Coming from the north, we entered Edinburgh by crossing the Firth (estuary) of Forth. The road bridge at the time (2005) wasn’t anything special (a gorgeous new bridge opened in 2017), but the rail bridge is a bright red, cantilevered bridge opened in 1890. At the time it was built, it was the longest cantilevered bridge in the world. The bridges span from North Queensferry to South Queensferry. The queen was Margaret, wife of Malcolm Canmore (son of the Duncan that MacBeth murders in Shakespeare’s play). The two Queensferrys were originally small villages, between which the ferry ran, that have been swallowed up by Edinburgh.
This time, we stayed at the George Hotel on George Street in the New Town, across the street from the Hard Rock Cafe. The hotel was created in the 1880s from five 18th century town homes (it has been added onto over the years, so it has an old part and a new part). Its style at this visit was Victorian (they have since updated the hotel to a more modern style). The room Mom and I had was in the old part of the hotel overlooking George Street. A full Scottish breakfast was included. One of the things that I really like about the full Scottish breakfast is that it includes porridge (oatmeal). It helps keep me plenty full until whatever time lunch comes along.
The included morning tour took us to Edinburgh Castle and Holyrood Palace. Then we had the rest of the day free. Since Mom and I didn’t plan to join in with the Scottish Night (since we partook on another tour), we had the evening and night free as well. After having lunch in the undercroft of a church near the hotel (some churches throughout the UK have small cafes with home-cooked food at a very reasonable price), we walked over to the Waverly Bridge (right by the train station and in the shadow of the Scott Memorial) and caught a Hop-On Hop-Off bus tour. There are several of them. I like the ones with live commentary and always at least figure out which one I want, and possibly even book it, in advance.
Our first stop was Charlotte Square in New Town. There is a Georgian Townhouse at No. 7 that is furnished as it would have been back when the house was new. It was designed by Robert Adam and is open to the public. The kitchen and wine cellar (as well as the gift shop) are in the basement. On the ground floor are the dining room in front and the master bedroom at the back. The first floor has the withdrawing room and the parlor. The second and third floors haven’t been restored and aren’t open to the public, but they would have contained bedrooms.
The residence of the First Minister of Scotland (aka Butte House) is right next door at No. 6. The First Minister is the leader of the Scottish government. This house, which is much larger than the Georgian Townhouse, was also designed by Robert Adam in the late 18th century. Much like No.10 Downing Street in London is used by the Prime Minister as both a residence and place of business this house is used in the same way. It is not open for public tours. We thought it was really interesting that we could walk right by it and visit the house next door to it as the entirety of Downing Street is cordoned off and heavily guarded.
Once we got back onto the Hop-On Hop-Off bus, we stayed on until we reached Greyfriars Bobby Pub in the Old Town. Out in front of the pub is a statue of the Skye Terrier who sat faithfully by the grave of his master in Greyfriars Kirk Yard (church yard) until his own death nearly 14 years later. People in the pub used to feed him. When he died, he was buried just inside the entrance to the kirk yard. Sticks and dog toys are frequently left at the grave, though there were none there the day Mom and I visited – just some flowers.
At the Scottish Parliament, Mom realized she had some small scissors in her bag just before we would have needed to send our bags through the x-ray. It was about that time that I remembered I had a Swiss Army knife – one with several knives, a couple screwdrivers, scissors, some small pliers, a bottle opener and a corkscrew. Since we would have had to surrender these items forever in order to enter the building and tour the inside of it, we chose to forego that idea and go over to Holyrood Palace to spend some time in the gift shop and café. After that we hopped back onto the tour bus and rode it all the way back to Waverly Bridge.
Since we had a nice cream tea at Holyrood and our hotel room had a fridge, we decided not to go out to dinner later and picked up some items at the Sainsbury’s on the way back to the hotel. We got some bread, cheese, pate, fruit, milk for me, iced tea for her, and some ice cream for dessert. Then we relaxed and watched some TV back in the room after getting everything set to depart Scotland for the Lake District of England, the town of Chester, and Northern Wales the following day.
