Euro trip - Nov 2019 - Part Three (Scotland Day 1)

18 Nov 2019 - Edinburgh and Roslin (Scotland, UK)

We arrived at the Edinburgh Waverley station bright and early (~7:25 AM). As we exited the train station on Princes Street, we got our first glimpse of Edinburgh... on the right side were "big" retail stores (an Apple store right across the station entrance/exit, a McDonald's a couple of blocks down, an H&M store, etc.) but straight ahead was the towering Scott Monument, on the left side of the street was the beautiful structures of the Old Town, and sitting on top of a hill, undoubtedly difficult to miss, was the magnificent Edinburgh Castle. I breathed a long and deep sigh. It was love at first sight.

And then we had to go look for a place to store our luggage for the day since it was too early to checkin at our AirBnb place. We researched beforehand and found a bus station that had storage lockers for rent not too far (though it seemed like miles away with all the luggage we were lugging) from the train station. Our bags stored, we head on to our first destination - Rosslyn Chapel.

1. Rosslyn Chapel is located in a wee village called Roslin, located about 45-60 min from Edinburgh. We, of course, sat on the very front seats on the 2nd level of the bus for maximum viewing. 

A nice tour guide lady, who told us the tour will be in English with a Scottish accent 😄, said a few things about the history of the chapel, how the number of visitors have exponentially increased since being featured in the The Da Vinci Code (both the book and the movie), and a few other interesting details about the chapel. No cameras allowed inside, unfortunately.

We made it out just in time for the next bus to Edinburgh; unfortunately, we were waiting at the bus stop on the right side of the street so the bus simply ignored us and went on its merry way. 😬

This gave us some time to take a few pictures of the village though so... silver lining, I suppose.

2. Mums Great Comfort Food - if I remember correctly, I think we had steak pie and sausages; I was so hungry at this point, I forgot to take pictures of our food. I only managed to remember when my tummy was happily enjoying a hot cocoa.

3. Edinburgh Castle - very interesting to learn about all the history (both the good and the horrifying) of this castle. There was too much too see and we sadly only had a couple hours to see them. And we thought we might be able to come back another day on this visit (we weren't).

4. Royal Mile - walked part of the Royal Mile on our way to our next stop for some afternoon tea. Yes, I know, we'd made it a habit by then; after all, when in Rome... (or in this case, when in the UK).

5. Deacon's House Cafe - not to be mistaken with Deacon Brodies Tavern right across the street, which we had.  After the initial confusion of seeing people standing around small tables drinking beer in what we thought was a Tea place, we figured we were in the wrong place after a mere few minutes. 😅  But, fortunately at last, we were enjoying our tea, scones, and shortbread cookies soon after, forgetting any embarrassment we may have felt at the tavern. 😁

6. Calton Hill -  There were two places we were considering for sunset viewing, both highly recommended by travel sites and articles we've read - Arthur's Seat and Calton Hill -- with a difference of about 500+ feet in elevation. Arthur's Seat has bigger and better views as it is higher up. But at the end of a very long day, pragmatism reigned over ambition.... we were maybe a little lacking physiologically to manage that trek so we decided on Calton Hill. It was about 10-15 min to walk up and ended up being one of my favorite places in Edinburgh, I think.

7. Our condo - After Calton Hill, we headed back to the bus station to get our luggage back and checkin to our place. It probably would not have been such a bad walk to do all that, but with 2 weeks worth of luggage in tow, it was definitely a workout, for us at least. 

We did manage to find the place without getting lost, and a couple of nice young people did help us carry our bags up some stairs... so I really shouldn't complain too much.

The place (location and the condo itself) was actually pretty nice, it was more than enough space for 2 people and the building where the condo is overlooked the Prince Street Gardens and was right beside The Writers' Museum.

8. Royal McGregor - After having regained some strength back from our forced "workout", we went out again in search of dinner. I always try to at least sample the local/traditional dishes when travelling, so after some explaining of what this dish I wanted to try was made of to Michelle and a little convincing because of said explaining, we tried Scotland's national dish - Haggis! (if you don't know what it is, google it... it sounds fun! 😜)  

We also tried this soup with fish and potatoes in it - Cullen Skink - strange name, but it was yummy! And because we were in Scotland, we had to try some whisky. Well, I had a sip and Michelle finished the rest of the glass. 😂

Haggis tower

Cullen Skink

To end our first day in Scotland, and perhaps to help digest the haggis faster 😁, we walked on the Royal Mile a little before going back to the condo. We went past The World's End pub -- this pub was featured in Outlander and has a very interesting history. Read the sign on the photo below and be amazed. 😎