Blogs from Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland, United Kingdom, Europe - page 3

Today was our last official day of our Ireland/Scotland tour with Cosmos Tours. After our tradition breakfast buffet, we got on the tour bus and set our for Edinburgh Old Town and New Town. (Our hotel was out of the city center). We had a local tour guide, Kenneth, join our group for an in-depth tour of the city of Edinburgh. Our regular guide, Will, made arrangements for our tour of Edinburgh Castle, where we would meet him at a later time. As we drove around the city I didn’t know which way to look first. There are so many churches, schools, monuments, building, etc. I just took pictures….lots of pictures. Sadly, today was a rainy day so some of the pictures aren’t the best. Many of them won’t be identified because we didn’t know what ... read more

~Edinburgh is a beautiful city, but it doesn’t photograph well. Much of its atmosphere relies on the repetition and congruence of its architecture, which is difficult to capture in photos. ~ It’s an easy city to explore by foot since it’s fairly compact. We didn’t take the metro or light rail at all. Crossing most intersections is terrifying, though, since the double-decker buses barely fit on the road and yielding doesn’t seem to exist. At least most crosswalks tell which way to look for traffic. ~ The city center is very touristy, especially the Royal Mile, which is a repetition of whisky, Scotland, and cashmere shops. Because the annual Jazz Festival was going on, we had to stay outside the city center in Stockbridge, which allowed us to explore more local spots.... read more

We rearranged out Itinerary a little to allow a little extra sleep. We didn’t cut anything out, just reorganized. This allowed us to have breakfast at a leisurely pace then go up and get ready for the day. This made the first stop of the day lunch. It was back up the hill then down the other side to Victoria Street. This was Sunday, which in the UK is Sunday Roast Day, we have a Sunday Roast lunch scheduled for Glasgow, so today was just some traditional Scottish food, well at least for me. I have not built up to Haggis yet, but it is coming. Because it was Sunday, the restaurants were very busy and all running the Sunday Roast Specials. We had a 12:30 reservation at Howies. When we got there were just a ... read more

Edinburgh This was originally planned to be my first trip on my own as a treat for my birthday. At that time, I had been with my boyfriend for two months and I was unsure if I should ask him to come with me or if he could come due to work commitments. Luckily he said yes! So I changed the Airbnb I had booked and managed to get one in the city centre. We got the train from London's Kings Cross to Edinburgh Waverley station. The trip was around 5 hours long and the seats were not very comfortable and there was very limited leg room. I grabbed something to eat and drink while I was waiting for my boyfriend to arrive. We then went to a nearby store and bought some food and drinks ... read more

Another day, another breakfast. I decided to go for the Vegetarian Full Irish and was happy that I didn't have to wait as long as the day before. The breakfast was really nice and there was a lot of choice on it. There were poached eggs, baked beans, veggie sausages, vegan haggis, vegan black pudding, mushroom, spinach, tomato, potato scone, and soda farl. I'm tired just typing it all out. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the vegan haggis, it was utterly delicious and had a tasted of Worcestershire sauce to it, which couldn't have been used as it contains anchovies, so I would love to know what herbs and spices were used. The soda farl was really dense and filling and I enjoyed the potato scone as it was different to ones I've ... read more