One of the best parts of our trip was taking the little ferry from Skye back to mainland Scotland through a real-life Mists of Avalon. Worth getting up at o’dark-thirty for:
The train ride along the west coast of Scotland is in all the travel books as one of the most beautiful journeys around. This time we just enjoyed the view and didn’t try to take photos, except for one or two of the bridge that’s in all the Harry Potter movies.
Got to our Edinburgh hotel by early evening and had enough time to walk the Royal Mile. Locals and tourists were spilling from every bar into the street, giddy with the 80-degree weather (another Seattle moment) and were still partying when we finally called it a day at ten.
We only had one full day to see Edinburgh and no car, so we stuck to the historic downtown area. I still have the photos from my high school trip and I can attest that after twenty-four years, all the old stuff is the same if you can find it under the heavy layer of marketing.
Edinburgh is full of history and a list of what we saw would be encyclopedic so here’s an illustrated list of highlights:
- Tour bus: not as fun as the Hop On, Hop Off in Dublin, but still a great way to meet a city.
- New Parliament building designed to “blend in” with the rest of the city: FAIL.
- Storming the castle: Beautiful, but it’s so refurbished and commercialized it feels like a replica at Disneyland. But I did learn more about it this time since we wore those headphones with the taped audio guide. (Kevin and I are now fairly proficient in Travel Geek Sign Language.)
- Changing of the guard: Real women wear kilts and carry big guns.
- Heart of Midlothian: The brick mosaic on the Mile where executions used to take place. Tradition says you’re supposed to spit on it for good luck, which I guess is why there’s very little marketing for this particular landmark.
- IRN-BRU: Somewhere along the Mile, Kevin bought a bottle of this local refreshment which contains about two grams of speed and tastes like liquid Jolly Rancher.
- Elephant House: Cafe that supposedly tolerated an impoverished JK Rowling while she wrote the first Harry Potter. Dubious claims aside, they serve Guinness and are nice to tourists so they are ok in my book.
Fell into bed exhausted and watched some made-for-tv movie starring Julie Walters about a matron who “cleaned up” English television in the 60′s. It had amusing undertones of repressed sexuality, but seriously, I do not need to see Molly Weasley get her tits out.
On the way to the airport the next day, posted a blog via the free wireless on the bus. Sweet.
On the plane home, I tried to recline my seat and got pushed back up by the old Scottish lady behind me. Her old Scottish husband poked Kevin in the back, too. We asked them if there was a problem and they said yes, you’re reclining your seats. So we settled the argument by feeding theirs to them. (Alas, no photo available.)
And on that civilized note, thus endeth the BritBlog. It’s great to have had the best of both worlds: a wonderful trip and happy to be home.
Have so enjoyed hearing about the trip and seeing the photos. This one looks like the Loch Ness monster should be rising from the mist. And what about that Scottish couple?? I’d like to do that when people recline, but to actually try it…..
Was bummed that we didn’t get to see old Nessie while we were there. And I guess old Scottish people are uppity, too!