Our Scotland and England Adventure: Day Fifteen (31 August)

Well, at long last, here we were at the last day of our trip--we'd be home tonight, sleeping in our own bed (okay, the landlord actually owns the bed, but you get my point). It seemed strange to think about going home, but after two weeks away, I think we were both ready to pour our energies into lounging around the house! We checked out of our B&B

and decided that after not spending anything on admissions or tourist attractions in Edinburgh so far, we'd give up a few of our tourist £ today. Actually, we handed over more than a few £ at Edinburgh Castle, where the admission was £11 each. Somehow that £6.50 Loch Ness pee was looking like a bargain right about now! In the end, Edinburgh Castle was an interesting sight, although I'm not entirely convinced it was worth the admission price. If you're only going to be in Edinburgh and won't have any other opportunity to see a Scottish castle, then you'll find it worthwhile. On the other hand, if you get out of the city and manage to have a look at some of the spectacular country castles that seem almost as common as sheep in some parts of the Scotland, well, then you can probably give Edinburgh Castle a pass. Anyway, onto the sights: the main gateway is impressive, with statues of Robert the Bruce and William Wallace on either side.
The castle complex was a lot bigger than I thought it would be, and even though we didn't spend long at any particular part, we were still in the castle for about ninety minutes.


St Margaret's chapel, built in the early 12th century, is the oldest building in the castle complex (and the city of Edinburgh):

As expected, views from the castle are expansive:

A small dog cemetery for officers' dogs enjoys a scenic location in the castle:





Some of you may know that Bob's first two names are Robert and Bruce:

The Scottish National War Memorial is located on the castle site, and it's an amazing building inside, with a beautiful interior (no photos allowed, as a show of respect) and book after book listing names of servicepeople who died in the wars.
The Great Hall lives up to its name
and doesn't hide its militaristic history:

People in period dress performed for the crowds, but I was more interested in getting a photo of the enormous fireplace behind them!
One last look at the view
and we left the castle, walking down the Royal Mile again, with its closes,
toward the meeting point for our underground walking tour. I didn't know anything about Edinburgh's history before this trip, and I was shocked to find out about the existence of the Edinburgh Vaults. The city's South Bridge was completed in 1788, with a total of nineteen arched viaducts, eighteen of which are hidden away behind buildings. In fact, if not for the name, South Bridge, I wouldn't have even known it was a bridge. Originally intended as storage for adjacent businesses, the vaults created under these arches turned out to be leaky and unsuitable for use as reliable storage. When the city's population swelled during the Industrial Revolution, the unused spaces became a red-light district as well as slum accommodation for the city's poor, who lived underground in crowded conditions with little light, no running water, no sanitation, limited air circulation, and rampant crime. At some point in the late 19th century, the vaults were closed down, filled in, and quickly forgotten. In 1988, they were rediscovered and are still in the process of being fully excavated. Our short tour covered a very small section of the vaults, but it was enough to give us a sense of the claustrophobic, horrifying conditions under which the vaults' residents lived. This room was originally used for wine storage before the vaults were abandoned due to flooding:
Many rooms bear markers of their previous use as storage space:

Even in the higher-ceilinged vaults, the air was damp and stale,
and the mood became even more suffocating after our guide told us stories of serial killers who sold bodies to medical schools in need--they often chose their victims from the vault residents, since (as today) society disregarded those of the lower class.
Stalactites carpeted some of the ceilings--a reminder of the wet conditions created in the vaults.
The area beyond this gate was apparently used as a storage space for bodies on their way to the medical school, since murders often occurred during the day and the murderers had to wait until the evening to transport the bodies to their destination. To this day, the medical school denies ever receiving any bodies "donated for medical use" through murders in the vaults, even though a tunnel was recently uncovered that led directly from one of the vaults to the door of the medical school. Beyond such horrifying tales, the vaults were a place where many people lived, and excavations have uncovered many artifacts that you would expect to find in such a site.

After our time in the damp tunnels, we were happy to leave the underground
and return to Edinburgh's surface, but we didn't have much time to enjoy it, because we had to pick up our bag from the B&B and head to the train station to get our train back to London. London? We'd practically forgotten what London was after our time away. The five-hour train ride was scenic and comfortable, and we passed a lot of pretty countryside on the way,

with a bit of striking city architecture for variety. Newcastle's Sage Gateshead arts complex (designed by Norman Forster) shone like a futuristic creature on the horizon ("What's that? Where's the camera?" I said as I fumbled to get a shot before our train completely passed by),
especially when coupled with the array of bridges that layered the landscape just beyond the building.
Back to more regular train sights,

including a distant view of York Minster, the largest medieval cathedral in England:
We arrived at King's Cross station at 9:45 P.M. and when we got off the train, I noticed the charming name of our 627 km route:
We arrived home just past 10:00 P.M., happy to be back, but sad that our travels around England and Scotland were over (at least for now). Most of all though, we wondered what we would do tomorrow . . .