Christmas 2007

Click on the photos for larger versions.

We left for London the evening of December 20 and arrived the morning of December 21--my birthday! Getting through customs didn't take long, but then we had to get ourselves to King's Cross Station and on the train to Edinburgh. The Tube ride wasn't bad, but King's Cross was insane, since it was the Friday before Christmas. We thought about catching an earlier train than the one we had reservations on, but it was so crowded that we decided to stick with our reserved seats.

The train ride up was nice--first class tickets are the way to go, especially around the holidays. There was a cart with coffee, tea and biscuits (and probably alcohol, but we were way too tired to drink), and there was wireless internet access, which was a nice surprise.

We finally got to Edinburgh around 5:00pm, and we walked to the hotel, which turned out to be an adventure--it was very dark, and we were very tired. We weren't doing a good job of following directions. We finally did find it though. Then we needed to track down dinner, which was another adventure, because it was still the Friday before Christmas, and everyone was having work outings. Eventually we did run across a pub that had a table, so we ate, stopped at Sainsbury's for some groceries, and crashed.

We stayed in an apartment hotel--it had a bedroom, a sitting area, and a decent-sized kitchen area. It was on Queens Street, the next one down from Princes Street, so we ended up walking up a lot of hilld. We ate breakfast in every morning and had several dinners there, and it was nice to have room to sit and relax without feeling cramped. There was a Region 0 DVD player, so were able to watch some DVDs we'd brought. It was a great choice.

The apartment looked over the Queens Gardens, and we could see the Firth of Forth.

There were a lot of panhandlers out on the street, and they were mostly young--maybe 17-20 years old or thereabouts. I felt awful for those kids, especially in the cold, damp weather, but I kept thinking there had to be some alternative for them. It really was disturbing, though; I'm used to seeing older people begging in Chicago, which isn't any better, of course, but it's different.

And, yeah, it was cold, but coming from Chicago we were used to it. The first few days in Edinburgh were gorgeous; nice and sunny and about as dry as it got.

Saturday we had lunch at The Witchery, which was very atmospheric and fun and relaxed, but I was a bit disappointed in the food. Maybe I just wasn't in the mood for salmon. Then we took a tour of the vaults under South Bridge and learned about some of the more sordid bits of Edinburgh's past.

Here's a bagpiper in Old Town:

We picked up a wooden stylized Christmas tree for the room, just so we'd have some kind of decoration. It was... fairly tacky, but Christmasy. We put it on the mantel with our presents on either side.

Sunday we didn't do much at all--church, minor shopping, and walking around a little, but that was about it. In the evening we went to a service of Lessons and Carols at St Giles' Cathedral, where Presbyterianism got its start. It's a beautiful, old church, but dark. The acoustics were terrific, though, and the choir sounded lovely. Afterwards we tried to have dinner at a Himalayan restaurant called The Khukuri, where we've eaten before, but after we'd walked all the way there we found out that they were closed for a private party. Bummer. So we ended up having a nice meal at a wine bar instead.

Monday we took a train to Stirling--more on that on the next page. We also rode the ferris wheel that evening, which was a blast. It's not all that tall, but it was a nice view of the castle and Old Town from a little higher than usual. And the weather wasn't too cold, so we didn't completely freeze up there--the cars weren't enclosed.

Here are some photos I took from the wheel--not all that good, but you get the idea.

We went to Midnight Eucharist at St. John's Episcopal Church--we discovered it our first time in Edinburgh and keep going back. It started at 11.15pm, and it ran about an hour and a half, so we were pretty tired by the end. Beautiful service, though, with lots of terrific music.

Christmas Day we went back to St. John's then had a nice, festive lunch at a hotel. The food was great, and we got party hats and crackers, and we even finished with Christmas pudding. There was a baby across from us wearing a Santa onesie, complete with black belt and booties. He was very adorable and quite well-behaved; the only time he fussed was when Father Christmas came by with a present.

The restaurant had a great view of the castle; here are a couple photos Matt took:

And here we are back at the apartment, with and without hats. I don't know why I look so crazed.

Walking past a cemetery on the way back, we saw a sign saying that the inventor of logarithms--Sir John Napier, according to Wikipedia--was buried there. I was tickled. I wondered if he only invented natural logarithms, or base 10 as well.

Christmas evening we got to watch the Dr. Who Christmas Special as it aired, which was a treat for me. We ended up having a light supper and watching another movie before bed.

We had planned on going to York on Boxing Day, but it turned out there were no trains running in Scotland that day. So, instead, we hit the Boxing Day sales, along with half the population of Edinburgh, it seemed. It was fun, though, and we were able to do just about all of our Christmas shopping for decent prices, considering the exchange rate, which was a source of depression the whole trip. We also both hit the fitness center at The Scotsman Hotel, and we ate dinner in the room again, mostly to try to finish up the groceries we'd bought. That evening we watched "Love, Actually," which has become a Christmas tradition.