Edinburgh Part 1~

31st July 2009 Second day of our Scotland trip~

Set off quite early to explore Edinburgh, cos we had to arrive at Inverness (near Loch Ness) that same day.. Started with the area around Edinburgh castle, which has lots of attraction- which were not open yet cos we were too early- haha.. Still found lots of things to entertain ourselves with tho~ :)

First glimpse of Edinburgh castle~

main street where all the attractions are..

First place we went to was the Tartan weaving mill and exhibition which had a large mixture of things inside besides tartan, there were all sorts of souvenirs like crystal, everything under the sun inscibed with clan names, scottish shortbread, etc etc etc.. and also this:

real swords..

not cheap~~

The tartan mill was hidden right at the back of the shop, and it was a real working mill that churned out all the cloth used to make the goods sold outfront..

these scary ladies could move and had voices coming out of them explaining how the tartan industry evolved~ I personally feel they look eerie..

Another moving display showing how tartan used to be made with a traditional machine..

Modern tartan weaving machine..

The whole place was filled with tartan and tartan making machines..

Super soft and furry sheepskin rugs~ <3333

Next place we went to was:

needed an entrance ticket, so we just looked around outside

super cute wooden 3D puzzles~

I want to have this so i can look into it everyday~ :)

just some examples of what should be inside, these were located out on the street, so FOC~ :)

After that, we went to take a look at the main attraction in Edinburgh- the castle~

A unicorn giving out leaflets :)

me~

View of Edinburgh city from the castle

Had to pay to go further inside the castle, so we just explored the outside again as usual.. After that we went to take a look at the building that houses the Scottish Whisky Experience Tour.. Since we only had about one and a half hours to see everything, we did not get to go on the tour, too bad.. Had fun looking at some of the stuff sold in the souvenir shop tho~

Super cute!
I saw real life highland sheep and cows in Scotland! yippee.. pics will be up soon~

Have to eat this with a hammer @.@~

After going round all these places, our time was up (time constraints cos of expensive parking fees).. and it was an exciting time when a parking attendant came to check the tickets before our drivers came back, lots of frantic calling and running.. luckily no one got a penalty.. hehe.. we were just in time..

Bye bye to Edinburgh Castle..
Beautiful weather that day~

We went to visit Calton Hill and Forth Rail Bridge in Edinburgh next.. that was after one of the 5 cars in our party went missing, and we wasted a lot of time searching for them in the city.. Stay tuned for Part 2 in Edinburgh~