Edinburgh: Day 2

We woke up today to sunshine! Yes! It was still a bit windy, but not too chilly if you were out of the wind so we just keep adding and taking off layers all day. We started our day at Edinburgh Castle, set on a hill above the city. The Castle Rock is the oldest continuously occupied fortified place in Britain,and today it houses museums and monuments as well as the Scottish crown jewels and the Stone of Destiny, used to inaugurate monarchs for more than 1,000 years. A surprising thing happened when we were at the castle. We were standing at the wall near the giant canon, Mons Meg, and looked over the wall to where the dog cemetery is located (this cemetery is for regimental mascots), and we saw a fox walking across the grass next to the cemetery! Yeah, a real fox! In the daytime! Around all those people! The grassy area was about 10 feet below us and about 20 feet above the people on the ground, so he had a nice little sunny, grassy area all to himself, and he curled up and went to sleep! Amazing! We mentioned it to one of the castle staff later and she said that foxes are often seen in the city, they come to search for food in the rubbish bins and are fairly used to people, not at all like the foxes near our house. We left the castle and walked down the Royal Mile to the Palace at Holyrood House but we couldn't get in because the palace was closed to the public again today. Some royal person must be there. We walked up to Calton Hill and climbed the Nelson Monument for views of the city. 145 steps and £3 later, I have to say the views were just as good before we climbed the tower. There's an eclectic assortment of monuments on Calton Hill and you get a really great view of the city, all the way down to the castle in one direction and Arthur's Seat in another and the Firth of Forth in another. Since today is Sunday, there were a lot of people just enjoying the sunshine up there.