The day started with a tour of The Real Mary King’s close. We weren’t allowed to take pictures during the tour. We learned that the close is now underground because The Royal Exchange wanted to build a new building and no longer wanted the Close so they knocked down about 4 or 5 of the 7 stories of the close and built the new government building on top of it. The close is basically built into the foundation of the government building. Most all of the close is still intact and parts of it have metal jacks in place to hold up the original ceiling. Mary King was a prominent business woman in the 1630’s. Most of the residents eventually ended up dying from the plague and their possessions were burned.
After visiting the Close we walked up to the Castle. I think mom believes I’m trying to get rid of her with all the walking. LOL….I’m not and my feet hurt just as bad as hers did when we were finished.
We went through most all of the castle. She wasn’t interested in seeing the dungeon so we skipped that this time. I’ve seen it so it was no it deal for me. We did see the Crown Jewels though we weren’t allowed to take pictures. I did learn that the crown weighs 3lbs, the septet also weighs 3lbs and the sword weighs 6 lbs.
We walked through the Royal apartments next. We were allowed pictures here just not with flash in all the rooms.
Also got to see the Great Hall. I rather enjoyed the Great Hall. The walls were lined with weapons of all kinds, there was a claymore on display and they had keys for the Monarchs that ruled. And per the usual you could almost stand in the fireplace.
Our feet gave out about 5pm so we headed out of the castle and started back down the Royal Mile and back to the train.
Of course along the way we had to stop in to a couple of shops and mom cleaned up. She bought herself 2 wraps and a scarf. I ended up with a sweater.
We got back to the hotel and had us some dinner. Now bear with me because I’ve never been good about taking pictures of my food but I’ll get better. I had an open chicken pot pie and holy cow was it good. So far we haven’t had a bad meal here at the hotel.