Day Thirteen: Edinburgh

Today we traveled by train, from Glasgow to Edinburgh. By train they are about 45 min apart. However, getting to the train was a little adventure in itself. We had to take the train from Paisley (where Peter lives) to Glasgow and then walk from that train station to another train station to go to Edinburgh. Today was a miserably cold and rainy day, and on top of that we left our umbrella at the train stop in Paisley. So our walk in Glasgow we got a little wet. Thankfully, as we made our way from the first train station in Glasgow to the train station that would take us to Edinburgh we found a Starbucks. The light shinning down on the sign as we turned the corner was like a sign from God to come in out of the rain for a few min and warm up. That might have been a little dramatic but we were pretty miserable. With our Starbucks in hand we made it to the train and relaxed as we road through the Scottish countryside to Edinburgh.

Edinburgh

"Edinburgh combines medieval relics, Georgian grandeur and a powerful layer of modern life with contemporary avant-garde. In Edinburgh, medieval palaces rub shoulders with the best of modern architecture, Gothic churches with amazing museums and galleries." (http://wikitravel.org/en/Edinburgh)

We only had one day to tour the city and by the time we got there from Glasgow it was already mid-morning. The best way to tour a city on a tight time schedule is to take a hop on hop off bus. You can see all the major site and choose a few to hop off and visit, but you get a good general idea of the city just by taking the bus tour. Plus with the not so great weather, being inside the warm covered bus was a plus. The sites we did get off the bus for were The Edinburgh Castle, the Royal Mile, and The Elephant Cafe.

Edinburgh Castle

The Castle sits on top of Castle Rock where the earliest royal occupancy dates back to the 12th century. It is located at the beginning of the Royal Mile, the west end of Edinburgh's Old Town. It is the most visited paid-tourist attraction in Scotland, so be aware, there will be long lines to get in and lots of people around. Warning for people with limited mobility, the castle is built on a steep rock, so there are lots of hills and steps. Fortunately the castle provides mobility vehicles to transfer those who have trouble maneuvering the steep slops. You can request a ride from a uniformed Castle staff on the esplanade or make arrangements in advance through their website (click here for more information on Accessibility). Thankfully the rain held off until me and Jen toured the Castle. The castle itself is very interesting and fun to walk around, and you get amazing views of all of Edinburgh from the Castle. Also you can view the Crown Jewels of Scotland here.

The Royal Mile

Next we walked a little ways down the Royal Mile. The Royal Mile is a stretch of road that runs downhill from The Edinburgh Castle to Holyrood Palace (the royal palace in Scotland). It is full of shops, restaurants and pubs, as well as, lots and lots of tourist. The best way to do the mile is from the Castle to the Palace, because it is a little downhill. We didn't walk the whole mile but used the hop on hop bus, it stops a different spots along the mile.

The Elephant Cafe

We stopped here for our sister-in-law Cally. The Elephant Cafe is known as the birthplace of Harry Potter. The Author, J.K. Rowling, spent her time writing Harry Potter at this cafe. Jen and I aren't huge Harry Potter fans, but Cally is, so we picked up some souvenirs and snapped some pictures, but we also had lunch. It was actually really really good, we had a chicken pot pie, and vegetable quiche. Both were full of flavor and warmed us on a cold rainy day.

After a little more shopping and finishing up riding the hop on hop off bus around we got back on the train for Glasgow. Peter picked us up at the train station and we went out to dinner to celebrate his birthday.

We had dinner at Two Fat Ladies. Everything tasted wonderful; we had a warm goat cheese salad, bacon wrapped chicken and chocolate pot-de-creme. Afterwards we relaxed at Peter's and watched some more Faulty Towers before packing to leave in the morning.