2019 trip to England and Scotland

On a recent trip (on my birthday 2019), to Edinburgh, Scotland and visit to the castle where this photo was taken, shows Robert ‘the Bruce’ being crowned first king of Scotland. The city was very old and had lots of history. It was at a much smaller scale than what I will see in a few days in London.
You can clearly see Arthur’s seat (also a view from our room window). We also climbed near the top.
Jenny and I both celebrated our birthdays at dinner that night. I tried haggis for the first time and enjoyed it. We also had oysters, liver pâte, drinks, and many other wonderful things.
We found the people wonderful (including the cab drivers), the food excellent, and the sights extraordinary. It also allowed me to check off another country that I visited. I will say that we found it very cold, and it did rain on us that first night.
Our next stop is London was our fifth train that we rode on since arriving in England. We arrived at the station and only had a short walk to our hotel.
Which was the right across from King Cross square and two train station. Other than that, I will not rate it very high except for its view.
And was across from the train station that Harry Potter left from and his famous 9 ¾ track which I did see.
The only sunny day (maybe it was only an hour or two) that we saw in London happened at the Tower of London (which was more of a castle). I had the best hot cocoa here.
So, what was the first thing we did? Yes, go inside to see the Crown Jewels. Now, that was all that Thu wanted to see, but just saying we could have also done that when it was raining.
The Tower of London, officially Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London (to my surprise was not a tower), is a historic castle located on the north bank of the river Thames in central London. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, which is separated from the eastern edge of the square mile of the City of London by the open space known as Tower Hill. It was founded towards the end of 1066 as part of the Norman Conquest of England. The White Tower, which gives the entire castle its name, was built by William the Conqueror in 1078 and was a resented symbol of oppression, inflicted upon London by the new ruling elite. The castle was used as a prison from 1100 until 1952, although that was not its primary purpose. A grand palace early in its history, it served as a royal residence. As a whole, the Tower is a complex of several buildings set within two concentric rings of defensive walls and a moat. There were several phases of expansion, mainly under kings Richard I, Henry III, and Edward I in the 12th and 13th centuries. The general layout established by the late 13th century remains despite later activity on the site.
It looked like we would not see the rain let up, so when we got to Buckingham Palace it was still raining lightly. But the queen was in based on the flag flying. It would have been much more impressive if it were a nice sunny day, but then this was England in November. The next day we will leave from the London St. Pancras International Train Station to travel on the Eurostar to Paris Gare du Nord Training Station.
The Eurostar travels at speeds of 186 mph on land and 100 mph in the Chunnel thanks to high-speed railway line High Speed 1, first implemented on November 14, 2003. In September 2007, the record times traveled from Paris to St. Pancras was set with 2 hours 3 minutes and 39 seconds. But that does not tell the whole story. The ride was amazingly comfortable (smooth), and the food was good. Especially the ride back from Paris. The meal included wine which we tried several of the bottles offered. For Thu this was the reason we were going to Paris, but for me it would be my first time.
I had to say that I was overly impressed with the Eifel Tower, it was everything that I expected and more. It was huge and the view around Paris was breathtaking. It highlights the city, and the city surrounds the tower. It is hard to see from this photo, but it was also undergoing repairs.
I included several photos here, but they do not do it justice. If there is just one thing that you do in Paris, it is that you go to the top (just for the view). I will say that making reservation ahead of time is what you should do (not what I did) because even in the off season there is a large demand for going to the top. It is 324 meters tall (including antennas) and weighs 10,100 tones.
Today the tower welcomes almost 7 million people a year, making it the most visited paid-for monument in the world (just a few less on the day I was there). The height of the Eiffel Tower varies by 5.9 inches (15 cm) due to temperature changes. I of course was there on one of its short days (it was very cold). 300 workers, 18038 pieces of wrought iron and 2.5 million rivets were needed to build the Eiffel Tower.