed after a volcano erupted over 340 million years ago and has been a military base and royal residence for centuries. The castle itself is built out of volcanic rock and has strong fortification surrounding each side due to it being the center of constant battle because of the tensions between England and Scotland monarchies. Whoever held the castle held rule over the city of Edinburgh and, therefore, over all of Scotland. From 1296 onwards the castle bounced between English and Scottish hands as Edward 1 of England attempted to seize the then vacant Scottish throne during the First & Second Wars of Scottish Independence. Up until the late 18th centuries the castle continued to be the center of attention for English and Scottish troops and fell into a state of disrepair many times. You can see when you look at the buildings the areas which have been rebuilt as the original stone looks different to that of the new stone. Between the late 18th century and early 19th century Edinburgh castle was used to hold military prisoners from Englands multiple wars - The Seven Years War, the American Revolution, and the Napoleonic Wars. You can enter into certain areas which have been redone to give you a feel of what it might have been like for those prisoners. There were the old shower rooms, prison cells and even the sleeping quarters of the prisoners of war which consisted of hundreds of hammocks tied up to the roof. They even showed some old doors of the cells which had carvings from the different prisoners held captive there - even the first depiction of the stars and stripes of an American POW. We were able to enter into an area where the Scottish Crown Jewels or the Honours of Scotland are held and there was a bit of history before we saw the real things. The sceptre was presented to James IV by Pope Alexander VI in 1494 while the crown was first worn for the coronation of James V’s wife Mary of Guise in 1540. Both the sceptre and the crown were first used together for the coronation of Mary Queen of Scots in 1543 and subsequently at the coronations of her infant son James VI (and I of England) at Stirling in 1567 and her grandson Charles I in 1633 at the Palace of Holyrood house. The last Scottish Coronation they were part of was that of Charles II at Scone in 1651. The Honours of Scotland have had a turbulent past where they spent a lot of time in hiding before being rediscovered in 1818 and have since been on display to the public. Not only do you get to see the crown jewels but the Stone of Destiny is the large rock also protected behind the thick glass. This stone connects land, ruler and people and is a powerful and ancient symbol of Scottish Monarchs as this stone was used as the seat of ancient kings during their coronations. In 1292 the stone was stolen by Edward I of England and taken to London where it lived in Westminister Abbey and was used for coronation ceremonies for monarchs of Great Britain. On Xmas Day 1950 four Scottish students stole the stone from Westminister Abbey and three months later it turned up at the frontdoor of Arbroath Abbey in Northern Scotland. In 1996 after 704 years the stone was returned to Scotland and only returns to London for a coronation in the Westminister Abbey. There is some serious interesting history in how Great Britain was formed. Mary was the only child of King James 5th and when he died 6 days after her birth she was crowned Queen of Scotland at just 9 months old at Stirling Castle and became known as Mary Queen of Scots. In 1566 Mary has her first child James 6th and they have still preserved the small bedchamber in which he was born. There was a beautifully crafted wooden roof but the room itself was completely bare but would have only had room for a small bed. At 24 years old Mary Queen of Scots was forced to abdicate and her son James 6th was crowned as King of Scotland at age 13 months and the kingdom was run by the noblemen who had custody of him. He was able to rule alone at age 21 and he also became the first King of England and Ireland in 1603 when his cousin Queen Elizabeth 1st (Queen of England) died and thus Great Britain was formed. Continuing around the castle we were also shown Mons Meg that is a large cannon designed to smash castle walls using its 150kg gunstones which could travel up to 3.2km away. This was cutting edge military technology in 1460 when it was hauled to battle and finally retired in 1550 and laid to rest in its current location at Edinburgh Castle in 1829. Speaking of guns Edinburgh also has a one o'clock gun that fires everyday except Sundays which surprisingly we never heard during our time in the city. The firing of this gun dates back to 1861 and was used to let sailors in the Firth of Forth (the inlet) know what time they need to set their maritime clocks to in order to navigate. The gun is a much newer version than the original but we were surprised to see a map showing the world of all the timeballs and guns that are still in action today. We will never forget the one in Nice that caught us off guard. The day was almost coming to the end and Lew was concerned about the amount of walking we had been doing with his big run coming up tomorrow. We headed home via the supermarket and as requested brought some items to make a chicken pasta. It was nice for a change to be home and have eaten dinner before 7.30pm for once but Lew wanted to get to bed early. He got his race number and outfit all ready for the morning prancing around the apartment in his ever reducing in size short shorts.

St Giles Cathedral - man playing the bagpipes

View over part of the city from Edinburgh Castle

View looking back down the Royal Mile from Edinburgh Castle

The room in which Mary Queen of Scots gave birth in 1566

All the 1 o'clock guns and timeballs across the world

Sunday 27th May

Today is the big day, the day that hopefully all of Lew's training will have paid off. It is also my baby brother Masons 21st Birthday! It was a chilly 9 degrees with fog in Edinburgh which was probably a little bit colder than Lew was hoping for but better than it being a hot day. We woke up and planned to leave the house just after 9am to walk the 20 minutes to the marathon starting line on Potterrow in the grounds of one of the oldest Universities in the world. Lew was feeling good but it was a shame I insisted that he wouldn't need his long track pants because it was bound to be warm enough to not wear them - man was I wrong! He was one of the only ones with his long white legs exposed as we walked up the hill to the starting line. Once we arrived it was foggy and there was about half an hour until the race started. Lew went off for a wee warm up whilst I parked myself against one of the fences next to the red pen where Lew would be starting so I could take his jackets before he begun. Over the next half an hour a lot of people crammed into these pens and it was amazing to see what sort of things people were going to run with. Some were covered in black plastic rubbish bags to keep warm as it was easy to throw those away, other had belts with 5+ gels around it ready for quick access and some even had small water bottle strapped to them. I had been feeling a bit nauseated and nervous for Lew as I knew whilst he had done a lot of training and was in pretty good form to run such a race things could still go wrong. At 2 minutes to go he removed his jackets and handed them over the fence to me. He was now standing in a singlet and split shorts with his white hat on looking severely underdressed for the weather conditions - there was however a large slightly nervous smile plastered across his face. As the minutes ran down the crowd of runners slowly began to edge towards the starting line where their timer would begin. I would see him in hopefully under 3 hours and 42km away at the finish line in Musselburgh. As he bounded away down the steep slopes of the Royal Mile I stayed to look out for one of the girls I went to nursing school with who was also running for Fulham - Hannah Farrow. I spotted her in the crowd of runners and yelled out but I don't think she heard me over the noise. I planned to head to the bathroom before getting on the bus to Musselburgh which would take an hour. I had plenty of time to kill but I didn't have anything else to do other than wait for Lew at the end. I wanted to go around the back of the crowd of runners to cross over and go to the toilet but as I rounded the corner I couldn't believe the number of people I saw still waiting to begin the marathon. They did say that there were 36,000 people running over the course of the weekend but this was unreal. As they ran past me there were a lot I picked out of the crowd and wondered why they were putting themselves through this when clearly they didn't look as though they were capable at running that distance. A full 20 minutes after the original elite athletes set off everyone had finally made their way across the start line and I was able to cut across behind the stragglers. Now that they had all gone you could see the mess they had all left behind of plastic drink bottles and plastic bags used to keep themselves hydrated and warm before the start. Luckily they had a truck and a heap of volunteers tidying this up already. I made it to the bus stop 15 minutes away that Lew and I worked out last night and waited for the number 40 bus to Musselburgh. The first one I let pass since there were a huge amount of people trying to get on and I didn't fancy standing for an hour. It was a £1.70 ($3.20 nzd) bus fare and took you through some pretty areas of Edinburgh. There was no tracking in this race so the only way I knew where Lew was potentially was by the photo I had taken of the back of hand where he wrote the times and the miles he should be at by those times. I overheard another girl in the bus speaking of a cheer point you could get to but by my calculations Lew should have already passed that point by 30 minutes if all was going to plan. Making my way to the finish line I walked past a fish n chip shop and decided this would be my lunch since its a treat to be by the sea and they probably have good fresh fish. £5 ($9.50 nzd) later I had a huge meal of fish n chips in which the man put salt and vinegar on and a bit of brown sauce in the corner for me to try. I had no idea what it was but it was a local favourite apparently. I stood watching the marathon runners continue up the coast line where they still needed to loop back down and around before they finished but the half marathon runners who started at 8.30 am were still trickling in. I felt terribly guilty as I was eating my greasy fish n chips whist all these people were exerting themselves and ended up chucking it out. They announced that the first marathon runner was going to come in shortly and by that I thought they meant in the next 20 minutes as I was still wandering around the grass when this Kenyan man came striding along through the finishing line at 2 hours and 13 minutes not looking like he had even broken a sweat! I knew more would be arriving soon so I managed to get a decent spot on the side where I could get some photos of Lew. My heart begun racing when I saw the first person in black and white with a hat but it wasn't him. I waited patiently and saw one other Fulham guys finish and kept focusing on the direction I knew he would come from. Just before 2 hours and 50 minutes I saw him emerge and he was making one last push for it down to the finish line giving himself an offical time of 2 hours, 50 minutes and 23 seconds (the time on the photo isn't correct). He later told me that the guy in front had 'vegan' all over his top and he was adamant the vegan wasn't going to beat him haha (nothing against vegans by the way!). I snapped some photos and as soon as he made it across the finish line I ran around the back to see him emerge. What I didn't realise was that there were three different exits he could come out of as I waited anxiously hoping he hadn't suddenly collapsed over the finish line. He ended up surprising me and I was so pleased to see him in one piece smiling as he hobbled towards me. I sat him down and we got him warmed up as I was a little concerned about his white/blue lips and cold peripheries. He gave me a decent account of the entire run and said he found this awesome pack of Scottish men to run with who had all come to congratulate him and thank him for allowing them to keep a fast enough pace to run a sub 3 hour time. He took off from them at 13 km to go which they were impressed by but Lew was convinced he went too early but luckily the crowd over the final few km helped him push through. The funny thing was they didn't have any idea it was his first rodeo. Well with this time we was highly likely to make it directly into London 2019 which was his goal! We walked back to the finish line as Hannah was expected to be arriving shortly if she was also meeting her targets and sure enough we saw her cross the finish line as well. Lew was adamant he wanted to congratulate her so we wandered back to try and find her despite his worsening limp. I really didn't want to know what was going on under those shoes and socks of his as I have to admit my one hate as an emergency nurse is toe nails and his are completely black and half hanging off. Makes me gag every time I look at them and hes asked me multiple times to remove them for him but I just can't bring myself to do it. After a quick phone call to locate Hannah we found that she had made it into the line for a massage at Nuffield Health tent already and we joined her. She was in a bit of a worse state than Lew with mild hypothermia and dehydration and we stayed looking after her until she got onto the massage table. Lew had tried to feed her a bit of his crunchy bar but it only ended up with severe nausea. She was taking the train back into town with the rest of the team and we had planned to take the bus so we said our goodbyes since we would see the rest of the Fulham crew tonight for dinner. The bus was a long wait after the first driver told us we couldn't get on because it was full. A bit of a joke really if he saw how full the buses in London get and how many people they continue to squeeze onto those! A hour later we were home and Lew was relaxing with some leftover chicken pasta. I was very insistent that he drunk lots of water/electrolyte drinks as I knew he hadn't passed urine in quite a few hours and I was concerned about him getting an acute kidney injury. I was very pleased when he did finally go to the toilet which I know is a little strange for most people but its a vital bodily function your always thinking about when your a nurse. For the first time in awhile we had some spare time where we were doing absolutely nothing so we used the time to book some flights from Cabo San Lucas back to London early January since we had decided this place had the easiest connections for a few days on the beach post John & Averys wedding. Before we knew it 6.15pm had come around and we had to make it back up the hill to the Royal Mile to a restaurant called 'The Burgers and Beers Grillhouse' to meet up with the rest of the Fulham crew. Finally Lew was getting his burger and we had all pre-ordered months ago so it was nice to just order drinks. I hadn't met many of the Fulham crew other than Hannah obviously and Lew had only managed to get to one of their training runs on a Tuesday/Thursday. Fulham isn't that far away from us but its just not very well connected by public transport from where we live. We met quite a few more people and there was a lot of conversations in regards to running. It was almost a little strange for me really because I hadn't been involved in this marathon weekend at all (other than being a support person and being Lew's 'nutritionist' - his words not mine!) and i'm not usually the girlfriend who doesn't do anything but I was! Lew is still convinced he will get me to run a marathon or even a half marathon but I am not convinced because as soon as I am forced to run I no longer enjoy it. After we finished our burger which certainly won't be added into out top 10 favourites we moved onto a small bar where we continued to chat to a few of the other members. By 10.30pm we were both exhausted and said our goodbyes to everyone who were mostly heading home to London midday tomorrow. We of course went via a supermarket to get Lew an ice-cream. I think he 100% deserves one of these after today efforts.

Outside of the red 'pen' 30 minutes before start time

The huge amount of people still waiting to run the race 10 minutes after Lew had left

Just got the text message about this offical time

Larger and greasier than expected...sorry UK we do it better at home

Monday 28th May

There was no way I was going to rush Lew in getting up today as I would imagine he would feel as though he had been run over by a train. The only thing we had booked was the tour of the Blair Street underground vaults at 12pm so we had until then to get ourselves out and about. Our Airbnb host Simon said it was fine to hold onto the keys until later in the afternoon since out train wasn't leaving until 5pm. We ate breakfast and packed up and had left the house by 11am. For the first time the entire weekend the sun was shinning brightly and it even promised to be a relatively warm day. We made our way up to the Grassmarket which is a historical market place in the city since everything else on my list involved a lot of walking which I didn't want make Lew do today, we would save Arthurs Seat until our next visit. The Grassmarket really did not disappoint with its beautiful colour shop fronts and everything being sold seemed a lot less touristy. We didn't have much time to hang around and visit any of the shops before our 12pm tour commenced so we also planned to come back here and explore the area a bit more next time. The tour we booked was with Mercat Tours and it was the 'historic underground' tour costing us £26 ($50 nzd). Our tour guide was Sue and she spoke to us about the area we were currently standing in which was at Mercat Cross. Mercat Cross is an octagonal arrangement of cobble stones which was used to signify a market place and it was also an area of town where townsfolk gathered to watch 'entertainment'. By that I mean they used to watch criminals being whipped or tortured here. It is also the place where large news announcements were made and this always happened three days after London since this is how long it would take a messenger on horseback to deliver this news. In keeping with the tradition large news announcements are still presented here 3 days laters and many people still gather in to listen despite hearing it already 3 days ago in the newspaper or on the TV. Sue then walked us down and took us into one of the small 'closes' which are the original medieval streets of the city and you can see how small and dark they must have been. However, these buildings are from the Victorian ages and are shorter than the original ones that used to be here. Because the city was expanding so much and due to the amount of conflict between England at the time the townspeople wanted to live within the city walls. Buildings were thus extended up to 12-14 stories high and often were at risk of collapsing as they weren't designed to be so tall. Sue also spoke to us about the conditions of Edinburgh during those times as people obviously didn't have running water or toilets and they collected a bucket full of 'nasties' as they were called and these were simply tipped out the window into the streets with only the world "Gardyloo" as a warning for those below. This term came from the French words Gardez l’eau!” meaning ‘watch the water,’ which was corrupted to become Gardyloo. In 1749 the 'Nastiness Act' was passed which allowed people to only toss their waste out the windows between certain hours which was 10pm when the bells struck at the St Giles Cathedral and 7am the next morning. In the first half of the 18th century the wealthy and the poor lived together in the same buildings with the more well off people living on the first and second floors. As the city became more crowded the wealthier members of society moved into the new town which was built in several stages between the 1760s to the 1830s. This was the largest planned city development in the world at this time and encourage a lot more business and wealth back into the city. Because of how the city was laid out with its mound of the Royal Mile dipping down into a valley on each side, bridges were put across these dips from new town to old town so the wealthy didn't have to walk through the slums to get to where they were trading. The main bridge we would be focusing on today was the South Bridge in which building was commenced in 1785 and continued until 1788. Many of the surrounding buildings were demolished to make way for this bridge and the stone was reused to build its large 19 stone arches. You wouldn't even know you were crossing a bridge as shops line each side of it and there isn't any water below of course. A well known and respected wealthy women in town who was the wife of a judge insisted that she be the first to cross the bridge however a few days before the bridge was due to open she died but they kept their promise and her body was carried across the bridge in a coffin to mark the opening. Many locals believed the bridge was now cursed and refused to use it for several years after it opened. The bridge is the location of the famous Blair Street vaults as the 19 arches had airless vaults constructed within them to allow the shops above room for storage or workshops. The only arch that you can see is the Cowgate arch which is the largest of them all. Sue our tour guide lead us through the Mercat tour office where they have a staircase leading down into these vaults. It was dark apart from candles and she first took us into a room called the double height room. Sue explained to us that shortly after the bridge and the vaults were built the shop owners discovered that it actually leaked so many of them moved out as their stock was getting ruined in the vaults below. There were leather makers, taverns, jewellers and iron mongers as remnants of their work was left behind amongst the stones. With the loss of businesses using the vaults this allowed more shady creatures to move in such as squatters and homeless people. They also suspect that body snatches used this space to store bodies although these people don't leave records of such things so they can't be sure. Body snatchers were common in those days and they would hang around the cemetery seeing where people were freshly buried that day before coming back at night and digging them up. Edinburgh's medical school of course needed bodies for the students to dissect and they were only given 5 per year of hanged criminals so they would offer £10 ($38.20) per body no questions asked. Body snatching became so common that Edinburgh residents that recently buried relatives would be watched over 24 hours a day until such time that the body was decomposed enough to be no use to the body snatchers. High walls and watchtowers were even constructed around many of Edinburgh’s graveyards, such as St Cuthberts at the top of King stables Road. The the bridge vaults being completely unusable due to the lack of light, air, heat, ventilation and sanitation as well as the water seeping down through the bridge it was deemed uninhabitable and in 1860 the vaults were filled with rubble. In 1985 a Scottish rugby player was getting into property and discovered the vaults and became owner and single handedly excavated and restored the vaults to what they are now. We were shown around rooms with varying names such as the double vault room and the tavern. Some of the vaults we weren't able to go into are actually used as restaurants and nightclubs today. Something creepy that Sue pointed out to us was the oyster shells in the brick work of the vaults as many people were scared of witches back in those days. The theory is that witches can't cross water and oysters are from the water so the witch wouldn't be able to get through a doorway with oyster shells on either side of it. One particular area was a wine cellar which would have contained wine imported from France as it was the favourite drink of Scottish people. This wine came hard to come by during the Napoleonic wars and this is when whisky became popular. However, whisky was considered illegal during that time and there was an illegal whisky distillery in the vaults which even had a flue going right up to above the bridge. One of the vaults even had stalactites formed on the ceiling from the constant drip of water and the minerals within it which showed us just how damp these vaults are. Once we finished looking around the vaults we were taken to one of them on the second level which showed you some more information about the vaults and some items which were found within them. One interesting thing was the talk of spirits living within the vaults and Mercat tours have been recording and reporting all paranormal activity experienced or felt by visitors to the vaults since they opened. There are rooms that are considered to have a higher amount of paranormal activity than others and there are even certain characters they have identified as spirits living in certain rooms. One of the most notorious ones is called Mr Boots who wears knee-length boots and his footsteps can often be heard throughout the vaults. People have reported feeling sudden physical pain in his presence (aching back, choking sensations) and they have even found scratch marks or bruises once leaving the vaults. There is also the child which can be felt tugging on womens clothing or holding their hands. Then there is the cobbler which is a happy spirit but people often experience objects such as stones being thrown across the room in his presence. Last but not least there is the aristocrat which is a sinister presence within the room and he stands in the double height room and grins at people. Neither Lew or I noticed any of these spirits whilst we were down there and I think if we had known this before we entered we would have been a lot more wary of them! We were pleased to leave the vaults and get back into the sunshine. We walked to a place called Ting Thai Cafe for lunch which was close as I really wasn't feeling like another burger after last night - Lew had different thoughts though! The food was ok but not as well done as the Edinburgh Larder the day before. Post lunch we decided we could fit one more thing in before going to the train station for our 5pm train and we walked across town to Carlton Hill which is one of the UNESCO world heritage sites. The Scottish Government, Holyrood Palace and the National Monument are all building within the park. Poor Lew was struggling a little with his legs but we managed to walk to the top and get some views over the city and of Arthurs Seat where you could see the huge amounts of tiny figures of people walking up its ridge-line. On our way back home we picked up a couple of ice blocks since it was sunny and warm. My choice was a complete fail as I realised it had ice cream swirled around it which was obviously full of milk and I had to offer it to a homeless man instead. Once we got home we packed up our bags and made our way to the train station in the heat. We arrived at the platform literally as the train pulled in and we were able to find two seats together before the herds of other people begun getting on. It was certainly a full train since it was the end of a bank holiday weekend for England (for some reason Scotland wasn't on holiday too?) The 4 hour and 40 minute train ride was very very very long especially since there was no power sockets so we weren't able to do as much work as we hoped. We did however book flights to Cabo San Lucas and also a weekend away in York for when Sam and Eden arrive so that will be our next weekend away probably!

Mercat Cross where our historical tour begun

Oyster shells stuck in the brickwork of the white room entrance

A picture of the bridge with all the vaults and the only exposed archway - Cowgate arch

Struggling with those legs post marathon!

ShannenMay 27, 2018