August 27, 2019 

Tuesday. 

Margaret here.  Today we are getting ready for the next phase of this adventure. Here’s a recap of the last few days.

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• Friday.  We took an Uber to the stop for the Hop-on-Hop-Off Bus.  We’ve found that this is a great way to understand the layout of a city and find places that interest us. We got off at Holyrood Castle, no photos allowed inside.  For me, this was one of the highlights of Edinburgh.  Got to see bedroom of Mary Queen of Scots. Toured the National Museum of Scotland’s early years exhibit (pre-historic through Roman). I think I was more interested in this than Mike, although the Roman artifacts did catch his eye.  Then briefly we visited the St. Giles Cathedral because they closed early for an event.

• Saturday.  Back to the National Museum of Scotland for more history. Then an awesome visit to Scottish National Gallery.  Returned to St. Giles, and you will find many photos of this magnificent cathedral.  Dinner at Sheep Heid Inn, recommended by Rick Steves, and established in 1360.

• Sunday.  We had booked a Viator tour to Hadrian’s Wall.  We met up with our tour group at 8:00 a.m.  Our guide, Robbie, was one of the best.  It was a full day of sightseeing the beautiful Scottish countryside, learning about the wall and its history, and stopping at quaint small towns.

• Monday. We had tickets to Edinburgh Castle that were part of the hop-on/hop-off bus, so we were able to bypass the crowds waiting to buy tickets.  Mike can talk about the castle. 

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Tuesday Aug 27th   

Mike here. 

I always have good intentions of posting timely material but we were up and out and back and tired.  Posting always waits until my ear (Lug in Scottish slang) gets twisted.

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Wednesday.  Long flight to Glasgow.  Having 2 Newark United Club passes helped pass a long layover from O’Hare.  Delayed plane and taxiway congestion kept our travel clock ticking.  Customs at Glasgow was an automated walkthrough.  Fast train to Edinburgh.  For some reason they only sell round trip tickets, not expensive, 13 pounds each, threw away the same day return.  Ubered to our B&B.  Nice big room.  Nice host.  Found a couple of walking distance places for lunch and dinner.  We managed to get a 3 hour nap in and still had a full nights sleep.  Very nice.

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Thursday. Tattoo day

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Friday.  The tour of Holyrood Palace was more interesting than I expected since the normal rooms on the tour are used for palace events, the ropes come down, rug unrolled and the furniture rearranged for use.  Creeping up the spiral staircase to Queen Mary’s bedchamber gave us the feeling of how powerless  a pregnant woman must have felt as her crazy husband burst up the stairs with his henchmen to kill her Italian secretary. No wonder she left the Palace and fled to the Castle to give birth to her son.

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Saturday.  We followed Rick Steve’s self-serving advice and tore out the Edinburgh section of his Scotland tour guide to carry with us.  It really was a good way to keep his reference handy (Thanks Moe for buying us the book).  We had scheduled a second day of hop on/hop off bus but one day was enough for us.  The expanded ticket included fast pass tickets to Holyrood, the Castle and the yacht.  We didn’t make it to the yacht but certainly used the other two tickets during our stay.  Walking through the packed Festival crowds wore us out and we were more than ready to have dinner at a quieter location.  Rick to rescue!  The very last paragraph on the very last page of the torn out Edinburgh section referenced an old quiet pub well away from the craziness on the Royal Mile area.  A quick taxi ride and we were relaxing in a half full pub with pretty good pub food.

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Sunday.  Hadrian’s Wall!  Up early and a quick start for our 10+ hour tour.  We were last in line for our small tour bus and I got a folding, jumper seat up front next to the driver.  I had the best view on the bus and my sore knee appreciated the extra leg room.  As soon as we decided to come to Scotland, I felt the need to visit Hadrian’s wall.  I explained this to Margaret by saying that her ancestors (according to her Ancestory DNA test her northern Italian genes were 46% French) had come face to face with my ancestors at the wall.  Sure enough a Cohort from Gaul (pre France) had manned the fort we toured.  Hah!  Our trip mostly avoided highways and took a scenic, circle route to leave and return to Edinburgh.  A long but enjoyable day viewing the Wall and the rolling countryside.  Our guide was a font of information.  His explanation of the border area and the the constant back and forth destruction that gave rise to Reaver (robber, raider) families for generations.  He mentioned that when the Reavers were finally cleaned out many emigrated.  Reaver family names like Kennedy and Nixon came to America.

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Monday.  Edinburgh Castle at last.  The castle is built on a huge plug of volcanic rock and dominates Edinburgh.  Some of Margaret's pictures show how dominant a feature it is to this area.  Since it has always been an active military installation, everything is focused on that function.  They let us tourists in and sell us stuff. But you get the feeling that the gates could close at any time and the gloves would come off.  Nice museums are inside the fort.  We got to tour the Scottish Crown Jewels (one crown, long state sword and scepter)  and the Scone stone.  No pictures allowed in here or in the Scottish War Memorial.  I was unsettled looking at the huge carvings for the famous Scottish regiments in WWI.  Each of the regiments seem to have lost at least 10,000 men.  Grim reminders of English generals and their indifference to casualties, long learning curve and upper class officers.  No Black Jack Pershing or Omar Bradley here!  The Scottish War Museum’s most interesting exhibit was a long video exploring the rise of Scottish Regiments and their importance to England and to Scottish pride and the decline of this influence as England’s importance on the world stage waned and the famous Scottish regiments were combined and/or disbanded altogether.  Makes the Tattoo a hint of former glory.  Getting to the castle early was a good tip. (thanks again, Rick)  As we were leaving we pushed through a large crowd coming in.

 

 

Thursday, August 22, 2019

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(Mike’s version)  It’s Tattoo Day!  The lovely, organized, world traveling daughter, Maureen, got the four of us tickets to the Tattoo several months earlier and today is the day.  Margaret has posted several pictures and videos of the Tattoo and I will let them speak for themselves. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, Moe and I perhaps more than our spouses.  I did not expect the range of participation by other non-commonwealth countries.  France, Germany, Nigeria, China, Trinidad and Tobago sent groups to perform. 

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Before the Tattoo, we took time to explore Edinburgh.  We had a 3 hour walking tour with a local father/son firm and Richard Usher did a great job walking and talking us through the old town.  We didn’t go into the venues (Castle, museums, churches) but walked to and around them.  It’s a hilly town built on a series of ancient plugged volcanos.  They keep talking about the plugged volcanos like it’s a thing.  The result is a hilly, medieval town with narrow streets and sudden elevation changes.  The street you are on with a 5 story building if viewed from the much lower adjacent street has 3 or 4 lower levels.  We ate dinner in the basement of a restaurant that still had windows 2 levels up from the lower street.  To move around most efficiently involves narrow alley shortcuts usually with steep stairs.  In earlier times these alleys had gates that could be used to block access in the evenings hence their name, Closes.  Most of the gates are gone but the steep, endless stairs remain.  They also have short narrow dead-end alleys and slightly bigger cart-friendly alleys for merchants.  Most surprising to me was how google maps used the Closes to map the most direct path.  I kept looking for the button that would let me select longer routes without stairs.

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After the Tattoo and the flood of people all trying to get to other places, we elected to walk the 1.7 miles back to our B&B since it was all downhill from the Tattoo and the castle. 

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For the day we exceeded 16,000 steps and were happy to crash into our bed.

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(Margaret’s version)  Our walking tour was one of the best guided tours we’ve had on our travels.  We learned much about the history of Edinburgh and Scotland and many famous people. The statue of Adam Smith brought back memories of graduate school.  And the coffee shop where J.K. wrote Harry Potter; and the cemetery where she found names for many of her characters.  We learned of hangings and of serial killers and the basis of the story of Dr. Jeckel and Mr. Hyde.

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After a short break, we headed for the Museum of Scotland.  I was most interested in the history, and we began with prehistoric exhibits, which included a large number of Roman artifacts found in Scotland.  The museum layout is kind of hodge-podge, but the exhibits are very well done.  We only had the “chi” for that one area, but I’m hoping we will be able to return to see more.

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We found an Italian restaurant on King George IV Bridge, and met up with Todd and Maureen for a really nice dinner.  Then walked to the Tattoo.

 

 

Wednesday, August 21, 2019

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Margaret here. 

 

We flew from Chicago to Newark, knowing we had a 5-hour layover before our flight to Glasgow.  Not to worry -- we had United Club passes which provided us with free food and drinks, comfortable seating, and charges for our electronics.  On arrival to our gate, we learned that our flight would be delayed one hour.  Well, one thing we've learned from our travels is to "go with the flow", and that's a good thing, because after we finally boarded our plane, we sat at the gate for another hour before takeoff.  Lucky for us, the third seat in our row was vacant, so we could spread out.  And since we had opted to not pay for additional leg room, this worked out well.

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On landing, I knew we were in Scotland when I looked out of the window and saw two soccer fields and a golf course.  We sailed through customs (thanks, Scotland), and took an Uber to the train station.  Problem was, we went to the wrong station.  But, there is a free bus to the other station, which took us swiftly there.  It was a little confusing, as there is quite a bit of construction and few signs.  The train ride to Edinburgh was uneventful, pleasant actually, and we were able to get an Uber to our B&B without issue.

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When we booked our B&B, we followed Rick Steve's advice, which is usually pretty good.  It turns out that we are almost two miles away from Edinbourgh attractions.  So we expect to be using Uber frequently this week.

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Our room is quite nice, large enough and comfortable, with a four-poster bed.  Our host, Steve, was very helpful, and recommended the Salisbury Arms for lunch.  It was a short walk, and we were not disappointed.  Charming place, and the food was very good.

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Back to the room to unpack, check our itinerary, and refreshing three-hour nap.  

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Then another walk uphill and we found the Aviary restaurant, a quaint local place with a delightful server and excellent food.  We are now back in the room, anxiously awaiting tomorrow's adventures.

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