Day 146, 27 November 2012, Chelmsford to Edinburgh (via Easyjet!), All important collection of Edinburgh Passes at airport, Edinburgh Zoo (Pandas!), Edinburgh Dungeon, Auld Reekie Niddry's Wynd Southbridge Vaults tour.
We crept out of the house at 5.30 am in order to get to Stansted Airport far too early for our flight (and we made it with loads of time to spare!) EasyJet was a pleasant surprise and we arrived in Edinburgh 10 minutes early. As you can tell by now, we're addicted to buying City Passes, and we had pre-ordered Edinburgh Passes online and even got 15% off. First stop therefore was collecting the passes, then on to the brilliant Airlink bus into town (covered by the passes!). We jumped off early and went to Edinburgh Zoo for no other reason than their Giant Pandas - a breeding pair called Tian Tian and Yang Guang. We ended up seeing Tian Tian only as Mr Panda was not out of bed due to renovations going on next door - he was sequestered in his lodgings listening to classical music. Apparently he's the more nervous of the pair because he is an earthquake survivor from China and gets easily rattled by loud noises. Though it was a gorgeous fine morning, it was definitely cold and many animals were noticeable by their absence - we did however have a whale of a time visiting the rhinos (caught them in their hot tub warming up), the Meercats (can't get enough of those little critters) and saw otters for the first time too. Back in Sydney there are grubby white birds with long beaks who spend all their time "guarding" rubbish skips and bins. They are called Ibises - here we saw the most gorgeous Scarlet Ibises. We zoomed into town on the next bus and one of the first sights we saw was our busking piper above - really felt like were in Scotland. We tripped over a free lunch on Castle Street - the Sheraton's restaurant had set up a furnished marquee and was serving food from their restaurant's menu to encourage people to visit the hotel. And a lovely free lunch was had by us both. We continued on and checked into the Edinburgh Central Guest House, just off Princes Street - brilliant! Were upgraded to a family room with incredibly high ceilings and massive windows. The Guest House is in Edinburgh's "New Town" - that was built in the late 1700s. Obviously much much later than Edinburgh's historic Old Town! The gracious Georgian buildings, wide streets and leafy parks were a pleasure to stroll through on the way to the hotel. We decided to hit the big ticket items on the pass first and went to the Edinburgh Dungeon for scaring purposes. And we were - jumping every few seconds. They based their scary scenarios on real life crimes - the serial murderers Burke and Hare, the cannabalistic family of Sawney Bean and a torture chamber - Scots style. The "ride" at the end of the experience was a simulated hanging - I kid you not - they pull you up a few metres in a chair device and then let you go - instant face lift! Next stop was a tour of the seriously haunted South Bridge vaults with the Auld Reekie company (Auld Reekie being the name Edinburgh went by when it was younger - being overly full with people and animals, 1000s of chimney pots belching out smoke and no plumbing at all, the streets full of 'nastiness'). Our black caped guide led us down Niddry's Wynd and through an old building and into the vaults behind. The Southbridge originally had 19 arches and looked just like a bridge - now there is only one arch left visible over the Cowgate and the rest were covered in 100s of years ago to create storage vaults. The Council was involved (seems they are the same the world over) and nobody specified the bridge to be waterproofed. Now Edinburgh's not known for the fine weather we experienced so of course the rain water simply drained into the vaults and storage was not practical - so they were emptied out for a while, then the homeless (which was a crime) moved in just to get a roof over their heads. The dark, the damp, the lack of fresh air and the criminal element made the vaults a pretty dire place to live - but better than getting flogged for homelessness. Burke and Hare (known as body snatchers but actually serial killers), sourced some of their victims from the vaults and once neatly suffocated would sell the bodies to Dr Knox so he could have fresh cadavers to dissect for his medical students. The irony is, once caught after at least 17 such murders, William Hare walked free after providing evidence and William Burke was hung.... and only hung murderers bodies could legally be used for dissection - and he was. There are items made from his skin in various sites around town and we decided we might have to have a look later in the week. That was a much longer aside than planned, but the stories of Burke & Hare permeate much of Edinburgh's history. The vaults themselves, rediscovered in the 1980s, excavated and opened to the public via tour only are spooky indeed. There are many stories of particular souls haunting the area and many photographs taken by tourists of unexplained orbs/veils and ghostly bright spots hanging over people. Fortunately we were not molested in any way and continued our evening safely with Grill Night at the Standing Order. (Two steak dinners and a bottle of Australian Red... what can we say - it was only £17 between us!) It seemed a very long time since we got up at 5.15 am so it was off to bed with groaning noises for as much sleep as possible.