A walk around town

I'm doing a giveaway this week! Comment here and on yesterday's post for an entry.
More info here.

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A week and a half ago J and I went on a Saturday walk. Well last weekend, armed with the "24 great walks in Edinburgh" book we went walking around town again.

Saturday we went on walk #10.

It started off at the Greyfriars Bobby statue.
The story is when Bobby's master passed away he accompanied the funeral procession, and then keept a 14-year vigil at the graveside.


So the dog now has a statue, and is in just about every tourist booklet about Edinburgh.

Then we went into Greyfriars Kirk, where Bobby's master, among other people, is buried. It's an old graveyard and many of gravestones were from the 1700s, not to mention pretty creepy.

It was thankfully a warm day, and not only did I walk around without my coat (gasp) but I also had sunglasses on (woot). And we took a photo to commemorate the occasion.



On Sunday we took walk #2, which went along the Royal Mile (called that because the palace is located at one end).


In 1861 a building suddenly collapsed. As rescuers were searching the ruble they heard a faint voice say "Heave awa lads, I'm not dead yet". The boy was saved, and the building now holds a carving of him and his words.

The next picture is an old wellhead (though I think it's been fixed extensively), where the people used draw water. Since it was so important to daily life people also used this as a meeting point.

Behind the wellhead is one of the oldest buildings in Edinburgh, part of it is from the 16th century. It's believed that it's survived this long because it was (possibly) John Knox's house.

We didn't get to see a the reproduction of a 17th century gardens because hooligans were hanging out there, but we did see this plaque saying that the garden was sponsored by the mushroom society.


Here is a clock that I particularly like.

And from another angle, not too long after (notice the change in the sky color).


And, just out of pure luck, at the end of our walk we ran (haha) into the Edinburgh marathon (these were the stragglers).


And then it was off for a Full Breakfast (essentially an English Breakfast, but we're in Scotland), and then back home for a rest.

Blogiversary Giveaway!!

I've never hosted a giveaway here before, but this month marks my 5 year blogiversary!!

So of course I had to.

I'm giving away:

1. A skein of hand-dyed Belle Epoque yarn which I bought specifically for the giveaway from my Local Yarn Store (yay LYSs!). It was hand-dyed in Scotland and made of wool from Shetland sheep.


2. A hedgehog much like this little guy from my etsy shop.

To enter leave a comment on any of the posts I make starting with today's and ending with next Monday's. Only one comment per day please, however for more entries you may comment on multiple days this week.

The giveaway will run until Tuesday, June 1st at 9:00 am BST (British Summer Time). Shortly thereafter I'll draw two winners -- one for the yarn and one for hedgehog. If you have a preference, please state 1 or 2.

I'll contact the winners via their blog, or email. So if you do not link to your blog, please include your email in the comment.