Edinburgh: Day 3

Today we visited New Town Edinburgh which was built below the hill of Old Town and the castle in 1776 in order to sell the idea to English that Scotland was an integral part of the United Kingdom. This elegantly planned out area has streets named after the British Royalty and the national flowers of England and Scotland.

We took a stroll through Dean Village a quaint little neighborhood on the outskirts of New Town, one of the oldest areas in Edinburgh. The village was built to support the milling industry on Water of Leith at the time when Edinburgh city was still contained within the castle walls.

We even stumbled upon a small park with three of the old mill stones displayed.

We then walked back toward the center of New Town to visit the National Gallery of Scotland. On the way we got an exceptional view of Edinburgh castle from below.

While the National Gallery was nowhere near the size of the National Museum, it was still displays a sizable collection. I was especially excited to see a few of Degas' ballerinas since I just gave a talk on the subject a few weeks ago.

We left the National Gallery and headed into the shopping district across the street in search of lunch. We found a little pub and I ordered fish and chips for the first time since we've been in the UK. I even got Russ to try a bit despite his distaste for all seafood. He was not a big fan.

We were both fans of the strawberry lime cider Russ ordered though. It was so good! 

Next to the pub was a bakery selling French macarons. As many of you know, I love French macarons just about as much as I love tea, so we had to get some.

 The salted caramel was the best.

We walked around the shopping district and found a few cute boutiques to to go into. The pedestrian area on Rose St. was very cute with its flags and cobblestone.

After a bit of shopping we walked up Calton Hill, one of the oldest public parks in the UK. The park holds the national monument and an observatory, and offers an amazing view of the Edinburgh skyline.