Time for another adventure… This time, we’re off to Edinburgh, to spend a few days, and see some old stuff. (It’s what we like doing.) We had an overnight flight from Nashville, to Heathrow, then a quick hop from London to Edinburgh. The scotch on the plane sucked, but otherwise, not a bad flight. It was the British Airways direct flight from BNA to LHR. You jump on, have a snack and a drink, and then pop a sleeping pill and go to sleep for 6 hours.
Time to head out…
About 20 hours later…
First things first. Nap, food, drink… I was really impressed that they had Mac’s in the business center of the hotel. I mean, come on, I love me a Mac. And yeah, I know. Redbreast is Irish, but damn it’s so good. The last photo, is breakfast. A full Scottish is very similar to a full English, plus Haggis. I wasn’t sure how I would feel about Haggis, but it turns out, I’d make an excellent Scotsman, since I absolutely loved it.
Time at the Bar
Unfortunately, I didn’t get any photos of them, but we met an absolutely lovely local couple at the bar. They gave us all kinds of advice on things to see, do and places to eat. The nice part of it, was these weren’t touristy places, and they were very affordable. We stayed at the Marriott Delta property close to the airport. The room was nice, the place was clean, and the staff was over the top helpful. We also learned, that there was a tram line, that ran about a 1/4 mile away, that went straight downtown.
Steak Pies
These can change your life. I love some steak pies. These things are warm, and yummy, and will warm ya up on a cold day.
The Royal Mile
This is what Edinburgh is truly known for. It starts at the castle, and goes to the church, at the bottom of the hill, and it’s about 1 1/4 miles long. There are tons of shops, bars, restaurants, and museums. It’s touristy at it’s absolute best. There are alley’s, and alcoves with hidden gems everywhere, and really interesting people.
Scotch Museum
We took a tasting tour, and one of the things that they had, was one of the worlds largest collections, of Scotch. This was a private collection, that someone took an entire lifetime to build, and ended up selling it to the museum. They taught us one thing. I’m not a huge fan of heavily peeted whiskey. I’m a bourbon and Irish guy. There are some Scotch’s I enjoy, but I’m really not a huge fan.
The Scottish Highlands
Anything north of Glasgow and Edinburgh, is considered the Highlands. This includes Loch Ness, Inverness and most of the islands. Here’s a bunch of photos, including one of Nessie if you look hard enoguh. The cows. Called “Wooly Coos”, are neat, and very friendly. I will give you some advice. Take this tour during the summer. We did it in mid April, and it was entirely too cold and rainy.
Fun Fact!
Urquhart Castle located on Loch Ness... During our tour of the highlands and Loch Ness, our guide Maj, (If you click his name, he has tons of photos up of the tours.) told us it’s one of the most visited set of Ruins in the country. He said “Why is it called ruins? Cause the last guy who lived there ruined it.” It’s true, they literally tried to blow it up on the way out the door, to keep it from getting taken over again.
Birthday Dinner!
My birthday is April 11th. I figured since I was going to be in Scotland for my Birthday this year, we should absolutely visit a Gordon Ramsay restaurant. Much to my disappointment, they were out of Wellingtons that night, but the meal, was still good, and they went out of their way to make me feel special.
Other random photos… Mostly of food…
One of the restaurants that the local couple told us about, was “Toby Carvery”. That was something awesome. They are a chain in the UK, and if you’re into good buffets, they rock. We ended up eating there twice. Once for DInner, and then once for breakfast. Side note. They were one of the few places that had drip coffee. Sounds wierd, but it was nice to get a decent cup once.
They also recommended a place by the name of “Alexander Graham Bell’s”, which I had no idea he was Scottish, but he was!
Time to head off to the next city…
Not quite the platform to Hogwarts, but it’ll have to do. Funny story. Patti left her purse in the first class lounge. This photo, was immediately before she realized this, and did a 5K in 5 minutes flat, through the Edinburgh train station. We’re shocked she made it back in time, but the gods were smiling on us that day. She did get her purse back, and we were off to London for a few days, before we fly out to Rome.
