June and Peter Bike in Scotland - the pre-biking prologue in Edinburgh

I will be the first to admit that yesterday (Monday) was a jet-lagged haze. We arrived at our flat (thank you Christine and AirBnB for a great place!) by 10, stashed our bags with host Christine and took a topside-seat bus tour of Edinburgh - for me, an hour of fading in and out of consciousness. I will only blame myself as I forgot the "No Jet-Lag" pills in the seat of our flight over to Amsterdam, thus failing to take the prescribed amounts at the prescribed times. I will personally testify that they WORK - evidenced by my complete collapse Monday afternoon once we accessed our lodgings on Cockburn 

The lovely flat! Has a full bedroom, bath and kitchen too.

Living room of the flat - great spot!

We awoke this AM with 10+ hours of sleep which has successfully reset our biorhythms to Edinburgh time, which made for a really great day. After coffee we set out to see the iconic Edinburgh Castle which looms high above the city. We were supremely fortunate to have purchased a ticket when we bought our bus tour yesterday - it allowed us to breeze right by the ginormous ticket queue and right into the castle gates. The views were magnificent.

View of West Prince St. Gardens from the north wall.

One of the most moving monuments in the castle is dedicated to the Scottish lives lost in WW1. We were very taken with the bronze frieze that lined the central apse - the photo is "illegal" but Peter did capture it before we were admonished to stop taking pictures (oops) - it is an incredible work:

After all the hustle and bustle of the castle we decided to take a break in West Prince St. Gardens - here is Peter sketching the castle from the site we looked down upon from the castle walls!

And the sketch (in progress, Peter wanted me to make sure you know that!)

Another great view of the castle from the park.

We followed our park sojourn with high tea at the Caledonian Hotel - this experience was highly recommended by my new friend Marion Wills - you will be formally introduced to her later this week (insert heavy foreshadowing...). We loved everything about the experience but are also really happy to be in a flat in the middle of life's flow versus a five-star hotel. Just the way our tastes run I guess!

Tea for two!

After a lovely walk to procure a chocolate gift, we ended up at the Greyfriars Bobby pub - had the most decadent repast of what can only be called a "State Fair" platter (onion rings, sausage, Brie fondue, garlic toast, fried chicken tenders - not kidding!) and a lovely ale called "Twisted and Bitter"! We can only hope that our biking will burn up this year's worth of fats in the 12-day ride!

By the way, the pub is named after this dog immortalized in the bronze statue - apparently he was renowned for his loyalty to his master, spending 14 years laying atop his grave in Greyfriars churchyard. This oral history became legend and thus the statue...a Skye Terrier by the way...

So after our overly fortifying pub indulgence we headed back to the flat, enjoying the street musicians and architecture. As we came to the entry for the flat, I spotted this "greeter" right in front of the door:

Meet Randolph the English Cocker Spaniel!

We had a great chat with Randolph's owner Zahir (sp) and found out he owns 8 rental flats right in the area, plus the small grocery store right below our flat. Dogs are such wonderful ice breakers and Randolph was exceptionally cute and charming! 

We are now way past our bedtime as I wrestled with the blog (out of practice) and looked at emails. More Edinburgh fun tomorrow and Thursday before we head to Aberdeen Friday morning!