Edinburgh, Scotland

Friday, June 26

Preston and I had been wanting to go to Edinburgh, Scotland for a long time now and it was finally becoming a reality! Preston's family used to be from Scotland and had a castle there in Kelso a long time ago. I will say, unfortunately, we did not have time to go down there but maybe one day we will.

Our flight was not until 1210, but luckily we left early because right when we got through passport check we rushed to get a sandwich and by the time we walked downstairs we had to walk straight onto the bus to our plane.

Off to Edinburgh!

I had found a hotel on booking.com that apparently is never available because of  how good the location is. But I was super lucky and booked it right away when I saw it opened up. You are literally right below Edinburgh Castle and also in a graveyard, which we thought was pretty cool!

Now time to explore before our first tour of the trip, which was a haunted ghost tour through the city and the underground vaults.

Our first stop was to Mary's Milk Bar, which is actually one of the best ice cream places in Edinburgh. All of the ice cream is made fresh daily and once they are out, they are out and closed for the day.

This ice cream had to be one of the best ice creams I've had in Europe so far and I've had my fair share of ice cream/gelato while over here.

We made our way up to The Royal Mile, which is most likely one of the oldest streets in Edinburgh. It connects the two castles, Edinburgh Castle and Palace of Holyrood House and all in-between are now different shops, restaurants, pubs/bars, landmarks or churches/cathedrals.

For dinner we ended going to one of pubs on The Royal Mile, Deacon Brodie's Tavern. Which actually had a lot more history about it than we thought.

William Brodie, or otherwise known as Deacon, was a traditional tradesman by day, who was loved and accepted by everyone in Edinburgh. They trusted him to come to their house to fix whatever needed fixing or whatever they needed help with. However, by night, he was the complete opposite. He was a burglar and thief. When he used to go to the peoples homes of Edinburgh, he would make a wax mold of their keys to later use to come back and rob them.

The one thing I thought was very interesting that I never knew, was that Robert Louis Stevenson based his book "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" off of Brodie's double life and personality as he was very intrigued by his lifestyle. The things you learn in a pub!

Since this was our first night in Scotland I just had to get fish n' chips. Which ended up being really good.

Tonight we had our haunted ghost tour through the city and the underground vaults, which we were both really excited for. We also just realized that we are doing the ghost tour before we even spend a night in our cottage located in a graveyard. We thought this would be interesting!

Our tour was through Mercat Tours. If you have ever heard of the show Ghost Adventures, they had an episode in Edinburgh, and after-the-fact we found out they actually ended up using the same tour people. Which we thought was pretty cool because then you know the company has to be good for them to use in their show.

(Meeting point for the tours)

We did end up having probably one of the best tour guides ever! I have been on so many tours and boy did she get into character and have so much information about all the history and some of the gruesome stuff that happened back in the day. I would say probably almost everybody on the tour when we were down in the underground vaults got a little spooked and scared about some of the stories she told us that happened down there. Plus, it was almost pitch-black down there as there were only a few candles that lit up the rooms because of all the problems they had with using electricity down there.

(What we can see)

(With flash to see what is actually there)

At the end of the tour we could either get a dram of whiskey or a beer, I'm sure you can guess who got what before looking at the pictures.

I would highly recommend this company to do tours with! We did find out our tour the next day was with Mercat Tours as well, but this time we were doing a tour of the city, it's history and a tour of Edinburgh Castle.

Saturday, June 27

This morning we were able to sleep in a little since our city tour was not until 10.

We met the Mercat Tours people again over by St. Giles Cathedral, which technically is not even a Cathedral. Another interesting fact. And again we had another really good tour guide! Mercat Tours is definitely the way to go in Edinburgh.

We slowly made our way through the town of Edinburgh learning about different meanings of some of the sites, buildings, and houses in the city.

(Oldest building in Edinburgh, which is now a hostel)

(One of the last parts left of Edinburgh wall)

The streets off of The Royal Mile are either have Close or Wynd within their name. Close streets got their names because they used to have gates on either end that would get locked after a certain time at night so people couldn't pass through them. While Wynd is similar, but is just a side street with no gates.

This was John Knox's last request to be burried here outside the church. He was a leader of the Reformation and considered the founder of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland. This used to be a graveyard but they filled it with too many bodies and it rained too much, so you can only imagine what happened to the bodies that were "burried" here.

(Site of the Last Public Execution in Edinburgh)

 The gold "I" represents the site where public execution took place in Edinburgh.

Memorial outside of Edinburgh Castle in honor of all the "witches" that were drowned under the suspicion of being a witch.

Now to make our way back to the top of the hill to Edinburgh Castle. Edinburgh Castle actually is located right on top of volcanic rock.

We had a brief walk through with our tour guide, where she gave us some information about the castle and also explained some of the different areas located inside. Every day, except Sunday, at 1300 a gun is fired to let the whole city know what time it is. This was first started for the ships to let them know what time it was so they could reset their chronometers to make sure they were accurate. It used to be announced by the "time ball" but a lot of the times the ball was too hard for the ships to see, especially in bad weather; therefore, they came up with the gun idea.

(Church in Edinburgh Castle)

Then we got to wander around the castle for as long as we wanted to.

Where the prisoners of war were kept.

One of the first times the American flags was drawn. This was on a prisoner of war's cell door.

After wandering around the Castle it was time to find somewhere to eat for lunch. We had passed this place called Oink a few times and there was always a crowd/line at it, so we thought why not. It is basically a fresh pulled pork place, they had the pig and everything right up front for you to see. And again with this place once they were out for the day they were done.

If was really good!

After relaxing at our cottage for a little we thought we would get the hop-on hop-off bus tickets to ride around and see the extra sites in the city. This was actually the only time we got sprinkled on while in Scotland. We were so lucky!

(Gates to the other Castle at the end of The Royal Mile)

Took a break from the hop-on hop-off bus to get a snack and to wander around the city a little more. I always love seeing the red telephone booths for some reason, I think they are so cool.

(Who wouldn't want a Starbucks break with a nutella filled cookie?!)

Every city I go to that has a Hard Rock I always have to go to get my shot glass and eat there. Which was perfect because one of the stops on the hop-on hop-off bus was right by it.

 After dinner we decided to walk back. The city is not very big and plus I needed to walk off all my food!

Then it was time to rest up for our busy all day tour tomorrow to The Highlands, Loch Ness and a Distillery.

Sunday, June 28

We had to meet our tour bus at 7:30am, so no sleeping in for us.

The first stop of the day was Deanston Distillery.

We got to see where and how they make their Scottish Whiskey. Since our tour was on Sunday, we didn't actually get to see the machines running, as Sunday is their one day off they get. If was very interesting and cool to see how everything is done.

If you like the smell or taste of whiskey you would love the last room we went in. It was where they age all of the whiskey. I'm not a big fan of whiskey but it did smell really good in this room!

After the tour we got to taste some of the whiskey. They are not allowed to serve alcohol until 10. So of course right at 10 they started pouring and passing out the whiskey to try. Great way to kick start the morning! Plus, we also go to enjoy breakfast food if we wanted before making our way back to the bus to the next stop.

Our tour guide/bus driver was awesome! He had so many interesting facts and random jokes he would tell throughout the whole bus ride. As well as some songs to go along with what he was telling us.

The first pit stop was at Doune Castle. If you are familiar with or have ever seen Monty Python and the Holy Grail then this Castle might look familiar to you. This castle was the primary location where the movie was filmed. Also, some scenes from Game of Thrones were filmed here as well.

Next short pit stop was to see the Highland Cows.

Our next pit stop was where they had filmed scenes from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and Skyfall. The views were amazing!

Another pit stop down the road a little to enjoy more of the views and to get a drink or a snack if you wanted.

And another amazing view pit stop.

Then onto Loch Ness

We had the option to do a boat cruise and of course we said yes. Who would not want a relaxing boat ride to try and find Nessie.

It was very relaxing with beautiful views on the boat cruise.

After the boat cruise we still had a little time to wander around the small town.

After wandering around the small town of Loch Ness it was time to start making our way back down to Edinburgh. But first a stop at Commando Memorial which is dedicated the men of the original British Commando Forces who served in World War II.

Then we made a pit stop to go see this waterfall. There was something about this place but I honestly can't remember. It was very relaxing to walk around by.

More beautiful views heading back to Edinburgh.

One of the 3 bridges that are all in a row. The only place in the world that has 3 bridges next to each other that were all built in different millenniums, 19th, 20th, and 21st.

By the time we got back it was pretty late and none of the pubs were serving real food anymore, since we needed more than just bar food. Luckily there was a small Mexican place right by our house, which ended up being really good!

I can't believe this was our last night in Scotland. Even though we had been there a few days it felt like it went by so fast! But I guess that seems to happen on most trips.

Monday, June 29

Last morning in Edinburgh, so we thought we could actually find somewhere to eat a real breakfast.

We ended up going to Zaza's Coffee House which was right by where our cottage was. So glad we went here because it was delicious! They made everything from scratch, so you do have to wait a little depending on what you order. But boy was it worth the wait! I just got pancakes and eggs, but whatever their pancake batter was made out of made them extra tasty! Preston got a breakfast sandwich, which he let me try a bite of, and it was really good to! I would recommend this place if you are looking for a nice, quaint place to have a delicious breakfast that is not expensive at all.

Since we had to be out of our cottage by 10, had to leave for the airport a little earlier than we would have. But I can't complain they had Starbucks! I always look forward to a drink from there since Italy does not have any.

Inside by the gates they even had a Krispy Kreme stand! I had to get myself another treat that I do not get very often.

Farewell Scotland, I made some great memories and I hope to be back again!