Now I'm in Edinburgh

After essentially no sleep in my once again overheated Helsinki hotel room, I got up at 5:30 a.m. to begin the process of traveling to Edinburgh.  Many hours later, I arrived to weather that felt like it was competing in the Scottish Stereotypes Olympics.

Click an image to see a larger version.

The good news is that it's actually on the cool side here, so I'm quite enjoying walking around in a t-shirt.

After settling into my new hotel, where the AC works and my room is delightfully cool, I set out to explore a bit.  My hotel is just around the corner and down a bit from the Royal Mile, so off to it I went.

The crowds were amazing, people everywhere, small acts from the Fringe still lining the streets and fighting for attention.

I stopped at the St. Giles Cathedral, which was huge and lovely.

In addition to a great many interesting Gothic features, St. Giles houses some lovely stained glass pieces by Edward Burne-Jones.  I couldn't get a great shot with my phone, so you'll have to trust me that this window, for example, was amazingly beautiful in the light of the closing day.

I did mention that the cathedral was huge and lovely.

To get a sense of how crowded the street was, check out this view from near (but not in) the castle at the top of the road.

Coming back to the hotel, I got this shot of the rear of The Scott Monument.

Up close, the monument was too big for me to be able to capture all of it, but I quite liked it.

From a distance, it resembles an alien spaceship ready to soar.

For dinner, I took a risk and went to BubbaQ, a local barbecue place.  Two of us shared a platter of all of their meats.

The food was fine, decent but not a patch on the quality of the better barbecue joints back home, not to mention those in Austin.

Facing the water on the walk back from dinner, I found I loved the night sky.

Tomorrow, I will explore more of the city!