Edinburgh (not for a grade)

Edinburgh is my favorite place I have been to yet.  This place is not only a beautiful, historic city; it is also the birthplace of Harry Potter. I had a hot chocolate in JK Rowling’s favorite café. This café is where she spent most of her time while she was writing Harry Potter.  It over looks a 400 year old cemetery. This cemetery is where she came up with the names for some of her characters.  One of the graves she picked a name off of was Thomas Riedel.  I touched Tom Riedel’s grave! Another piece of inspiration was a school just past the cemetery.  In this school the kids are split into 4 house and they compete for a house cup each year.  (Sound familiar??)  Even just walking through the streets you can see inspirations for the series all around you. 

Besides everything Harry Potter Edinburgh also has an amazing 10K hiking trail up to Author’s Seat.  At the top of the hike you get to see a stunning panoramic view of the city.  The local mythology is that this is where one of King Author’s castles once stood.  Archeologist, however, have never found any evidence of any castles standing on the top of this hill.

Edinburgh also has an amazing art gallery.  They have nearly 30,000 works of art and over 50,000 books, journals, and slides.  They have works from Vincent van Gogh, Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, and many others.  I have never been to an art museum with such famous artists.  We had to rush through the museum so we could catch our flight back to Ireland.  I could have stayed another week in Edinburgh and not ran out of things to do.