Scotland: Entry@Edinburgh

For the first two weeks of July, Joan and I were in Scotland. We had signed up for Lindblad Expeditions' Highlands and Islands of Scotland trip, including the Edinburgh pre-cruise and Orkney post-cruise extensions.

With an overnight flight to Edinburgh (Continental has a direct flight from Newark) we avoided the horrid mess of Heathrow and arrived at an easy-to-navigate destination. Landing at 7:45 in the morning, which was 2:45am body-time, we maneuvered blearily through the airport and caught a taxi. At first it was raining off and on, a condition with which we would become intimately familiar. Scotland had been having its driest spring and summer in several decades before we came, so the water was welcome. In any event, it lightened up through the day, and did not impede our walks. 

We arrived at our hotel (Hotel du Vin) much too early to check into our room. The hotel is close to the Royal Mile, and a stone's throw from the National Museum; central Edinburgh is a walker's delight, and we needed to walk to stay awake. (Edinburgh, pronounced Edin-boro, was Edin-blur-o to us that first day!) We would be on our own until late afternoon. We started by going up and down the Royal Mile. In my jet-lagged state of mind, I didn't take many photographs the first day.

Here is the Canongate Tolbooth, which now houses the People's Story Museum, dedicated to showing the life of ordinary folk in Edinburgh through the centuries.

Just down the street is the Canongate Kirk, the parish church for Edinburgh Castle and Holyrood Palace, and hence the church for the Queen when she is visiting Edinburgh. It's smaller than St. Giles Cathedral, but has a deep history.

We also stopped in the National Museum long enough to take in a fascinating exhibit on the Lewis Chessmen. This exhibit was just the right length for our attenuated powers of attention.

Later in the afternoon our Edinburgh guide, Sue, took everyone who had arrived so far -- and had the energy -- to see the Royal Yacht Britannia. It was decommissioned in late 1997, as an expense-cutting move, and is now permanently docked in Edinburgh. The different decks of the ship are entered through matching levels of stairwell that connect the ship to a shopping mall, roughly as a launch pad gantry at Cape Canaveral connects to different points on a rocket. The tour includes an audio handset into which you punch a code at each station of the tour. Here's the bridge (station #1).

Because of the entry arrangements with the mall, it was impossible to get an overall photo of the yacht. Here is the royal limo, which was carried by the Britannia for many years, until destinations could be relied upon to have a suitable (and safe) vehicle for the Queen.

Being on a ship with the Queen led to many novel rules for the seamen. For example, they communicated by hand signals while swabbing the decks every morning, to not disturb the on-board royalty. If royalty appeared, the seamen froze into motionlessness, and thus did not need to be acknowledged. Hats were not worn, which meant that technically the seamen were not in uniform, so an exchange of salutes with royalty was not required.

Newly moored alongside the Britannia was the royal racing yacht Bloodhound (available for charter).

After the tour it was time for dinner, and then, finally, to bed. We ate at the hotel, which has a fine restaurant. My meal included a dessert of sticky toffee pudding, which I would have more than once on the trip.

Here are some photos from the hotel. First, the chandelier in the lobby, made from goblets.

If you smoked, there was a cigar bothy in the courtyard.

The door to our room had the doorknob in the center.

The next morning was bright and clear. The first activity was a city tour with Sue. We were introduced to various parts of the city via motor coach, with stops at either terminus of the Royal Mile, first at Holyrood Palace -- the Queen's official residence while in Scotland -- and then at Edinburgh Castle. The Palace was preparing for the Queen's visit in about two weeks; here Sue gives us an overview while standing in front of security barriers.

Joan and I dashed off to spend 15 minutes climbing the nearby footpath up Holyrood Park, giving us a panoramic vista.

Zooming in, here's Holyrood Palace from our viewpoint.

The new (and controversial) Scottish Parliament building next door faces the palace.

Looking down on a double-decker tourist bus.

Then our tour regrouped and drove on to Edinburgh Castle.

The Castle has been home to way too many battles, assassinations, and intrigues to count; it was the seat of power for Scottish royalty for hundreds of years. Here, a costumed interpreter is recounting the story of Mary Stuart, mother of James VI of Scotland (to become James I of England).

The Royal Jewels of Scotland are kept in the Castle -- you can view them, but no photographs are allowed. One stand-alone building within the Castle is St. Margaret's Chapel, an original 12th Century building.

Laich Hall has been restored to look as much as possible as it did in 1617.

The ramparts of the Castle are good for just catching your breath and gazing out over the city of Edinburgh.

After the Castle, our group tour was over, and we had the afternoon to roam. Joan and I discovered that the Castle is also imposing from the extensive gardens next to Princes Street.

On our way down to Princes Street, I took this telephoto view of the Sir Walter Scott Memorial. It's a bit over the top, but then it was the Victorian Age, and Edinburgh is proud of its successful sons, including Robert Louis Stevenson.

We set ourselves to hoofing about. Edinburgh is pedestrian-friendly, with a number of green walkways in the middle of the city following streams or other natural features.

Looking upstream from a small landing on the path.

A little further downstream was St. Bernard's Well, known to Joan through Alexander McCall Smith's Sunday Philosophy Club books...

We strolled down Ann Street, an elegant neighborhood, and then to the Royal Botanic Garden. Our visit to the Garden was brief, for we needed to walk all the way back to our hotel to clean up for our group dinner. We took a more-or-less direct line from the west gate to the east gate, pictured here, which was undergoing renovation.

Our route back took us through New Town, where we had spotted this sign and cafe during the earlier bus tour.

We had just a few minutes in which to hastily visit Greyfriars Kirk.

Then it was off to a group dinner. The most memorable flavor of the night was a whisky; I'm not a whisky drinker (for Scotch, that's 'whisky' without an 'e', no matter what spellcheck may say), but Russell, sitting across from me, was savoring his wee dram, and praising its intense peat-infused aromas and taste. He offered me a sip -- it was peaty, sure enough, sufficiently to be interesting, but nowhere as tasty, to my way of thinking, as red wine.

The next morning we all gathered for the drive by motor coach to Inverness to join the main group and board the good ship Lord of the Glens. Almost immediately we crossed the Firth of Forth on the Forth Road Bridge. Here's a bus-window snapshot of the view:

Just east of the Road Bridge is the older Railway Bridge.

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Each section of this engineering marvel of its day looks like this.

Then we were across the Firth, out of Edinburgh, and truly on our way to the Scottish Highlands.