London to Edinburgh - Day 9 - Hogwarts Express

This morning we took a taxi to King's Cross Station and found our way to platform 9 3/4 where we boarded the Hogwarts Express. 

Okay, not exactly but we have arrived in the land of Harry Potter - Edinburgh, Scotland. Much of the writing of the Harry Potter series was done while J.K. Rowling lived in Edinburgh, and we can already see the inspiration all around us. It's a magical place. 

The train ride was uneventful.  It took 4 hours and 20 minutes to get here from London. We saw lots of sheep. Most of England looked pretty similar to upstate New York but once we rode into Scotland, the landscapes became stunning. We were traveling right along the North Sea and the views were spectacular. 

Once we arrived and checked into our room, we unpacked and then had to hang out for a little bit until 5:00. Why, you ask?  Because my husband has an addiction. An addiction called Styx. I even named my blog after a Styx song to make him smile. Tickets to see Styx in Niagara Falls went on sale at 5:00 so we had to stick around to order them right away and get the best seats. We got tickets for both the Friday and Saturday night shows, which made Mark happy. I tease him about his obsession but I do like Styx, too. 

After getting our Styx tickets, it was apparently happy hour for Mark because immediately upon leaving the hotel we discovered a record fair. He found a bunch of cool Marillion picture discs. Marillion is music obsession number two.  Yay for Mark!

We then walked around a bit, down Princes Street and then around to the Royal Mile. It's festival season in Edinburgh (more to come about this) and there are people everywhere. There were lots of fun buskers around singing, juggling, doing comedy acts, etc. 

We found a little Portuguese restaurant for dinner. Mark had the peri-peri chicken, and I had the bacalhau. The food was pretty good. 

We ended our night out with a stroll past Edinburgh Castle and back to our hotel. We're sitting in the beautiful lobby making plans for the next few days of fun. 

Pigeon can't wait to see the castle!

Postscript from Pigeon (once again translated by Mark):  I need to thank all of you.  It's pretty clear someone did something...she hasn't eaten any of my relatives today!  In fact, it seemed that seeing all of those sheep made her want to have lamb.  So, I think I'm safe for now.  I realise that I need to still stay close to this guy that's traveling with us.  Seems to like Styx a lot.  I'm learning all of the lyrics.  Domo Arigato!