Thursday, July 3, 2008

David, Addie and I headed out for breakfast and to walk over to the Gardens on the other side of the hill. They used to be the Nor Loch until it was drained. That’s pretty much a lake that they dumped all their refuse and garbage – yuk! But it makes for some beautiful gardens now! David took Addie for a nap and I met Mom and Dad at John Knox’s house where he lived the last years of his life. Interesting history panels and amazingly old copies of famous and important books and Bibles, like Knox’ books and Calvin’s Institutes. David and Addie met us for lunch at a pub – I got the Plowman’s Lunch which was a sampler with cheese, a cold meat pie, salad, apple, and chutney. Interesting. Most of the time people got fish and chips. Addie got very used to eating chips all the time! Dad and David went to renew their whiskey tickets with Scotty, and Mom and I shopped around for t-shirts and other souvenirs. David and Dad took Addie back for another nap in the late afternoon/early evening. I was interested in going to The Real Mary King’s Close, an underground tour of the close/abbey from 15th-17th century. Mom and Dad stayed with Addie and David and I went. Nice to go do something fun together. The tour started at 7:30 I think and would take about an hour. It was interesting learning how they lived – richer people up on the top floors away from the smells from the streets. The poor people lived way below, with earth floors, a huge family in one room, no windows, etc. They had a room where they kept cattle and would slaughter them and let the blood drain for blood pudding, now called black pudding. Then to the room where the family had the plague. They had ‘fake people’ and you could see the boils on their underarms and the doctor who wore all leather and a bird beak filled with herbs to keep the pestilence away. The tour guide was really good because I was not feeling well hearing all of this, and being in a small hot room with so many people. I took my sweater off and told David I wasn’t feeling well – I felt like I did before fainting in the ICU visiting Mrs. Tesla and on the airplane. I was looking around for a place to sit or get out but the lady was in her speech and didn’t want to make a scene and was hoping it would pass, but it didn’t. I fainted, but David held me and then they took me to another room and someone upstairs came down to get me. Fresh water was nice and we sat and read about the other rooms. Hated to not see the rest, esp. after paying so much for the tickets and finally getting to go do something together! We met Mom and Dad and Addie for dinner, at the Outsiders where we went the first night. Our last night with Mom and Dad! Addie was really cute towards the waitress. Needless to say David and I stayed in that night and Mom and Dad went out.