the Real Mary King's Close Tour

We went on this tour last night, which was a lot of fun. It's the old underground of Edinburgh.  People used to live in a lot more confined spaces than they do today and were stacked upon each other.  Edinburgh is very hilly and the tour is mostly underground the city today, but was not such back in the day.  Here is a link to the tour.  http://www.realmarykingsclose.com/

We met at the pub first for some pints and chow.  It was called the Filling Station.  We are in there waving, but it's hard to see: 

We had to have a group photo prior to the tour.  These are all vet students (i think)....

The Plague hit Edinburgh hard and the doctors used to wear these masks because they thought it might be transmitted by smell, so they put sweet smelling herbs inside the masks.  It's also where they coined the term 'Quack' for a doctor (that may or may not be true :-))

Unfortunately, no cameras were allowed down in the dungeons, but they did take a group picture of us.  One of the students bought it, but when it was printed out, it didn't look so good.  They told her to come back with just our group and they'd take another one.  We were back at the pub and only 5 of us were left, so we got this spooky pic.  This would have been the street at that time. It was very narrow and really steep.  It was also where everyone threw their waste out into twice a day and it flowed down to the water.

This is a diorama of the close.  They ended up building the city council building on top of a good portion of it, which is portrayed in the last picture.

It was a full moon last night, which made everything that much spookier.  The moon over St. Giles church was really cool.  Too bad the picture didn't come out better, but still pretty neat.

A few more pints after the tour and it was time to call it a night.  And a fun night it was.

I can't believe it's the beginning of another week. I had a good day today. Went to Mass, played soccer with the BB, gave BB a bath, took a nap, studied some and now.........I'm going to go get ready to go see a high school friend!!!  She is in town with her family and I can't wait to see her.  Waiting for them to call and give me the 4-1-1, but it will be a pub somewhere near where I was last night. 

In other news, I cannot believe it, but I have a sore throat starting again.  I just cannot seem to stay healthy.  It's not just me though, everyone is getting sick and either not getting better or feeling good for a little bit then it starts all over.  I also am getting a bit of a fever blister, so not too happy about it right now.  At least I still feel good enough to go out.  Tomorrow may be a different story.

I have a fairly tough week coming up with lots of practicals and some pretty tough lectures.  I will need to make sure I get enough rest.

Till next time...

Over-N-Out