The Elephant House

This was a fun little place to eat lunch. The Elephant House is one of the cafes J K Rowling used to frequent when she was writing her first Harry Potter novels. After eating there I can vouch for the food which is probably one of the reasons she went there.

I'm sure another reason she went there was for inspiration. You can't see it in the picture but from our table (and almost any table in the cafe) we could see Edinburgh Castle just out that window. The castle was built on the top of a dead volcano and has cliffs on all but one side of the castle. I could almost imagine Harry Potter flying over the castle wall, down the cliff and over to the cafe.

This isn't the most flattering picture but see that door behind me? That's the women's bathroom and next to it is a series of pictures of J K Rowling sitting inside the cafe. Next to that are some news articles about her and The Elephant House.

Funny thing about that bathroom. It looks so plain on the outside. I went in to use it and there was a door off to the right. On the door a paper that read, "Out of order" which someone had crossed out "Out of" and written in "of the Phoenix" so the sign read "Order of the Phoenix". That made me laugh. Then I went in through the door that actually had a working toilet in it and I began to cry. ALL the walls were covered in messages to JK Rowling and messages about Harry Potter. Here are some samples:

Kreacher cleans this bathroom.

Dumbldore's Army (with a list of almost 200 names of individuals who have signed their name to the list)

J K Rowling, thank you for making my childhood amazing!

I wonder if she appreciates how many lives she has touched by writing those books. She certainly touched mine. Everywhere I looked on this trip I wondered if these things I saw influenced her writing.

I asked Chris if there was any writing on the wall in the men's bathroom and he said he didn't notice because usually you don't want to read what's on the wall in the men's room!