DAY 24 - Edinburgh to Consett 21/06/2005
Edinburgh has many attractions one being the Britannia in Leith. A building has been built in front of the ship to hinder the tourist’s view and encourage them to pay £8 each. We were feeling Scottish and didn't oblige. Instead we visited Murrayfield (Scotland's Rugby Ground) and had a beer at the local. The publican was prepared to put on free breakfast because he believed Sir Clive had a plan (we all know now he didn't).
The campground people were kind enough to let us leave our van there for free so we could bus into town and avoid the traffic (unlike Dublin). Edinburgh Castle looks impressive from the outside, but inside it is dark, gloomy, empty and boring.
Roger could have used this canon to control the pushy
Japanese in the crown jewels room. It was not needed; he dealt to them.
Edinburgh Castle was preparing for their annual Edinburgh Military Tattoo, another event we just missed. However given the area it is held in and the impression I had from seeing it on TV it would have been disappointing. On TV the grounds look like a large grassed area inside a castle fort. In reality it is a small area outside the palace gates on uneven cobbles. We drove on a short distance south to Roslin.
A year ago it cost £2 to visit Roslyn Chapel, famous for supposedly housing the chalice guarded by the Templar. Now that Dan Brown has drawn attention to it in his book “The Da Vinci Code” the price has risen to £6. The chapel is well laid out for the tourist with cards pointing out and describing the special features and statutes in the chapel. The tourist pound is being put to good use in a major restoration project. The scaffolding had been constructed to allow tourists to climb on it and see the extent of the restoration work.
Our next history lesson was Hadrians wall (73 miles of fortress) . We stopped on the way in Jedbugh (for driver to have a nap), even this small town had a castle, chapel and 
famous house used by Queen Mary of Scotland. Plus the first and last pub in Scotland and a 25p attended toilet.
We found various bits of Hadrians wall that were along the road side (clearly marked) and were free to visit. Some bits were cemented and altered in the interest of public safety. There are wall custodians who sprung on us from the bushes and after a small telling off for walking on them gave us an interesting history lesson. Most interesting was the fact that there isn't much left of the wall because the locals pinch the stones to build their houses.
We drove to the Durham area and had tea in a local pub where we learned that the cold weather of Scotland had met the heat wave of England and caused flash floods. I had the traditional English meal of bangers, bubble and squeak, field mushrooms and my favourite, black pudding.
Even though Scotland uses pounds sterling they are like Northern Ireland and have their own notes issued by the Bank of Scotland.
