Nae Haggis Fer Me Dontcha Ken

Well, it's our last night in Edinburgh. Since our arrival Thursday afternoon we've gotten in our 5 miles of walking per day (over 6 many days) which may not seem too bad until you realize that Edinburgh is a city built on a handful of hills and that for some reason it seems like anywhere we wanted to go it was up hill.

After our big night of tea and Duran Duran on Thursday, Friday morning we got up and headed over to the Royal Mile to do the Real Mary King's Close tour. As Edinburgh was a walled city, as well as one built on a hill, as the city population grew, the town expanded up and down rather than outward. In the past decade many of these underground dwellings in the various closes (narrow alleys that ran between the buildings and neighborhoods) have been excavated and a handful offer tours-- often ghost tours although we did just the regular tour but did hear a couple tales of ghosts along the way.

So I lied. After the tour we did walk downhill to Clarinda's, my favorite tea room in Edinburgh. After a lovely lunch we then proceeded to the bottom of the Royal Mile to visit Holyrood Palace, home to the Queen when she's in town as well as former residence of Mary Queen of Scots and all those Jameses that were the kings of Scotland over the years. Another change in the ten plus years since I've been here is that devolution occurred and a new Scottish parliament building has been erected across the street from Holyrood so that was a shock to see-- very modern opposite the centuries old-- quite a contrast.

The palace itself was as lovely as ever and has a wonderful audio tour now. The day we were visiting the Queen's archers were having a shoot off against the archers of Arden and we witnessed them being piped into lunch. We were hoping to see some of the competition after we finished wandering around the palace and the abbey ruins but it was raining and they were obviously having a leisurely lunch. As I’ve only been to Scotland in November and March, the gardens of Holyrood were never open but they were on Friday so despite the drizzle we walked through and chatted for a while with one of the tour guides who was from Leith and recommended a good restaurant in Newhaven for us to visit on our trip there.

For dinner Friday night we headed over to Rose Street, part of the Georgian section of town. Rose Street is lined with pubs and restaurants and we ate at Milnes, another Edinburgh tradition although it hasn’t remained as good as Clarinda’s has-- it seems to be the place a lot of locals go to drink rather than eat and it was packed. After dinner we wandered around the new town area of Georgian townhouses until the rain drove us back to the hotel.

Saturday was another gloomy day when we woke up so we decided to focus on an indoor activity for the morning and made our way to the National Museum of Scotland. We arrived before it opened so spent a few minutes saying hello to the statue of Greyfriar’s Bobby and then poking around in the cemetery at Greyfriar’s Kirk. Becky bought a book on the underground tour about what life was like in Edinburgh during that time and part of it had freaked her out a bit as the last couple chapters were ghost stories. One particular ghost, Bloody MacKenzie, was said to make his way from the graveyard at Greyfriar’s so of course I had to hunt down his tomb, which was really quite impressive. There were also a ton of gravestones carved with skulls, bones and skeletons on them. I don’t remember that from before.

The National Museum is yet another new building since I was here last. Before the collection was in a museum off Princes Street in little cases with objects labeled that was quaintly dated. Now, the new construction is very modern and the displays are interactive and edgy. We looked at a bunch of the iron age artifacts with new appreciation after Jennifer’s lectures last week and also went through the section on modern Scottish life but just breezed through the middle section as we wanted lunch and the Witchery awaited.

The Witchery and its Secret Garden is yet another Edinburgh culinary tradition and it was every bit as lovely and delicious as I remember-- pea soup with pesto, fisherman’s pie and a nice glass of chenin blanc. Scrumptious. After lunch we tried to visit the castle but after waiting in line for tickets for about 20 minutes and not moving much, we bagged that and headed to the Whisky Heritage Center. Again, more changes in town-- while the barrel ride still exists, it’s been revamped into a high tech display of how whiskey is made followed by a tasting and then visit to the world’s largest collection of whiskey which is stored at the Center. It was informative but I must admit I miss the stuffed dog from the diorama display in the old barrel ride.

After a bit of shopping we returned to the hotel room and ventured out later to make our way back to the castle to see if we could hear any of the Simple Minds concert. Of course, it started raining as we left the hotel and by the time we got to the Royal Mile there was a torrential downpour. We sheltered under the overhang at the Missoni Hotel with a bunch of concert goers and tourists. After waiting for about 20 minutes or so, we decided to head back to the hotel as the rain let up a tiny bit and the music still hadn’t started. Of course, the minute we got to the end of the North Bridge and I remarked that we really should be able to hear at least a tiny bit of the concert from there, the first strains of music started but by that point we were far too wet to stay around and listen. Instead we came back to the room, changed and went to dinner in the hotel bar.

This morning we decided to treat ourselves to breakfast at Clarinda’s, only to discover they opened 30 minutes later than we thought so as we wandered and waited for them to open, we discovered a tiny public park setback off one of the closes at the lower end of the Royal Mile. We walked around in there a bit and then visited the cemetery at the nearby church (I have a thing for old cemeteries). After breakfast, we tried the castle again--- and again the line was humongous-- even longer than the day before so we gave up.

It was such a glorious morning-- sunny and warm with blue sky, that we just walked around and took some photos and did a little shopping before coming back to the hotel to dump our stuff and head to Leith, the waterfront area of the Edinburgh. Leith was lovely-- cool condos on the river, lots of restaurants, evidently the hot spot to live in Edinburgh right now. We walked around a bit and then trudged over to Newhaven, which is a fishing village and harbor area and where, per the guide at Holyrood, we ate lunch at the Peacock Inn. If you ever get to Newhaven I highly recommend the “ladies portion” of haddock and chips. After that it was bus ride back to the hotel and we’ve been packing up and getting ready to catch a very early train tomorrow. Becky heads for the Manchester airport while I head for Esther’s on the border of Southern Wales and England. I’m there for a few days and then, if there is space available, I think I’m going to head back to St. Deiniol’s for another week to do some writing and take a few more day trips around Wales. After the hustle and bustle of Edinburgh, it will be nice to have some peace and quiet again. I won’t have computer access at Esther’s so adventures from there will be posted after I get to my next locale. Until then, enjoy the pictures of Edinburgh in the sun as it’s a rare site!