Edinburgh

Oh my goodness Edinburgh - I tried to weed out the pictures but I can make no promises that each of my vacation related posts won't be an absolute photo dump! I can promise that the photos will be beautiful because Scotland is absolute as breathtaking as I imagined. *sigh* Take me back - please! 

The first glimpses of Scotland came through a train window as we sped along from Cambridge to Edinburgh - the train travel in itself was a pretty delightful experience! We zipped and zoomed along and around lunchtime, we ordered from the train café and an attendant brought us our bacon rolls, crisps and drinks to enjoy as the scenery zipped by!

We were in Edinburgh for about thirty-six hours and I think we managed to squeeze in quite a bit! We arrived around 2:00 in the afternoon and the weather was exactly as you'd expect for Scotland: damp, spitting rain and a bit brisk... but we didn't let that slow us down. We climbed up through Fleshmarket Close (I'll explain...) to our hotel, dropped our bags and headed out to explore. I should mention here that the first "souvenir" of the trip was a tartan patterned umbrella! 

Edinburgh is filled with small alleyways called "close" - so named because the walls rise up on either side and form a "close" walkway that traditionally housed numerous people in close quarters. Some of the closes are famous - such as Mary King's Close - which was bricked shut during the plague, entombing victims inside and is rumored to be extremely haunted. A lot of the closes were named for famous inhabitants, locations or even just what the close connected... so maybe I don't really want to know why one of the closes is called "Fleshmarket Close". *shudder*

Bakehouse Close is along the Royal Mile and doubled as Carfax Close in Outlander. A quick walk through the archway reveals the staircase that leads to Jamie's print shop from the third season of the show - it was the first of many Outlander locations we were able to see on this trip and I ate every single one right up! Edinburgh is extremely hilly - the Royal Mile is book ended by the Palace at Holyrood House at the base of the hill and Edinburgh Palace at the top of the hill - so be prepared for your walking to have a climb involved! 

Our first tour of the trip was the Palace at Holyrood House - one of Queen Elizabeth's residences in Scotland and has been used as some form of royal residence since the 1300's; although the appearance of the palace today would only date back to the 1600's (haha - only 1600... ha!) The royal family today still visits, stays in and holds events at the Palace of Holyrood House and it is very much an active royal palace.

One of the most famous royal residences of the Palace of Holyrood House was Mary, Queen of Scots who lived in the palace when she returned to Scotland after the death of her first husband, Francis of France. It was also in the Palace of Holyrood House that Mary's private secretary David Rizzio was brutally murdered by Mary's second husband, Henry Lord Darnley and several of his friends. Rizzio was stabbed 57 times and the blood stain is still extremely visible on the floor of the room where the murder happened - eek! 

The palace is also home to the ruins of Holyrood Abbey which is still stunning - even if it is just the bones of the original building! I imagine it must have been grand when it was originally built! We also roamed the gardens a bit and everything in Scotland is just so very green and verdant! I'd love to have a chance to return to Edinburgh and be able to hike to the top of Arthur's Seat; the peak you can see behind me at the right in the picture below. I've heard the views from the top are stunning! 

After our tour we grabbed an afternoon snack at the café at Holyrood House and I had my first can of Irn Bru - a true Scottish soft drink that comes in a bright orange can and is jokingly said to have iron filings as part of the secret recipe! The drink tastes a little like a cream soda or creamsicle... but I don't know what I really thought it tasted like - it was really good though! We leisurely walked back toward our hotel, popping in and out of shops along the way end explored until our dinner reservations at The Mitre Pub at 8:00.

I joke that between my Irn Bru and my dinner and dessert on the 5th - I earned my Scottish ancestry badge! I took a risk on Monday night at The Mitre and ordered the Balmoral Chicken: a chicken breast wrapped in streaky bacon and haggis. That's right ya'll - wrapped in haggis! I will confess that it was actually pretty delicious although I made sure that each bite of haggis was rather small in relation to the chicken and bacon, ha-ha! I also got Cranachan for dessert - a traditional Scottish dessert made of cream with oats, whisky and raspberries, topped with honey. OH MY GOODNESS - it was DIVINE.

Between the Irn Bru, Balmoral Chicken with Haggis and the Cranachan - I went to sleep after our first day in Edinburgh feeling very Scottish indeed! Tuesday morning was our full day in Edinburgh and we started it out with breakfast at Scran - Scran is a slang term in Scotland for food or provisions and the food at Scran was delicious! I had some French toast topped with Nutella and berries that was to die for and the perfect start to the day! My Dad went for a full Scottish breakfast but I think he ended up leaving his tomato, haggis and black pudding behind!

We climbed up the Royal Mile to the opposite end for a tour of Edinburgh Castle, which sits high above the city on an extinct volcano and has had some sort of occupation since the 12th century! The castle is one of the most besieged in history and it's position atop the volcanic rock makes attack of the castle extremely difficult as their is only one real point of entry - which is heavily guarded. Once you're through the gates, the buildings that make up the castle wind up and up and up and around the rock.

The oldest building in the castle is St. Margaret's Chapel and it dates back to the early 1100's - it might be the smallest chapel I've ever been in, it's so teeny! Right outside the very teeny chapel is the incredibly large cannon known as Mons Meg - a bombard that weighs about 13,000 pounds! It hasn't been in use since the 1600's but it's still quite impressive to behold; I cannot imagine the destruction that a cannon ball from that beast would cause! The views from the tallest portion of the castle are just spectacular and happily, while it was overcast - the rain held off for our tour!

We popped back down the Royal Mile in a light drizzle that started shortly after we left Edinburgh Castle and took the time to stop in a cathedral along the Royal Mile and take in the beautiful stained glass, the massive pipe organ and the history of the place. We met up with my little sister and the Elephant House Café and y'all - in case you didn't know this - the Elephant House Café is where JK Rowling wrote the first of the Harry Potter books and fans have flocked to the café from all over to pay homage to the location.

I'm not normally a bathroom selfie taker - but I had to snap a picture in the bathroom(s) at The Elephant House because the bathrooms are filled with Harry Potter graffiti. Lines from the books, caricatures of the beloved characters, spells and even thank you notes to JK Rowling regarding her best-selling book series. The view of Greyfriar's Kirkyard (that's a grave yard) from the windows inspired a ramble later in the day... but it was fascinating to see a little piece of Harry Potter history.

We grabbed an Uber across town - it was really only about two miles but it took almost twenty minutes - and made our way onto the Royal Yacht Britannia; the Queen's yacht that was in use for years before being parked in Edinburgh and turned into a tourist attraction! The yacht was five levels of beds, ballrooms, sitting rooms and so much more - including a lovely room at the front of the yacht where the Queen would lounge to read, play games and watch the world sail by. It was - naturally - all very fancy!

Before we disembarked from the yacht, we made our way to the Tea Room and had ourselves some scones and tea - as you do! The views were beautiful and of course, the history of the yacht itself lends to a very special atmosphere! It started pouring shortly after we left from the yacht but thankfully our Uber got us back to the hotel without too much trouble and the rain played out before too long.

We had dinner reservations at Devil's Advocate located down Advocate's Close at 8:00 - but once the rain played out, my sister and I set out to explore a bit more before dinner! We made our way to Greyfriar's Kirkyard, stopping along the way to rub the nose of Greyfriar's Bobby - a statue of a wee pup who legend tells us kept vigil over his owner's grave until the little dog itself passed away and was buried in the kirkyard. Talk about a loyal little companion! 

The kirkyard is thought to be haunted by several spirits but two locations that are most haunted are the Covenanter's Prison and the Black Kirk - which is the tomb of a man known as Bloody Mackenzie. George Mackenzie oversaw the prisoners kept in the Covenanter's Prison and treated them brutally, starving them and forcing them to work without sleep and food. The prison is thought of as being the first concentration camp in history and is considered so haunted that it's locked off from the rest of the kirkyard and can only be entered as part of a ghost tour... after you sign a release form. Eek!

Tour guests have passed out or left the tour with bruises and scratches. No thanks! George Mackenzie ended up being buried in the so-called Black Kirk mere feet away from the very prisoners he tortured and after his tomb was broken into, many believe that a vengeful spirit was released that still torments the living to this day! It's also interesting to note that there is the tomb of one Thomas Riddle - perhaps another Harry Potter inspiration?

Lindsey and I stumbled upon a gorgeous photo spot at the base of castle rock and we were able to snap some pictures of Edinburgh Castle from below before climbing up all the steps back to the Royal Mile and meeting up with our parents for dinner down Advocate's Close! Edinburgh was certainly a delight to explore and while I feel like we saw quite a lot for thirty-six hours - I know there is still so much more to be seen! I suppose I'll have to go back one day, right?

It will be into the Highlands for tomorrow - see you then!