After our brief sojourn in London, we took the train to Edinburgh, where we spent two days and nights. It rained when we arrived which made for a miserable walk from the train station to the hotel, but it soon cleared up and we had a nice evening exploring the town and enjoyed an excellent dinner at the Scotsman, where I tried haggis (okay, it was a kind of gourmet take on haggis, but haggis! And it was actually quite good). Not a bad way to spend my birthday!
We stayed at the Glasshouse, a really nice place located about 10 minutes from the Waverly train station. It’s an interesting mix: the front facade is old (it was a church once upon a time) but the rooms are all quite up-to-date (recently remodeled). They surround a lovely courtyard garden space in the center (the hotel was voted Scotland’s #1 wedding location). It’s a little off the beaten track – about a 15-20 minute walk to old town Edinburgh and the Royal Mile, but you get lots of peace and quiet for that. It is super close to Calton Hill and also close to Holyrood House. Their wifi was outstanding (the wifi everywhere has been really good, actually) and their breakfasts quite nice. They also have an honor bar which is a lovely communal space with a nice fireplace that is quite the congregating area.
We climbed to the top of the Scott Monument (287 steps in case you were wondering, up a windy narrow circular stair that gave the New Church in Delft a run for its money) for a grand view of Edinburgh, then walked the Royal Mile and did a vault tour (and as a tip: do a vault tour OR a ghost tour – no need to do both), wrapping things up at Edinburgh Castle, which is quite the big place with a great view of the countryside. We arrived late in the day so only had an hour to explore but hit all of the highlights, including Scotland’s crown jewels.
This being Scotland, we also did a scotch whiskey tasting at the Scotch Whiskey Experience. We shared a tasting of four scotches. While I still am not a huge fan, I can definitely tell the differences in flavors. We saw some crazy expensive Scotches in the gift shop – one was over 15,000 pounds! The vault tour took us down into Blair Street’s underground vaults where for a couple hundred years merchants and tavern keepers ran their businesses in dank, depressing spaces:
Edinburgh’s South Bridge should be regarded as more than a simple crossing from Old Town to Southside. It was, in fact, Edinburgh’s first purpose built shopping street, and as such as much space as possible was utilised. The bridge itself is a nineteen arch viaduct, although only one arch is visible today, the ‘Cowgate arch.’ The remaining eighteen arches were enclosed behind tenement buildings built to allow the area to serve as a commercial district. The hidden arches of the bridge were then given extra floors to allow their use for industry. In total there are approximately 120 rooms or ‘vaults’ beneath the surface of the South Bridge, ranging in size from two metres squared to forty metres squared. South Bridge officially opened for business on 1 March 1788.
It’s hard to imagine anyone working down there, much less living down there, but people did, for generations!
This morning (Wednesday) we took the train to Stirling where we saw Stirling Castle and the old town and are spending the night. Stirling Castle is a huge place and unlike Edinburgh Castle, we arrived with lots of time to explore. It was pretty cold and windy but happily there was no rain. We stopped for soup after waking all over the castle for a few hours and it was beyond wonderful to hold a hot beverage in my hands. I know, we are pretty pathetic – we see the locals walking around in shorts with no gloves or hats on. Even the little kids are hardier than us! I guess given enough time, you can acclimate to anything! We are staying at the Stirling Highland Hotel, right in the heart of old town Stirling.
Tomorrow we head up to Inverness, to experience the Highlands for a day or two.