Edinburgh

This old church was converted to a hostel. This is where we spent our first days here in Edinburgh as we looked for a flat. The dormitories were nice--almost like cubicles, open on the top. I guess they had to be, the ceiling was very high. We could see the stained glass windows as we lay in bed. Of course the downside was that we could hear everything going on in the other rooms. Luckily most of the time everyone was quiet. There was a large kitchen/common room in the basement that people socialized in. We met a lot of people from around the world. One of our roommates was from China. Surprisingly he met the elders on the street and we saw him the first Sunday at church! He is now taking the discussions and we have been helping. He is very smart and also at the University with Mark, but on a different campus.

Here we are at the front door of the hostel.

This is Edinburgh castle on the rock. Along with the many buildings is the oldest complete building in Edinburgh dating from the 1100s. The castle is used today for tours and the military. They say the Scottish have had some buildings/defense up on the rock since it became the rock (it was formed from a volcano which, now inactive, sits under the castle).

This is a view down one of the streets (not even in the old part of town). Most every building is built of stone and most are very very old.

Just another street view.