Still Directionally Challenged

Inside the Time Travel Machine

I activated my Edinburgh Pass on Friday and prepared to do some walking and some tours.  Not so much walking as I ended up doing, but I got where I was going eventually.  It would have been quite nice if it hadn’t been for the weather.  Rainy, windy and not any too warm, so I wore a sweat shirt, my fleecy and my wrap.  Overall, it wasn’t too bad, except for my hands.  Had I decided to warm them on someone else during the underground vaults tour, they would be certain that a ghost came through and touched them.  But, that’s a different part of the story.

Off I set to the Dynamic Earth building.  I’m not sure what I expected and initially I was a little disappointed, but in the end it was great.  I didn’t stay for the show afterwards, but the rest of it was very well done, so I’m sure it would have well worth watching.  I was taken back in time, rattled by earthquakes and explored in the Challenger aircraft.  The flight is 3D and incredible.  There were more than a couple of times I was sure I could reach out and touch a shark or a dinosaur; they were that close and realistic.

South Bridge Vault

Having completed the tour, I turned to my map.  Bad plan.  I probably would have been far better off without looking.  In any case, after wandering all over the city and seeing a few parts of it I could have quite willingly have done without, I finally found my second stop.   The Underground Vaults tour.  I had a little time to kill, so went through some of the shops and grabbed a sandwich until it was time.

The tour was very good and our guide, Kimberley, even more so.  A little bit of a thing with a powerful voice, she took on her part wholeheartedly.  The vaults were built under the South Bridge and after being closed up in the mid-1800s, they were completely forgotten until re-discovered by accident.  Initially meant to be storage for the merchants, the damp and wet destroyed much of their stock, so the vaults were left to the homeless and the criminals.  The chambers are said to be haunted.  I can’t answer to that, but I know that something tugged at the sleeve of my fleecy.  When I turned, no one was there.