Day 29:

We started the day by hiking to Rydel Estate, one of the cottages on the estate was one of Wordsworth’s homes later in his life. The estate had beautiful grounds. We walked to a little building that was six feet by six feet with only a window. Through the window was a beautiful waterfall with a stone bridge over the top of it. Before the days of photography people would go out with a mirror an empty frame and find the most beautiful piece of scenery they could find and hold their frame there. The little cabin with the window was built with soul purpose of framing that waterfall.

The next three hours were spent in the coach driving to Edinburgh. We finished watching North and South for “homework.” I loved it! We watched it to help introduce our discussion of the industrial era in our history class and Victorian writers in our English class.

We arrived in Edinburgh at four in the afternoon. We stayed at a five star hostel, and if that hostel was five stars I don’t even want to know what a two, three, or four hostel is like. There was eight of us in one room. The shower was in its own room, kind of like a closet with a shower head and nothing else which was weird.

We ate dinner at the Elephant House Café, the birthplace of Harry Potter! JK Rowling wrote her first two books in that café. More time was spent taking pictures outside the café then spent eating in the café. The walls of the women’s bathroom were covered with notes to JK Rowling. On the hand dryer somebody had written, “JK Rowling dries her hands here.” There were lots of pictures of her in the restaurant. During dinner a few of us wrote on our napkins random Harry Potter sayings. After we got dinner though we were very surprised that she would have even written past page one in that café. The food was terrible! I ate there only because JK Rowling did, and I don’t think any of us would go back.

We walked around the streets of Edinburgh. Most of the buildings were black. Apparently they tried cleaning the buildings in Edinburgh a few years ago. They started with the Walter Scott Monument (the largest monument in the world commemorating a writer), but when they did ears started flying off, noses got broken, and fingers started to fall off. They found that all the coal and soot now acts as a sealant, so they can’t clean any of the buildings. We started up at the Edinburgh Castle and walked down the Royal Mile. We passed John Knox’s home, Scottish Parliament, the Cathedral, the Adam Smith Monument, and the Royal Family’s Palace.

At eight we began to climb Arthur’s Seat which is the highest point in Edinburgh. It is the place where Orson Hyde dedicated Great Britain for the coming forth of the gospel. It was a steep climb and it took about an hour to climb to the top.  The view was fantastic. You could see the ocean, Edinburgh Castle, and city that stretched on for miles. We spent nearly an hour up there looking around and taking pictures. Just for fun we read The Tables Turned by Wordsworth when we were up there. We got to see the sunset from the top and it was spectacular!