Edinburgh

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Edinburgh

July 7

Waverly Station, Grassmarket

Our final morning with the Backroads hiking group included an elegant breakfast at the posh Eriska Hotel in Benderloch.  After breakfast I went for a swim in the hotel pool until the Backroads trip leaders shuttled us to the Scotrail train station in Oban, about a half hour away where we had tickets to Edinburgh. Our pals John, Ann, Charlie, and Luise were also headed to Edinburgh on the same train.  Oban is a vibrant small resort city on the bay, and what little we saw made us wish we had more time to visit there.  Maybe next time.

We had pre-purchased tickets to Edinburgh via Glasgow (purchased before we left home).  Our tickets were basically general admission, not reserved seating…and that turned out to be a rookie mistake.  The crowd awaiting to get on the train was huge, and there were only 4 train cars.  The conductor first admitted those with reserved seats, and there were a lot of them.  We  figured we weren’t going to get on, given that there appeared to be very few non-reserved seats remaining.

The next call was for people with connections needed to be made at Glasgow.  We noticed that they weren’t validating that anybody had a flight connection or a timed train connection.  So, after seeing this group dwindle down, and nobody who remained appeared desperate that they would miss a connection, we then said that we too had a connection in Glasgow (which was kind of true, though our connection was a train with no specific time schedule).  It worked, and we and our friends got on the 4:11 p.m. train.  Otherwise we would have had to wait 3 hours for the next train, which might have had the same situation.

We aggressively and creatively stowed our duffle bags in the already overflowing baggage vestibule and found seats. Our backpacks in our laps. It was so confusing that we didn’t see our friends again until that evening in downtown Edinburgh. Emilie and I somehow managed to get seats together. We had some nice scenery to take in from the train as well.

With a 12-minute layover connection in Glasgow we arrived in Edinburgh’s Waverly Station at about 8:00 p.m.  From here Emilie and I grabbed our gear and began the 15-minute walk to our hotel.  Our first glimpse of Edinburgh out of the train station was awe-inspiring.  We gasped at the immediate view of amazing historic architecture and a lively cityscape.  We hadn’t felt like giddy tourists in a long time.

With very heavy duffle bags (mine not on rollers…another rookie mistake) and back packs we somehow made it up and down hilly streets to our boutique hotel, the Grassmarket Hotel in the heart of Edinburgh’s Old Town section. The location of this hotel was perfect for walking everywhere…but not a quiet location…would definitely stay there again!

We checked in, looked at our tiny room just big enough for the full-size bed and our bags, and decided right then that we needed to splurge and get an additional room for our daughter Suzannah who was joining us in Edinburgh that night.  A second room was not available until the second and third nights, so we booked them for her with the front-desk person (though the front-desk was the size of a kiosk, really). He also helped us try to figure out how/where we could do laundry, but it was looking like slim pickings.

We headed out to meet up with our friends and wait for our daughter Suzannah’s arrival.  Our hotel was in the middle of the action in the Grassmarket area so we didn’t need to venture far to find restaurants and pubs.  In fact, the hotel was at the base of Victoria Street which was the influence for J.K. Rowling’s “Diagon Alley” in her Harry Potter books…lively, colorful, and full of character.

We headed about 100 yards to what is considered the oldest pub in Edinburgh, The White Hart Inn, established 1516.  We scored a table in the busy pub with our friends and ordered pub food for dinner and some drinks as we awaited Suzannah’s arrival.

After having some food and drink, Suzannah went to the hotel to get situated and ready for bed, having just arrived from a long day of travel from the U.S.  Emilie and I tooled around the area for a while.  We walked outside of the enormously imposing Edinburgh Castle, and visited the famed Elephant House café where J.K. Rowling did much of her Harry Potter writing, and we marveled at the magnificent old architecture all around us still intact.

A little further up the street we hit the famed Greyfriars Bobby statue where we chatted with a pair of siblings from Worcester, England…the sister city of Worcester, Massachusetts…our nearby home city.  Greyfriars Bobby was a 19th century Skye Terrier who became famous for spending 14 years guarding the grave of his owner until he died himself on 14 January 1872. Tourists rub the nose of the statue for luck…you can see the statue’s nose in the pic below…the nose has been rubbed so much that it is a shiny bronze compared to the rest the statue.

It was a nice 1-hour introduction to walking around the city, which we would be doing plenty of over the next two days.  The city was very busy with tourists, and busy as a true, vibrant world class city.  Back to the hotel for a very snug night with the three of us in a room that we swear was designed for one person with no luggage.  If the bathroom had an actual bathtub, one of us would have slept there for sure.

July 8

Holyrood Palace

We started our day with breakfast just around the corner at an excellent, quaint French café called La Barantine Victoria.  Service was slow, but the food was excellent, and there were vegan options for Suzannah.  Around us were people from all over the world.

Then, off to meet our friends Ann and Luise from our Scottish Highlands Backroads hiking group.  We met up at Holyrood Palace, about a ten minute walk from the hotel.  The 16-17^th century Holyrood Palace is the official residence of the British monarch while in Scotland.  The palace is open to the public all year except one week in the summer when the Queen visits.  This excursion was recommended to us by Ann who actually had studied law in Edinburgh years ago.

While here we toured the Queen’s Gallery, which exhibits pieces of the Royal Collection, one of the largest art collections in the world.  Basically, it’s art collected by kings and queens over the past 500 years.  This was interesting, but it only takes about an hour to see what is on display.  Better, was the self-guided audio tour of the Palace, including the 16th-century Historic Apartments of Mary, Queen of Scots and the State Apartments, used for official and state entertaining.  The rooms, tapestries, paintings, woodwork, furniture, etc. are just so big, opulent, and yet very classy.  We toured the room where Queen Mary’s Italian suitor David Rizzo was stabbed only 57 times, and yet somehow died as a result. Lots of rooms to tour, and amazing history.  This is highly recommended to get a flavor for true royalty and all its history.

The highlight of visiting Holyrood Palace for us was tooling around the ruins of the 12^th century Augustinian Holyrood Abbey.  This is basically outside, they are ruins after all.  The pictures tell so much more than words can say.

Arthur’s Seat

From the ruins and the grounds of the Palace we could see high above us in the near distance our next stop…Arthur’s Seat.  But before that, we had lunch in the courtyard of Holyrood Palace. We left Ann and Luise after our lunch and headed to hike up Arthur’s Seat, the 800’ tallest peak of the volcanic hills surrounding Edinburgh. We could actually see tiny people atop the peak in the distance from where we stood.

It was about a 10 minute walk to the base of one of the main walking trails leading to Arthur’s seat summit.  There were hundreds of people, but plenty of room on the trail, so it never felt crowded.  But it did have a pilgrimage feel to it.  We figured that the trail we took was perhaps the most popular. An ice cream truck at the trailhead is usually a giveaway. The trail was well maintained, but it was a daunting steady and gradual climb upward. We were very glad to have had water with us.  It took us about 45 minutes to reach the craggy summit which provided truly amazing panoramic views of Edinburgh and the North Sea.  We hung out at the top for about 15 minutes taking it all in with all the other tourists who didn’t suffer heart attacks getting there.

We treated ourselves to ice cream cones from the ice cream truck upon returning to the bottom…well deserved!

Royal Mile

Next, we headed to officially walk the famous Royal Mile of Edinburgh (we had hit some of it the night before).  But just on the other side of the Palace of Holyrood we passed the Scottish Parliament building.  Parliament was not in session but we were allowed to tour the building, so we did.  The most interesting thing about the Parliament building is it being a very modern structure, which is in contrast to everything else you see in Edinburgh’s Old Town section.  The best thing for us however was the ability to use clean restrooms after our hike up and down Arthur’s Seat!

The Royal Mile is a section of streets in the Old Town part of Edinburgh that run between Holyrood Palace and Edinburgh Castle, and it is ironically about one mile in distance, and very popular with tourists.  The architecture and history along the Royal Mile epitomize Old Town Edinburgh, and it is peppered with cool shops, pubs, restaurants, etc.

 

We toured the amazing 12^th century St. Giles Cathedral along the Royal Mile.  Its crown steeple is one of Edinburgh’s most recognizable landmarks.

While tooling around the Royal Mile we happened upon the place to pick up tickets for Mary King’s Close Underground Tour.  There were no slots available for this day so we booked a tour for the next day at 4:00 P.M .

Em and I took this time to go back to the hotel and find someplace to do our laundry.  Suzannah checked-in to her own room and crashed.  We hadn’t done laundry since our last day in Inverness 7 days ago.  Laundromats are far and few between in the part of Edinburgh we were in.  We discovered one a couple of miles away so we grabbed a taxi from our hotel and headed to The Laundry Kafe.  This is a natural foods store and internet café that also does laundry.  It was not self-serve, as we thought, rather it was a laundry service, and they were closing in 2 hours.  Fortunately, the young man at the helm was kind enough to take our two large loads for us.  He led us down the stairs to the two industrial laundry machines and let us operate them ourselves.

While waiting, we walked around the residential neighborhood, and then returned for some natural snacks and sodas back at the “Kafe”.  We involuntarily entertained the young man’s curmudgeonly right-wing overly nationalistic father with our non right-wing conversational push back.  He got bored with us after a few minutes and disappeared behind the counter.

After laundry was done we grabbed a taxi back to the hotel, and grabbed Suzannah, and headed out to meet up with our friends Ann and Luise from our Backroads Isle of Skye hiking trip. We met up at the nearby Jolly Judge pub at 8:00 P.M. for trivia night (and…maybe a few drinks).  We didn’t win, but we did get third place (which came with a prize of beers to take home), and we got to hang out with some very large men in kilts.

At about 10:00 P.M. we hit the streets of Edinburgh to find some late dinner (of course, being Scotland in July it was still light out). We ended up finding Benes, an open greasy spoon fish and chips place that had a few bar stool seats and a shelf to eat at, but was primarily take out.  We ate in, and I had one of the best hot dogs I’ve ever had…the guy behind the counter was just so proud to hear that an American thought his hot dogs were so great (seriously!).  For dessert, Suzannah and I split a deep-fried Mars bar, one of their specialties.  The whole world loves junk food, it’s a great thing.

July 9

Edinburgh Castle

We had tickets for a group tour of Edinburgh Castle for 9:45 A.M., the first tour of the day.  In the research we did, we learned that we should arrive at the castle by 9:00 A.M. for its 9:30 opening.  This was a good tip.  The line was already about 100 people long.  It doesn’t matter if you have tickets for the first tour of the day, everybody waits in the same line to get in to the castle.

Another thing we learned from our research was to make a bee line straight to the crown jewels once we got inside.  Our plan was to get in the castle around 9:30, see the crown jewels, then catch up with our tour.  The line to get in did move well and so we were successful in this strategy.  First, we passed through the awesome Portcullis Gate to enter, saw where our tour would be meeting, and then to the jewels.  Getting to the crown jewels first thing allowed us to see them practically all to ourselves…very cool.  One hour later the line to see the crown jewels was very long, and it was raining…so double cool.  No pictures allowed of the crown jewels though.

After gawking at the jewels and the Stone of Destiny (used in the inauguration of monarchs) we headed to the meeting spot for guided tours.  This is actually pretty casual, and anybody really could join any of the tours, the time slots were more like guidelines than actual rules.  By this time, it had started raining lightly as well.

The guided tour only lasted about 30 minutes, giving basically an orientation for exploring on your own. So, after the guided tour we explored on our own for about another 90 minutes.  The highlights of Edinburgh Castle, besides just being inside this magnificent and imposing castle, were the crown jewels, the prisoner quarters, and the National War Museum. But every part of the castle was impressive.

Potter Trail Tour

Our next item on the itinerary was a one-hour private tour of Harry Potter related points of interest with The Potter Trail.  J.K. Rowling wrote much of the Harry Potter series while living in Edinburgh.  Many of the names, places, and buildings in the books were influenced by actual references in Edinburgh. We met our robed tour guide, Liv, at the Greyfriars Bobby statue at 2:00 P.M.  She had a “magical” wand for each of us, and we headed off to explore the Edinburgh world of Harry Potter.

Being Harry Potter geeks, we really enjoyed this.  (A couple of days later we would see more Harry Potter stuff in Glenfiddich, Scotland, including the Hogwarts Express steam train travelling along the towering viaduct as seen in the movies…go here to see it).  The Potter Trail tour ended along Victoria Street which is near our hotel, and which we have been walking along the past two days, but only now learned is the street that inspired J.K. Rowling’s famous Diagon Alley.  Now that we know it, we can actually see it.  Liv also showed us Cockburn Street, which inspired Knockturn Alley.

Underground Tour

After this tour we headed next to our 4:00 Mary King’s Close Underground Tour. A Close in Scotland is any narrow alleyway between buildings.  Neighborhoods in Old Town Edinburgh were designed with many closes spurring off of the main streets. Mary King’s Close is a historic close located under buildings on the Royal Mile. Mary King, was a merchant who lived there in the 17th century. The close was partially demolished and buried due to the building of the Royal Exchange in the 18th century, and later closed to the public for many years. The area became shrouded in myths and urban legends; tales of hauntings and murders abounded.

So, this tour basically took us to the remains of a centuries-old neighborhood that are underneath the streets of Edinburgh.  The tour guide was an actor recreating a personality from the 17^th century.  We learned stories of notable inhabitants while experiencing the conditions they lived in.  It was dark, cramped at times, there were steep climbs, and the ground was uneven, but the ability to see these real homes and streets beneath the city in all their haunting glory was definitely worth the effort and risks…and price of admission.   Very cool.

Sir Walter Scott Memorial

Before we settled down for dinner, we had some final landmarks to check out.  So we headed to the Sir Walter Scott Memorial, which in my humble opinion is the most amazing piece of architecture in this city of amazing pieces of architecture.  Unfortunately, it was closed for the evening, closing at 6:00 P.M., so we could not go up to the top.  Instead, we just marveled at it from outside.

Then on to National Monument on Calton Hill.  This was a bit of a climb, and it was now raining, and we were getting hungry.  So, we didn’t spend much time here but we are glad we made it to this historic monument, and to get some great views of the city and the North Sea.

We decided that we would have a nice dinner for our final night in Edinburgh.  We found a charming, very busy Italian bistro called La Locanda on Cockburn Street. This street, we learned, was supposedly the inspiration for Knockturn Alley in Harry Potter.  The restaurant host wasn’t sure he could fit us in but after a couple of minutes he came back and slotted us smack in the middle of a series of cozy tables just big enough for the three of us.  Score!  The food was outstanding, and it was nice to just relax and enjoy a nice meal with great service.

 

After dinner on this eventful day we hit the Grassmarket Hotel for a very good night’s sleep.  We had a rental car to pick up the next day to drive around Scotland for a few days.  Though we were mostly looking forward to breakfast at La Barantine Victoria again!

Next: Edinburgh to Glencoe