Day 20

We spent this day in Edinburgh. It's a gorgeous city with beautiful old buildings everywhere you look. We started off at Edinburgh Castle, which was old and beautiful, just like the castle we visited the day before. The best part of this castle was a well curated exhibit about the crown jewels of Scotland, which had been lost for hundreds of years. It ended with our own glimpse of the jewels.

We then visited the camera obscura, which was the highlight of my day. It's located at the top of an 8-story building and was built in the 1800s. It uses a small mirror to reflect an image of the city through three lenses on to a table in the center of a dark room. The mirror can be turned, offering 360-degree views of the city below. It was amazing! The rest of the museum was filled with all sorts of weird things: holograms, optical illusions, zoetropes, a mirror maze, and much more. It was a lot of fun and made us all feel like kids again.

After getting lunch, we walked to a cozy used book store. We spent a little while browsing and I bought an old copy of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne. My parents went off to do some touristy things, so Kevin and I went into a few little shops before making our way to Elephant House. It's the busy coffee shop where J. K. Rowling wrote the first Harry Potter book. Kevin and I got coffee and a snack, then sat down to read our books. The shop was packed with Harry Potter fans and people were constantly taking pictures. My favorite part was the bathroom. Harry Potter lovers had scribbled comments all over the walls. One person wrote on the toilet seat, "JK's toilet! She once sat here!" and another fan wrote in response, "OMG!!!" Overall, I really enjoyed Edinburgh and would love the chance to spend some more time there!