One of the places Katie and I especially wanted to go while she was here was Edinburgh. Granted this was my third trip here, but I really love Edinburgh so I didn’t mind. Plus, I really wanted to take Katie to Armstrongs – a HUGE vintage store in Edinburgh that I discovered with Kevin during our first visit. As was the case when I travelled with my mom, the cheap train was the ass crack of dawn train. However, it ensures that you arrive in Edinburgh by 9:30 am, which is always a bonus.
We started out the day with a trip to Edinburgh Castle. Now, you may think that I would be very bored of the castle after my third visit, but I’m not even close to being bored of it. I love castles and this castle is a great example of different periods of building all combined together. To make things even better, the Military tattoo staging was finally gone, and the sun was out!
We stayed at the castle long enough to hear the gun go off at 1, at which point Katie almost dropped her camera off the castle. (Boy would John have been mad!) We spent the afternoon with a little shopping (Ness and Armstrongs, my two favorite stores), followed by a tour of Mary King’s Close. The tour was just as interesting as when I did it with Kevin. While the streets and buildings enclosed under the buildings above is kind of creepy, the creepiest part was a rather large old man who kept following me around “accidentally” grabbing my butt several times and practially pushing people out of the way to ensure he was either behind or next to me. EEEEWWWWW!
The next day, unfortunately, was a typical day over here – blustery and wet. However, Katie and I didn’t let that stop us. We started our day with a trip to the National Gallery of Scotland, which housed an impressive collection of art by Scottish artists, as well as a collection of 16th-18th century European artists. They also had a very small collection of impressionist pieces, including a beautiful Paul Cezanne (my favorite impressionist!). Since it was still drizzling when we left the museum, we decided to visit Greyfriar’s Cemetery and then grab some lunch at The Elephant House. Elephant House has a great selection of pies, soups and pizzas. Plus, its the place where J.K. Rowling wrote the first Harry Potter book, so I knew Katie would appreciate it. I pointed out Diagon Alley and Hogwarts before we took off for our shopping excursion. We went back to Armstrongs and bought a vintage Harris tweed jacket for Doyle as a belated birthday gift, indulged in our Ness obsession with a pair of flats for me that match my previously purchased purse and compliment Katie’s wedges that she had gotten the previous day. We also indulged in our fingerless glove obsession with two pairs of cashmere fingerless gloves. Add a few Christmas gifts for people, a new pair of boots for me and two pairs of awesome patterned tights and you have a fantastic day. Less we both wind up with cancelled credit cards and two very angry husbands, we spent the rest of the evening before our train with a bottle of wine and a few Tapas at a fantastic little Spanish place rather than do any more shopping.
Rain, rain go away! 
Greyfriar’s
Hogwarts!
Dreary Castle
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