This year our girls trip took us to Scotland! My friends like Outlander, and I like going new places, so we set off for the Highlands (and the Lowlands, because Edinburgh is the Lowlands, while Inverness is the gateway to the Highlands). This post will just be about Edinburgh though.
Day 1 in Edinburgh
We flew in and out of the Edinburgh airport and took the train to St. Andrews Square because we were hungry and needed to wait for Kara to join us from England. This brings us to my first vegetarian full Scottish breakfast at The Ivy! We just randomly found it on Google maps and it was perfect to chill for a while.
Afterwards, we met up with Kara at Waverly Station and paid to stash our bags for a few hours because we couldn't check into our Airbnb for a while. This is one downside of Airbnb vs. hotels, but we wanted an apartment with our own rooms, which is why we went this route.
From there we either took a double decker bus tour or went to the Witchery for tea. I was so tired from not sleeping on the plane I can't remember which, but I think the bus tour was first.
This is afternoon tea at the Witchery. It was cozy, dark, and a great place to warm up after the chilly bus tour.
Staying awake all day until Scottish bedtime was my only goal for day 1. I made it.
Day 2 in Edinburgh
We took an Outlander tour with Rabbie's tours. My friends booked it and said I would enjoy it historically, not just Outlander-ly and they were spot on. I did get a little tired of castles but we saw a lot of Edinburgh in a day.
This is where the Knights Who Say Ni bit of Monty Python was filmed. I didn't really recognize it because I haven't seen Monty Python since high school. It was neat though.
And the colors in the scenery changed all day to various blues and greens. This is the castle in Lilinthgow where Mary Queen of Scots was born. We didn't go into this castle but we did eat lunch in the cute little downtown they have.
And even though I don't know anything about Outlander it was cool that our guide is a stuntman/extra on the show!
Edinburgh Day 3
This was a mostly unstructured day until the evening where we had scheduled a tour of the Holyroodhouse Palace. During the day we started off with breakfast and coffee and mostly just walked up and down the Royal Mile.
We did veer off into the Old Carlton Burial Ground and went what felt like completely vertical scaling that hill. We were rewarded with incredible views.
We got this awesome view of Arthur's Seat without having to hike it!
From there we went to Victoria Street aka the inspiration for Diagon Alley in Harry Potter. It's also just really pretty! It was fun to walk around it, and there were several touristy gotta-see-em spots along the way.
We rested a bit in the afternoon and went back the the Holyroodhouse Palace. I really enjoyed looking for the unicorn coat of arms more than I was into the history. The unicorn is Scotland's national animal because nothing can beat a unicorn (since it doesn't exist). Cool logic, I'll accept it.
It was cool because we got to go into one of the rooms Queen Elizabeth was brought to for her royal funeral tour. Connecting with something sooo old and historical is a bit abstract feeling, but being able to connect it to something more of our times helped.
Next I'll share about the Inverness portion of our trip!
