Great Britain 2024 - Part Seven - Edinburgh, Scotland

Day Fifteen - 26 September

It was raining when our friends dropped us off at the Berwick-upon-Tweed train station.  We walked in about five minutes to eight and were on a train to Edinburgh by 8:00am.  Just over thirty minutes later we were in Edinburgh.  The hotel was not far from the train station but, for those not familiar, Edinburgh is a multilevel city.  The train station was on the lower level and the hotel on the Royal Mile was on the upper.  Google maps was ... confused.  We walked around in the rain looking for the stairs up to the upper level.  I eventually found a long staircase that took us up - it was not the right one.  It got us up but it was not the nearest to our hotel.  I eventually got my bearings and we reached our hotel.  My roundabout way of getting to our hotel added a couple blocks to our wet walk.

The Holyroodhouse.

We decided to walk to the Holyroodhouse, the royal residences when the royal family visit Edinburgh.  The walk wasn't long and mostly downhill but it was raining and windy and the short distance felt much longer.  We got an audio guide and walked through the opulent home and the attached Abbey while we learned about Mary Queen of Scots.  On the way back we took an Uber to avoid the rain and the uphill.

The Uber dropped us off at the Malt Shovel Inn where we were going to have lunch.  It wasn't open yet so we explored Cockburn street with it's restaurants and shops.  We bought some souvenirs and sweatshirts (as the weather was a bit colder in Edinburgh than my clothes selection could handle).  We returned to the Malt Shovel and had lunch.  This is where the Wife started her haggis tour.  She would have haggis nearly every meal, in one form or another, for the rest of our stay in Scotland.

We spent the rest of the day staying out of the rain venturing out only for food.

Day Sixteen - 27 September

Dean Village.

After breakfast we headed out to meet up with our walking tour guide.  The rain had stopped and today would be perfect for a six to seven hour walking tour.  The tour took us past the Sir Walter Scott monument, Dean Village (an old style neighborhood), a restored Georgian-style home, the home of the Scottish First Minister, a park with memorials and views of Edinburgh Castle, the Royal Scottish Academy gallery, and broke for lunch on Cockburn Street.  We ate at a pub before we rejoined our walking tour group.

Edinburgh Castle.

After lunch we walked through a close (a narrow ally/stairway) to the Royal Mile.  We visited Saint Giles Cathedral (we learned about the history of Edinburgh and the Scottish/English conflicts), Greyfriars Cemetery (we learned about Bobby and grave robbing), our guide touched on the Harry Potter connections to Edinburgh, we visited the Grassmarket and Victoria street, and entered Edinburgh Castle.  Our guide took us around the castle before saying goodbye and letting us spend our own time exploring the castle grounds, enjoying the views, and visiting the Scottish crown jewels.

It was a very busy day full of history.

Day Seventeen - 28 September

Our last day in Edinburgh was light activity-wise.  We had an Underground Vaults tour in the morning.  It was a late addition as most of these tours had a ghost tour angle that we really didn't care for but we had the time so ...  The tour wasn't that bad.  The vaults were originally used for restaurant/pub storage.  They eventually were occupied by the poor, workers, or students.  There were ghost stories naturally but, in general, the tour was interesting.

View of the city from Edinburgh Castle.

In the afternoon we went to Saint Mary's Cathedral. The Wife purchased a large icon that she thought would fit in her bag (it didn't) and would have to carry the rest of the way.

We stopped for lunch at the Conan Doyle Pub close to Sir Conan Doyle's birthplace.

I liked Edinburgh.  There was a lot of history and the multilevel nature of the city gave it interest.  It was odd crossing a bridge and looking down to see another house lined street running underneath.  We spent three days there but you could spend a week or more exploring this interesting city.

Next ... on to Glasgow.

Pictures can be found in my 2024-09 Great Britain Google Photos album.