The Airlink bus goes directly from the terminal to the heart of the city centre and for £6 return it was great value. I thought it was even better value when I got off and found the little information men that help you find where you’re going, until it was pointed out to me that he was just a kindly bus inspector waiting for us to get off so that he could get on!!
I was thrilled with my first glimpse of Edinburgh from our arrival point of Waverley Bridge, so after checking into our hotel to leave the overnight bags, we headed up to the High Street which is part of The Royal Mile. I immediately started snapping away at the beautiful houses and roofs which were a really distinctive ‘step’ design.
We wandered along looking in all the nice shops which seemed to be a good mix of boutique style shops (selling tartan of course!), souvenir shops, cafés and restaurants.
I’d picked up one of the Berlitz pop-out maps – if you’re visiting a city, get yourself one! I always use them and the only slight hiccough was when we accidentally walked to the Vatican city from the centre of Rome because it was only about an inch on the map. It's actually flipping miles away!
Anyway, in Edinburgh there were no such disasters as everything is super compact and we actually passed a couple of the things I wanted to see without realising. The first was the Mercat Cross (above). ‘Mercat’ is the Scottish word meaning ‘Market’ and this octagonal monument did not only signify the market, but also the site of public torture and punishment at the hands of the Edinburgh mob for any miscreants.
Just next to the Mercat Cross is St. Giles Cathedral. From the outside, I never expected such a beautiful interior, and it looked like it could easily have been part of the set for Cadfael (not that I will embarrass myself by admitting that I used to watch that).
I am such a fan of Gothic style architecture that I was in hog’s heaven. It was even better when one of the volunteers accompanied me to explain all about the church and the stunning thistle chapel whilst I was snapping away.
I was so determined not to blurt out ‘Oh my God’ in front of this nice old boy, that I ended up accidentally saying ‘oh damn it’ instead when the batteries ran out in the camera – not the best way to secure your place in heaven!!
From here we wandered down towards Princes Street which is the main shopping street. We’d been on the on the Oh-my-God o’clock flight out of Gatwick but as soon as we saw that not only was the sun was shining, but there was also a Christmas market on, I immediately forgot how tired I was.
This was a real ‘Christkindelmarkt’ which is a German Christmas Market in little shed type cabins. We wandered round for a while looking at all the nice things and drinking in the heavenly smells of mulled wine and sizzling German sausages – yum!
However, I was disappointed that all the prices were much higher than the Xmas markets I’d seen recently in France so before I had time to start making my protest placards, we wandered back past the Scott Monument where I took this fab photo that makes it look like a space ship.
Just next door is the little portacabin where they sell the hop-on / hop-off bus tickets so we decided to take a tour of the city to get out bearings.
Our live commentator Les was really knowledgeable and it was so much better having a live guide. He told us why lots of houses including the Town Hall have shells imbedded into the concrete. Apparently, it was to ward off witches and in the case of the Town Hall to ensure that any decisions made were free from curses.
Being December, there were only a few of us on the bus and he did spend a lot of time talking about the anti-terrorism measures put in place at the new Scottish Parliament when we got to that part of the tour. We weren’t sure if that was part of his usual spiel or whether it was more for the benefit of our three Middle Eastern friends sitting just in front...
We were tempted to stop off at the castle, but were worried we wouldn’t have enough time to do it justice, so as it was getting dark we decided to make out way back to the hotel for a well earned rest before our ghost tour.
On the way back we came across a random bagpiper in full regalia who was about 100 if he was a day. He was a lovely chap and let me take his photo in return for a donation to the ovarian cancer charity he was collecting for, so it was a win-win situation as far as I was concerned.
The view from our bedroom was over the St. Andrews district of the city to one side and over towards Princes street in the other – beautiful in the day time, but even more impressive at night when the coloured lights twinkle in the inky blackness.
Edinburgh by night is beautiful, but I wanted to be scared to death in the underground vaults. We’d booked to do the ‘Ghosts & Ghouls’ with Mercat tours which sells itself as ‘the most terrifying, the most gory, and the only Company with a 5-Star scare factor’ but the only thing to scare me was my overwhelming desire to murder the guide. We spent a lot of time above ground listening to non-scary ghost stories and trying desperately to keep up with the guide who kept shooting off at the speed of light across the city.
When we finally got down into the vaults, I was expecting to become Derek Acorah from 'Most Haunted' or at least Yvette fielding and screaming the place down, but after visiting just two chambers, our guide told us that we were nearing the end of the tour. Really? I thought we’d only just got down there. Basically this was a bit of a damp squib, so we headed to Bella Italia to cheer ourselves up.
After showing off by ordering my dinner in Italian, I then amused myself by listening to the three girls at the next table struggling with the pronunciation. Aren’t I mean!
Day two started in a decadent manner with coffee in bed and a bit of Jeremy Kyle before heading out for what was one of the highlights of my visit – Jim Garrahy’s Fudge Kitchen. I’m actually not a big fan of fudge, but I am a glutton for demonstrations so off we went to see the fudge being made.
The fudge comes in an amazing 20 different flavours and having tried a bit of the freshly made batch, it wasn’t long before I was ordering a box! Apparently, it's traditionally produced from a recipe dating from 1830. It was lucky I hadn’t had my breakfast because I could have really pigged myself, especially as the nice man gave me a free slice for ordering a box. Yum!
After a full Scottish breakfast including haggis, we headed up to the castle in the rain. It was here that I decided to adopt the castle motto as my own ‘Nemo Me Impune Lacessit’ which roughly translates as ‘No one crosses me without punishment’ – pretty much says it all don’t you think?
We also studied the statues outside and it was here that I realised that it was probably just as well my new glasses were on order because I couldn’t work out why they had a huge statue commemorating a bloke called Fred Brick. It was only once I got closer that I saw that it was actually ‘Frederick’, the Duke of York. That probably makes more sense thinking about it!
Inside, the castle is still very much connected to the military which for some reason I wasn’t really expecting. Photos are restricted in lots of areas, including the ‘Honours of Scotland’ exhibition which was really disappointing because it was as beautiful as it was fascinating. Another case for my new specs as I was convinced that there was a monarch called King Hairpin in the 800’s. Seems unlikely, but I’m still not sure what it really should be. This exhibition leads onto the Scottish Crown jewels which were simply stunning.
From here we visited the Great Hall (above) and the Royal apartments before heading down to the Prisoner of war exhibits.
It sounds quite macabre but it was really interesting. There are artifacts, original hammocks and hair mattresses as well as a sound and light to show what life would have been like for the men kept here.
Conditions were cramped and some prisoners even tried to pass themselves off as other nationalities for better treatment – the Americans were considered pirates so they got less bread that the others! They also have some of the original doors with carvings by prisoners dating back hundreds of years depicting social protest as well as just aimless graffiti.
After a delicious scone with clotted cream and jam that we shared with a hot drink to warm ourselves up, we also visited the Scottish National War Memorial (absolutely NO photos in there) and the more modern War Museum.
No one in their right mind would chose a kilt as battle dress – think of all the bits left unprotected!!
The castle is amazingly close to the historic centre, so we wandered down the Royal Mile for a bit of last minute souvenir shopping. Tartan is obviously one of the most popular purchases and it was starting to get incredibly cold so we were tempted by the cashmere scarves until we spent all out money on shortbread biscuits instead.
Last on the list visits is another one that was a real highlight for me; The Real Mary Kings Close. Hidden beneath the Royal Mile is a warren of hidden ‘closes’ where real people lived and worked but which for centuries have been covered over and forgotten.
The guide who is dressed as someone who actually lived on the close, leads you underground and tells a series of stories and ghostly tales in surroundings that date back to the 1600s. This was one of my favourite attractions and much better that the ghost tour the previous night.
So what do you need to know about Edinburgh? Well, it’s flipping cold in December; tights, socks, thermals, gloves and scarf and I was still cold. Everyone in the Historic centre was super friendly – a workman even stopped what he was doing and went to close his van door so it didn’t obstruct the pavement when we approached. It’s really compact so you can do everything on foot (unless you have a gammy back/knee) and it’s fab – GO!
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