Overnighter in Edinburgh

One of the best things about being in Europe is the fact that getting around is so easy. Buses, trains, trams, light rail, go almost everywhere, and cheap. Today we ditched the car and took the bus to a small town called Dunblane, where we caught the train into Edinburgh. Real simple process, cost was about $4USD for two on the bus, $36USD for round-trip on the train. The one-way trip took about 1.5hrs but once there, we didn’t have to contend with finding a parking space or paying $20USD to park. The train terminates at Waverly station which is right in the middle of where we wanted to be.

Edinburgh has been Scotland’s capital since the 15^th century. Home to roughly 1.3 million people, Edinburgh is Scotland’s second largest city. For the tourist, there are tons of sites to visit, from small reenactment venues like the Dungeon Tour (one of our favorites but not for the faint of heart) to Holyroodhouse, the site of Scotland’s monarchy; and of course, Edinburgh Castle. We’re here for two days so we’ll pretty much hit everything on the tourist list.

Made it to Edinburgh in the early morning and went by our hotel to drop off our bag. Cool this morning, around 40⁰ but no rain in sight, which is a good thing. We wanted to start at the top and work our way down so off to Edinburgh castle. When I say top, I mean top. Edinburgh castle is this dominating structure that sits 280’ above the city.

Pictures from inside the castle walls.

Some pictures from the castle prison. I’m sure it looked just like this back in the 1700s.

Inside the castle walls lies the oldest building in Edinburgh, St. Margaret’s Chapel, built in the 12^th century.

Today, besides being a major tourist attraction, the castle serves as the backdrop for the famous, Edinburgh Military Tattoo, a series of drills and performances by the British Armed Forces and military bands. We’ve never been to this but it is said to be quite spectacular.

Little less fanfare today. Nothing more going on than the usual 10 million or so tourists blindly following some flag on a stick. Even in the off-season, the castle is still crowded, can’t imagine trying to do this in the summer.

Finally clawed our way through the castle, now time for lunch. The castle took about 2 hours to tour and a lot of walking, worked up a bit of hunger. Not wanting to eat on the Royal Mile, the strip of road leading to the castle with every type of tourist shop known to man, we wander off into Old Town. We found the Deacon’s House café, that will work just fine.

After a nice lunch, time to head off to St. Giles’ cathedral. Founded in 1124, St. Giles’ is regarded as the Mother of Presbyterianism. It is here that John Knox, founder of Presbyterianism in Scotland, not only preached the gospel but also led the countries reformation movement in 1546. And, the cathedral is home to Scotland’s most prestigious order of chivalry, the “Order of the Thistle”. The Order of the Thistle is specific to Scotland. So not to be out done, England has an equivalent order for chivalry, it’s called, “The Most Noble Order of the Garter”. And, the United States in trying to keep up with the Jones’, has their version of a not-so-chivalrous order, the “Removal of the Brides Garter”, either by hand or teeth.

The cathedral is a beautiful example of Gothic architecture and has amazing stained glass. I’ll apologize now for our pictures of the windows; stained glass is very difficult to photograph.

Before calling it a day, we wanted to walk through more of Old Town to check out the shops and people. Old Town has tourist shops, pubs and some unique stores you don’t find on the tourist trail. The only problem is Old Town has some very steep streets and what goes down, has to come up!

Getting close to cocktail hour as we close in on the end of the day. Time to find a little out-of-the-way pub for a drink and some relaxing atmosphere. Looks like the Abbotsford Bar & Restaurant will do nicely. Besides, they had a cool bar plaque!

Tomorrow morning we’ll finish our rounds here in Edinburgh before catching the train back home. Till tomorrow, Slainte.