Our trip started off splendidly! Our Southwest flight was mostly empty, so we each enjoyed our own row on the 5-hr flight to LAX.
We usually stay at the Renaissance (our favorite LAX hotel to break up travel overnight), but thanks to a generous benefactor who shall remain unnamed, we were booked at the Hyatt Regency instead...and Lordy...we now have a new favorite hotel! It's closer to the airport, runs shuttles more frequently, and has stunning rooms/views/a winning breakfast buffet.
Breakfast was positively sinful. We indulged.
The next day, we went to LAX and anticipated crowds based on news articles...but it couldn't have been further from the exact opposite. I have NEVER seen LAX as empty as it was. It felt freakishly empty/abandoned.
We were thrilled to be on another half empty flight and each got our own row for the ten-hour flight...which always makes it so MUCH more comfortable! We made sure to wear N-95 masks to ensure we minimized our exposure to any COVID cooties. They were unpleasant, and fit quite snugly/uncomfortably, but it was one of the measures we pledged to take so we could be as safe/responsible as possible.
We landed mid-afternoon in Edinburgh. We learned before we traveled that the city is pronounced 'Ed-in-bruh.' Thanks to Rich's research in advance, we seamlessly caught an Uber over to the hotel, which was beyond anything I had ever experienced, and ended up being my favorite hotel on the trip.
I took few pictures on our first day in the city, as were tired, groggy and anxious to get to our room so we could sleep. Our cab driver did tell us that the country was close to being 90% vaccinated, and that for the most part- folks wore masks without incident (hello, Karen!), and that we would need to supply our vaccination cards to dine at most restaurants.
I did notice two things fairly quickly- the city was clean. Like, astonishingly clean. I can only recall Scandinavia (Sweden, Denmark, Iceland) being this clean and devoid of litter/homelessness/begging. Also, the saying that Scots are helpful and friendly? It was all true for us.
Our hotel (The Murrayfield) was a restored, historic mansion in an affluent suburb, and had all the charm one would expect with the cutest outdoor pub. Our room ended up being on the very top floor up three flights of stairs. I will not lie- after little to no sleep on the flight, carrying a heavy backpack up three flights of stairs...by the time we got up to the room, I was out of breath and nearly delusional with rage. But once we walked into our room...oooh man. It was so worth it- because our room was simply gorgeous, hospitable, spacious (it had two showers!) and quiet. From our room, we could directly see the large Murrayfield Stadium, which hosted a wild rugby match between Scotland and S. Africa while we were there.
We checked out the local area that day, which resulted in us loading up at a Tesco for provisions, and grabbing take out for dinner that night, as we were still in zombie mode. I want to say I passed out at 4pm that night, and then we all woke the next morning at 3:30am (a norm when we travel with the time difference that we did).
This meant we got a very bright and early start walking into the city...with no shortage of beauty as we saw home after home and inn after inn that were just beautiful to us. A few of the sites on our walk through upscale residential neighborhoods, past churches, historic buildings, schools, restaurants...
After weaving our way through a few city streets, I kept wondering when we would see the Castle...as I'd read that it loomed over the city. And literally, once we made a turn onto a tiny side street, we suddenly came upon the backside of Edinburgh Castle, which was perched high atop Castle Rock. It did not disappoint, is all I can say. Walking around it to the front made it clear how formidable it must have been to try and penetrate, back in the day.
We got there about 30 min before they opened at 9am, so we were literally the first in line, and the first into the castle. We had read it's best to skip to a few rooms located in the latter part of the castle self-guided tour to avoid crowds (such as viewing the Crown Jewels, so we did that and then doubled back later to the less popular sites.
Although we have been to our fair share of castles, like cathedrals...they never cease to be fascinating, and seem to be almost a city within a city.
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| Although this is just the guest bathroom at the castle, it had such ambiance! And it had those sinks where you can dry your hands right at the sink with a blast of warm air from the side of the tap...which I loved. |
After our castle tour (self guided, as COVID had cancelled most group tours nearly everywhere we went), we walked down the Royal Mile (main shoppping/dining promenade) over to St. Giles Cathedral. The shops were a bit...touristy. Gin shops, endless scarves/kilts, wool, wool and more wool. And not a single restaurant appeared to open before noon, and for starving tourists who had been up since 3:30pm, we were ready to chew off our arms.
Because we had to wait to eat lunch, we decided to tour the cathedral. It was built in the 1100s, so it's nearly 1,000 years old, and had Gothic-style architecture (my favorite). It's also notably not Catholic, as it's part of the Church of Scotland.
And just outside the cathedral, across the cobblestone street, we saw our first busker, which fittingly enough, was a man in kilt, playing his bagpipes.
Always amazed by the level of detail chiseled into stone with what could not have been more than semi-primitive tools and the stained glass, soaring arches...
After leaving the Cathedral, we walked the entire length of the Royal Mile down to the other end (Holyrod Palace). I have never been a huge souvenir person (unless it's a functional and beautiful item), so it wasn't hard to pass on the shops and head off to more natural beauty.
Our intention was to get to the very end of the city and walk over to Arthur's Seat and hike up to the top for a panoramic view of the city during the sunny, clear weather.
We thought the volcanic mountain ahead of us was Arthurs Seat, which looked like a formidable climb. But nope! It was actually the mountain BEHIND this one, and it was even higher!
The hill BEHIND Rich and Ryan was what we hiked up to. It's rare that a hike is MORE than we expect. As we are all in decent shape, when a guidebook says a hike is 'about 2 hours' for example, we can do it in 10-20 min less than that. In this case, it was described as being about '45 minutes' and 'mild,' so we were prepared for a leisurely stroll. I had on boots, a purse filled with a heavy guidebook, raingear, gloves, etc. I was prepared for sightseeing in the city, NOT a grueling death march up a steep mountain, whilst pouring sweat, trying to conserve water despite having a parched and dry mouth.
We took a break midway as I didn't want to soil coats we would need to wear daily for two weeks...as we were all panting/sweaty. However, once we got to the top, it did offer a stunning panoramic view of the city and we were all glad we'd done it despite grumbling about the deception of it being '45 minutes.'
We also knew that we were very lucky to see it on a clear day without the wind and rain whipping/soaking us and obscuring the view. I would like to say the walk down was not much easier, in that it was quite muddy/slippery and my boots had zero traction, despite being new. I was terrified of slipping and dirtying my boots/clothes/coat.
In all, we walked about 9 miles the day (after taking an uber back home), and I suffered a blister from my new boots, which wasn't ideal...but it felt so good to move after days of sitting on airplanes. And Edinburgh was a lot more charming architecturally than I'd expected! I had no expected the Harry Potter-esque vibe of the city buildings- very charming.
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