A Trip to Scotland

Monday, June 27th was travel day.  We started to morning by getting on a train in Hemel that took us into London Euston Station.  Then we went down to the Underground to take a train to Kings Cross Station.  There we got on the train that went up to Edinburgh, Scotland about a 4 hour trip.  The countryside was beautiful dark green with some flat farm land of wheat, potatoes, cows, and sheep with various small towns along the way or rolling green hills with trees in clumps here and there.  The train had four stops before arriving in Edinburgh; York, Darlington, Newcastle, and Berwick-Upon-Tweed (my all time favorite name). The Tweed is a river that meanders through the town of Berwick.  After New Castle we started getting views of the North Sea.  The train goes very near the east coast and Edinburgh is a coastal city.  It was amazing to think that I was looking at the North Sea.  The Sea connects with a river that meanders through Edinburgh called the Firth of Forth.  The train goes over a viaduct above the Firth of Forth before it enters the town and all you see is the water and many trees, it's beautiful.  
Arriving in Edinburgh:
When we got off the train I was immediately overwhelmed by the large train station, the people going everywhere and not knowing where we were to go to find a taxi.  We got that sorted out fairly quickly but figuring out where the queue was for the taxi seemed to be a bit confusing to some people trying to get one.  Finally we got our turn and were off to the hotel only to find out that we could have walked for maybe 10 minutes and gotten there on our own, which we did after that.
When you first see the town it is overwhelming because you have just stepped into Medieval Times.  All of the structures are very gothic but still in use and lived in.  The streets are cobble streets with  modern day vehicles driving on them.
A brief history:

Edinburgh is the capital of Scotland and spreads over 7 hills.  When you walk through the town you are either going up the road or down the road.  Unless you are down by the train station it is not flat. The old town, which covers a few blocks in all directions, is centered around a main road called the Royal Mile.  At one end of the Royal Mile is the Edinburgh Castle and at the other end is the Holyroodhouse which is the Royal Residence of the Royal Family.  Queen Elizabeth is the queen of England and Scotland.  Although Scotland now has its own Parliament.  While we were there the Queen actually came to town to perform some formal presentations to the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders Regimen and open Parliament.  Hilary and I thought it would have been lovely to dine with the Queen on Thursday evening as we tried to figure out where we should eat but we hadn't been invited.