Absorbing All Things Endinburgh

We have had 2 amazing days in Edinburgh! With so much history in every stone, a story about every street and the amazing back drop of Arthur’s Seat – how can you not love this place?!

We started our first day with a much too fancy Scottish breakfast at the Delgarven House Hotel on Kilwinning. I think the breakfast room must also be used for wedding receptions. We did our best to get our fancy on in our travel clothes eating sausages and beans!

From there we caught a taxi to the train, the train from Kilwinning for Glasgow Central Station, took a quick walk from there to the Queen Street Station and then a train to Edinburgh Waverly Station! A quick 1.5hr travel time for 20pounds to discover an awesome historic city – perfect!

Once in Edinburgh we found our way in no time to MacBackpackers Hostel right on the Royal Mile! This is the first hostel experience for a couple of the crew and I wanted to make sure it was a good one. I have stayed with MacBackpackers before and they are great! Always super central, super clean, a great price and the staff are so nice! We were able to book a room all to ourselves too (4 beds, bunk bed style) so that also makes a great into!

We check our bags into luggage lock up and stepped out the hostel steps on the Royal Mile to find some lunch and a pint. We found it almost right next door at the Royal Mile Tavern – a recommendation from the hostel lady who lovingly calls it ‘The Tav’. We call it that now too! It was so great. The Haggis was amazing, the pints cold and the staff were so friendly.

From here we set out to see, absorb, sip, walk and eat our way through Edinburgh! We started with a walk down the Royal Mile to Arthur’s Seat and Holyrood Palace. Here are some pics of our walk down the Mile and our visit to the Palace and Abbey.

It’s hard work this tourist stuff so our next stop was the very old and just so cool Tollbooth Tavern for a cold pint and a glass of water. Such a cool pub and it was super busy – good energy!

But then we got hungry and a little chilled from our cold pints … needed a tea and scone after that at Procaffeination. There may have been some shenanigan picture taking on the very steep stairs to the bathroom after the caffeine soaked in.

Pints in, caffeine in – we were ready to waltz about the city for a few more hours and see what we could see! Wow you can just walk in any direction in this city and see cool, old stuff! Love!

Guess what? We got hungry and thirsty again after all this seeing the sights stuff! So off to find some dinner and another pint. Oh and this stop (our last for the night) included some live music. One guy playing a harmonica, tambourine secured to his foot, played guitar and sang. Amazing! He even sang a Mumford & Sons song – yahoo, our fav!

Day 1 Edinburgh complete. We headed back to the hostel for a good sleep so we would be ready for Day 2. Well the beds were comfy and the room was a good temperature but being right on High Street (Royal Mile) comes at a cost – the street never sleeps so we couldn’t either! We heard every siren, all the drunken crowds, and some guy loudly looking for Paul (wonder if they found him?).

On Day 2, our morning alarm was a window washer all the way on our second story – filling our drying boots on the windowsill with soapy water. Maybe they will stink less now!

Well we are up now – so Shar and I went for a quick hike up Arthur’s Seat as our morning workout, checked out an amazing old cemetery that included a watch tower that used to be manned by guards to catch grave robbers who were stealing bodies for medical study in the 1830s, and enjoyed a Turkish coffee. Great morning!

Shar and I headed back to the hostel and once all of our crew was ready for the day we headed out in search of breakfast. We were all happy it was sunny outside and took full advantage of this rare occurrence in Scotland by eating our eggs and drinking our teas on the Carruber’s Cafe patio right on the Royal Mile.

After breakfast we headed up to Edinburgh Castle – Rosa has a friend of a friend who left us free tickets for the Castle! No jokes! How epic is that? Cheryl and Rosa who have never been before set off to discover the secrets of that amazing stone building.

Shar and I who have been the castle before heading off to see what we could see in the crazy steep and twisted streets around the castle. Well we got so far as the Castle Arms Pub!

During our pint, we did some research on what else and where else our crew should venture in this amazing place. We planned for some Old Town time, a pub for lunch, tea in the afternoon and our ghost tour that night.

After our pints and after the Castle, we all had a chance to see the inside of a very old church that sits on the Mile. We had the chance to talk to the history lady at the church about the Order of the Thistle – the highest, elite order of knights in UK who are appointed directly by the Queen. This is not for the Sir Richard Bronson or Sir Sean Connery knights of the world but a much higher order and only 16 sit on the Order at a time. They had a women on the Order once too .. well besides the Queen herself of course. The first picture below is one wall of seats of the Order’s meeting place. The crest of each night sits above their seat.

Post our Church visit we headed over to Princes Street area where we checked out an old Parish, and walked through a cemetery where the oldest grave was from 1820. Amazing all the stone work on the headstones and tombs.

After this we headed went up to Rose Street which is so neat with its pink banners and pub after pub along the largely closed to traffic street. This area also has a bookstore which we could not resist! Yah got me a new book for our flight home.

Next stop was the Sir Walter Scott Monument which if you have the stamina and fortitude to climb the small, winding 287 steps up the tower to the top offers amazing views of the city. I made it to the museum and then platform 2 level for pics – then chickened our as the steps got smaller and more twisty. No thanks. The views were still amazing!

After that wee workout we needed a tea and scones. So off to Deacon Brodie’s Cafe we go. Sadly they were already out of scones when we got there so I sucked it up and settled for a Nutella crepe and a tea. Rosa got one too and we shared a banana to kick it up a notch. Mmmm Deacon Brodie is a perhaps one of the most infamous character of Edinburgh’s history – he designed the gallows and devised the best way to hang criminals. Years later he committed a crime himself (burglary) and was hanged by the very device he invented. Karma?

Here we are post tea ‘locked’ behind the Cafe bars.

Our next agenda item was to get some souvenirs or gifties for folks back home – the amazing cashmere tartan scarves in every shop were so hard to resist. Post shopping we headed back to the room to pack up a bit, and ready ourselves for our Haunted Ghost Tour we had scheduled for 930pm.

The tour was awesome. Ella our guide was dramatic (but not too much), sarcastic (in the funniest way possible) and just all around a cool gal for sure. We spent about 30mins above ground hearing ghost stories about the closes and winds (skinny alleyways between buildings) and then another 30mins in the vaults below the city.

The vaults were awesome! We were so deep below the streets you could not hear any street noise or see any natural light. It was all bricks, stone, rock and coldness. They had the place lit with candles (I am sure for effect) and some electric lights on the stairwell down. It was cold, it was damp and it was creepy! Good fun! Ella would stand with her candle in hand and tell the story of each of the ghosts in the vaults.

Post tour we of course had to snap a photo with this chick, she was just so cool. The picture does not do justice for her hair though – it was all purple, white, pink and teal dress locks. She had dragon earrings and a cape and funky heels on as well. What else would you expect from a trained historian turned Edinburgh ghost guide!?

Wrapping up the tour it was about 1030pm and we felt one last pint to toast our couple of days in Edinburgh was in order. So we headed to one of my favourite pubs, Deacon Brodie’s (yes that character again), and all enjoyed a cider while we chatted about our favourite moments of Edinburgh.