So when we last left you, we were on the train from London to Edinburgh, and I had every intention of posting an update every day just like we did in London. But then the bad hotel WiFi demon struck. I mean seriously bad. Like we’re going to put it on our comment card and survey bad. But other than that, everything was great in Edinburgh. Unfortunately now, I have a backlog of pictures and ideas to catch up on before we forget it all!
FRIDAY
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| Train speed and route |
- The train on Friday was great; we splurged and booked first class tickets from London to Edinburgh (correct pronunciation is Edin-bur-rah), and we were really glad we did. It was nice and quiet, and they came along with food and drink trolleys. Plus, the train had wifi and electrical outlets so we could do a little work, watch the sights go by, and just sit back and relax. When we logged into the WiFi on our phones, we could watch a little map of our progress and see the train’s speed. At one point, the train was running up to 120 mph. Our train ride in total was just over 4 hours, much faster than some of the others which can run around 6 hours. As we passed through the countryside, we kept seeing fields upon fields of yellow flowers all in bloom, so we finally asked one of the attendants if he knew what they were. He said they were the rapeseed flowers that are used in oils and that they’re really bad for hay fever, but he didn't know what it would be called in America. One quick Google search later, we let him know that we would call it canola. As we would pass through each little town, the one feature that always stood out was the local churches. They could be seen towering high above the rest of the houses and buildings, and sometimes, they were very elaborately done. Our train route took us along the northeastern edge of Britain as we moved towards the border of Scotland. We saw a lot of farmland, grazing animals, hills, and bridges. One of the coolest things we happened across was the Kilburn White Horse, which was made into the side of a hill. The white horse figure could be seen from miles and miles away, and we learned that it had to be covered up in WWII to keep it from being an identifying marker for the German bombers.
Rapeseed, aka Canola
Can you spot the Kilburn White Horse?
More photos from the train ride
- The train delivered us to the center of Edinburgh, and as soon as we got out of the station, there were already amazing views to behold, so we took a bit to snap some shots before we headed on our way to our hotel. For all the trouble the WiFi gave us at our hotel, the actual room accommodations were very nice. It was just frustrating trying to get updates from family members over a connection that was so slow that we had to miss out on Facetiming Emma. Not to worry though, she was having a jolly good time hanging out at Chuck E. Cheese’s on Friday with her cousins and grandparents.
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| Our first view off the train - Edinburgh Castle |
Monument to Sir Walter Scott
Emma enjoying Chuck E. Cheese
(so glad it wasn't us taking her...lol!)
Salisbury Crags After we got settled into our hotel room, we popped back out on the streets of Edinburgh and took a sightseeing tour bus around the city to get our bearings. It had been raining off and on since we had arrived in Edinburgh, and while the cold was okay, the wind plus the cold was not something we had prepared for. It became our mission the next day to be on the lookout for gloves for both of us and a scarf for me. The other thing that became readily apparent was that walking in Edinburgh meant constantly walking up and down hills since it is a city built on seven different hills. So if you needed the treadmill to prepare for London, then you needed the stair climber to prepare for Edinburgh. All in all, we logged 8,304 steps, or just under 3.5 miles of walking on Friday. As we slogged back to our hotel, we decided to go off the beaten path to find a place to eat and wound up at Burger Meats Bun (BMB) for dinner. The hamburgers there were not only HUGE, but also delicious. It was a great end to the day.
SATURDAY
- Saturday morning, we ordered in for breakfast, and we hit the ground running. First up on our to-do list was to visit the Edinburgh Castle. The Edinburgh Castle is situated at the top of the Royal Mile (yes, it is a mile down to the bottom), and it is built on the top of an extinct volcano. The views from the top of the castle were stunning. I took a lot of pictures from there, in both cloudy and sunny conditions. Again, the weather was on and off again rain. You would duck in from the rain, and five minutes later it would be sunny and beautiful again. It would drive my father nuts since he loves to check his weather apps 24/7. Inside the castle, there are a lot of different buildings – the great hall and former palace of King James, the garrison, the watch towers, the Scottish National War Memorial, St. Margaret’s chapel, the infirmary, the prisons, and a whole bunch of others. You can even get married there at the chapel – it holds about 25 people and we witnessed a bride and groom coming down from the chapel to the reception to bagpipe music. There’s even a cemetery there for the regimental mascots and officers’ pets. We also got to see the Scottish crown jewels and the Stone of Destiny from Scone (sorry, no pictures were allowed), but can I say, that the stone was a lot smaller than I had envisioned. I figured to be the mystic stone on which the kings of Scotland stood on to be crowned (and it goes under the chair of the modern monarchs when crowned) would just be more majestic. Too many Macbeth movies, I guess. The last exciting thing we got to witness was the firing of the One O’clock Gun. It is as you would imagine, just as it sounds. A gun (or cannon in the old days) that fires at one o’clock to let ships in the Port of Leith know exactly what time it is.
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| Edinburgh Castle |
Video: The One O'Clock Gun
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| St. Giles' Cathedral |
- After we finished up with the castle, we headed down the Royal Mile in search of gloves and a scarf as well as any other items that might tickle our fancy from all the shops that dot this street. Besides a crazy amount of tartan and cashmere sellers, there are a lot of famous pubs and churches on the street as well. We stopped in at St. Giles’ Cathedral, where we were awed by the magnificence and splendor of the details of this church. The oldest part of the cathedral dates back approximately to the Norman style of the 12th century but was rebuilt in a Gothic style in the 14th century. Built originally as a Catholic church, it was became Presbyterian after the Scottish Reformation in 1560, and John Knox was its first protestant minister. The two most striking features for us were all of the stain glass windows (19th and 20th centuries) and the massive organ. We got to actually look into a panel behind the organ and see all the piping and stringing that make it work.
- After St. Giles’, we were famished, so we popped in for some lunch before we headed to the National Museum of Scotland. Although it has a lot of different exhibits, we were mainly interested in viewing the one on the history of Scotland. It did not disappoint. It had a little bit of everything – swords and other weapons; tartans; textile making; steam engines; golf; tapestries; church items; and even furniture. It was very detailed, and we could have taken way more time in there than we did, but it was a good overview of the country’s history and memorable contributions.
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| Greyfriars Bobby |
- Since the museum closed at 5pm and most everything else shut down at 6pm, we still had some time to just walk around Edinburgh seeing that the sun really doesn’t set until around 9pm. So we popped across the street to visit the statue of Greyfriars Bobby and see his grave in Greyfrairs’ Kirkyard. The story behind Greyfriars Bobby is that he was a Skye Terrier who became known for spending 14 years visiting and guarding the grave of his owner until the dog’s own death in 1872. Moved by such a tale of fidelity and love, a statue was erected in his honor and he was buried in Greyfriars Kirkyard too. We did take a walk around the graved yard just to look at the headstones, which ranged from simple to ornate to weird and macabre. One of the more curious things we found amongst the graves was the mortsafes. These ironworks were installed over the graves to keep the so-called “resurrection men” from digging up the bodies and selling them to the local medical college for dissection.
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| Palace of Holyroodhouse |
- Our last bit of the day was spent walking down the rest of the mile and seeing the Palace of Holyroodhouse before our trek up Calton Hill. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get into see Holyroodhouse due to it being close for members of Parliament working and staying there for the next two weeks, but I did manage a few good shots of it and the abbey ruins through the gates. Our last stop though was Calton Hill. I had wanted to make it to the top of this ever since seeing pictures of it. The problem was it was the end of the day, it was starting to rain again, and my lord, the wind was getting a little outrageous. Calton Hill is another formation of the volcanic from 340 million years ago, and it’s been used for festivals in the medieval times, public executions in the 1600s, and in 1720, it was made into a public park. The city observatory sits upon the hill as do a number of monuments and breathtaking views. There’s even a small piece of Robert the Bruce’s castle up there. At the end of the day, we logged 22,493 or about 9.23 miles.
Calton Hill and Views
SUNDAY
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| HMY Britannia |
- Sunday was incredibly windy in Edinburgh, like so windy I thought it was going to blow my feet right out from under me at times. Luckily, we spent most of the day inside and moving at a slower pace. We hopped the bus out to Leith and spent the morning checking out the royal family’s yacht HMY Britannia. It was originally meant to be built for King George VI to help him as he was ailing in his later years, but he died before ever getting to see it. Instead, Queen Elizabeth got to take a personal hand in its décor, and it is has been in her private use her whole reign. The royal yacht logged over one million miles sailed before it was decommissioned in December 1997. It was the 83rd such vessel, and the last of its kind as there is no current royal yacht in use or planned for today. We got to tour both the areas for the queen and family as well as the ship’s crew. When choosing the décor for the yacht, the queen was very particular in wanting something that was “not fussy” according to the audio commentary and would encourage relaxation. Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip both have their own separate bed chambers as well as offices. There are rooms for other VIP guests to stay and visitors have included such dignitaries as Nelson Mandela, Bill Clinton, and other heads of state. One of the best things about touring around the yacht was all the personal pictures of Queen Elizabeth and her family. They just show them being relaxed and normal in their interactions with one another.
- After our morning trip out to the royal yacht, we headed back into town and got dressed for afternoon tea at the Waldorf Astoria – The Caledonian. We’ve never been to afternoon tea before and weren’t quite sure what to expect. When you’re used to tea in bags that you then steep and put over ice by the gallon in your refrigerator, you’re kind of behind the learning curve. But luckily, the staff was super friendly and answered all our questions for us. The first round of tea we stuck to the basics: Kevin had Earl Grey, and I had the Darjeeling. We both really liked it, and I prefer my tea with two lumps of sugar and a splash of milk. Kevin experimented a lot more with his tea and varied what he put in it with each cup. The restaurant manager even came over and gave us some recommendations to order for our second round. This time Kevin got the Lapsang Souchong, which had a smoky taste and smell to it, and I ordered the Venetian Rose, which tasted sweet and literally smelled of roses. I’m not sure that either one of us would drink those on a regular basis, but we might have just become fans of hot tea as long as we stick with Earl Grey or Darjeeling. Either way, we were definitely fans of the food and gobbled it all up since we skipped over lunch that day. Afterwards, we took a leisurely walk home to the hotel through the Princes Street Gardens since for once it wasn’t crazy windy or raining. Even though we spent Sunday going round at a slower pace, we still managed to log 11,243 step or just over 4.61 miles.
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