We got some advice from a couple along the way to see 4 things in Edinburgh: the Castle, the New Museum, Holy Rood, and the Distillery Museum. We saw the first 3 and skipped the Distillery Museum (hey, we visited a distillery in the Highlands instead.) Their advice was stellar: we both liked all 3 places, so the Distillery Museum is probably great as well.
After paying the entrance fee, a tour guide show us around the castle. This was the way it worked at the Tower of London as well. Both times we had very knowledgable, entertaining, and interesting guides - they really make the places seem alive.
The castle covers a fairly large area with many towers, walls, buildings, and even a chapel. Here's a picture of the tallest tower in the castle.
The view from the cannon port is quite striking. I'm not quite sure if the cannon were for defense from invaders or from rebels.
Inside the castle grounds is the Scottish War Memorial. They have recorded both the names of all those who've perished in the wars, by regiment, and the regiment's battles.
They decorated one great room with articles of war in a way I'd never seen before. It reminds me of a line from Robocop: "Guns, guns, everywhere guns!" but you'd have to add "Pikes, pikes, everywhere pikes!"
Two symbols of Edinburgh were found on the High Street outside the castle - a piper and a cross.
I was mostly taken with the early industrial revolution exhibits. Being a computer guy, I thought the loom display was quite interesting. Punched cards controlled the needles that made the patterns in the cloth.
The results were quite good...
The reason why I liked the loom so much as a computer guy is that the idea of using punched cards to drive machines was used in early digital computers.
They also had a locomotive on display that they let kids drive!
Oh, they don't let the kids drive the real locomotive...
Maybe one of the reasons why my brother and I liked Scotland so much is that the Scots share with the Americans a common desire of at least some independence from England. They even wrote their ancient declaration of independence on the walls of the new museum...
By the palace, the ruins of an abbey can be found. This abbey was not destroyed during the Reformation as many were. The roof of the abbey was to be made of stone. It was too heavy and the whole thing collapsed upon itself.
The gardens are also quite extensive and beautiful. We were there in early October, so there weren't many flowers, etc. but they had a very interesting statue. I'm not quite sure what it's meant to be, though.
