Happy 18th Anniversary to Us!

So today is our 18th wedding anniversary and we’re spending it in lovely Edinburgh, Scotland! Who would have imagined? I think it’s a fine present to ourselves to spend the day in this beautiful old city--most of which has been declared a World Heritage Site.

So it’s not pronounced Edinburg, or Edinborough or even Edinburr. The best we can tell, it’s pronounced Edinburra. The city was built around a castle which was built on a basalt outcrop overlooking the Firth of Fourth (like a Bay).

For the last 2,0000 or so years there’s been a castle or stronghold on top of the rock. The Normans built a castle there in the 10th century and it was improved over time and traded back and forth between the Normans, Picts, Scots and English.

Our rented flat is in the Old Town and has a view of the castle from the kitchen window. The apartment is a one-bedroom with a pull-out couch for the kids. Nice enough. It took us a while to figure out the various appliances, heat and hot water. It seems that the idea of a constant temperature hot water tank is out of the question here--too much wasted energy. Instead water is only heated when you need it--but you need to plan ahead a bit for the water to get hot. We were especially perplexed with the single-unit washer/dryer with no instructions. Some how the thing claimed to wash AND dry the laundry in one easy step. The trouble was only a variety of hieroglyphics on the front of the machine gave any hint on how to operate it. Unfortunately, without a Rosetta Stone, we were reduced to trial and error to decipher the code.

This morning we did the castle--the biggest tourist attraction in all of Scotland. We took a quick guided tour and spent another hour or so wandering the grounds. An amazing history really. We even got a glimpse of the Stone of Destiny--the stone on which Scottish kings have been coroneted since time immemorial. The stone, also known as the Stone of Scone, was swiped by the English in the 1200’s. It was brought back to Scotland in the 1990’s (thank you Queen Elizabeth) under the condition that it would return to London to be used in the coronations of future royal monarchs.

This afternoon we’ve been wandering around the “New Town” shopping, eating and taking in the sites. The girls highly appreciate European fashion and how it is 3 years ahead of its time. Even yes, in Scotland! Anna had a surprise on the way down Princes Street: “Ohhhhhh….a bird just pooped on me!” And it had…yellow, gooey, yuk. Head to jacket. She was a good sport and we quickly scouted out a bathroom. Then it was on to Waterstone’s, a local bookstore on Princes Street where we all perused the books -- including many a Scottish title. In a few minutes we’ll wander back to our flat for a late afternoon rest, crisps, Satellite TV, and a glass of wine before dinner.

Tomorrow is Hallie’s 13th birthday. Wow! Not only have we been married for 18 years--now we’re parents of a teenager!

Ah, back from dinner now. We dined on Johnston Terrace just below the castle at a place called Maxie’s. On the eastern slope of the castle hill, we had a table on the balcony looking out over Grassmarket and were just a few blocks from our flat. The food was great. We met a couple of Canadians who were finishing up a round the world gig and were in town filming a special for National Geographic on tectonic geology. The geologist on the crew was on faculty at a University Toronto and the cameraman took a couple of pictures of us. Courtney had a couple glasses of champagne to celebrate our anniversary and the girls got a kick out of kidding her: “are you drunk, Mom?” Yes, yes she pretty much was.

We would, however -- stairs and all -- encourage anyone who, like us, put off the UK thing as “too much like the U.S.” to come see this great place of friendly folk, castles and history. Can’t be missed!