Blogs from Midlothian, Scotland, United Kingdom, Europe

Finally arrived in Edinburgh, a couple of weeks later than planned, just ahead of Storm Babet. Expecting the worst, we donned our macs and headed into the city. What a great city to explore, transport was plentiful, and I loved walking the Royal mile in old town. Its no wonder JK Rowling drew inspiration for Hogwarts here, with the turreted, dark stone architecture. It was a race to the castle as we were informed it would be closed tomorrow (due to the storm), we arrived just in time for the 1pm gun salute. The crowds gathered to see a man in uniform light an old WW2 Field gun, which was a little disappointing as I was expecting a cannon! We queued to see the Honours of Scotland (crown jewels) which were impressive, but most atmospheric was ... read more

Today our goal was to get as much sightseeing done because there was the threat of rain in the afternoon. We walked through the Grassmarket area, up Victoria Street, and to the Royal Mile, where we had breakfast at the Deacon’s House Cafe. Chrissy and I had eaten here before and loved the food so Nanci and I decided to have breakfast there. I had the Deacon House platter with haggis sausage and Nanci had smoked salmon cream cheese bagel. We shared the haggis sausage, which was so good. We had tickets to enter the castle at noon. We had also ask for the Taxi to take us to the top of the castle so Nanci didn’t have to walk. It was pretty awesome, driving to the top as we went through a tunnel that is ... read more

Today has all the hallmarks of the pick day in Edinburgh, early time slot to visit Edinburgh Castle, then a quick taxi ride to lunch with Anne. After breakfast in the our room, we headed out up the 200 meters to the entrance of Edinburgh Castle . As you walked into the temporary stadium which has been built for the Military Tattoo on the 4th to 26th August was as intimidating as walking into the Colosseum or MCG. After checking in we started the walk up to the Argyle Battery which also has 3 x 105mm Field Guns are position to fire a salute at 1pm each day. After the walk up we saw the cafe and decided it was time for our morning coffee, good thing we did as when we were leaving, the queue ... read more

Today was all about getting around as much of the Tourist spots we can. We defaulted back to the Hop on Hop off Bus and their red line. We chose this for expedience, but tomorrow we had different choices. But before that there was Edinburgh Farmers Market just down the hill from our accommodations. We walked down to see some of their farm produce and maybe get breakfast. Our breakfast was a tale of two cities with Rose selecting a Falafel wrap and the Falafel's were cooked to order. She loved it and it was very good. On the other hand, I was seduced by the whole pig on the spit, but that is where it ended, the pork was bland and soggy, the milk bun fell apart from the moister and I picked the filling ... read more

This morning we walked toward The Edinburgh Castle for a special place Chrissy picked out for breakfast. It was called The Deacon's House Cafe and was known for its traditional Scottish porridge and haggis breakfast sausage. It wasn't supposed to open until 10:00 so we took our time taking pictures and checking out shops that were open (most don't open until 10). When we arrived they had opened early but there was still one table open. We ordered the porridge (which is like oats) and the breakfast platter, which had scrambled eggs, blistered tomatoes. haggis sausage, bacon, beans, and wheat toast. We shared the items we ordered because we wanted to try their scones and shortbread too. The haggis sausage was amazing. The porridge wasn't far behind. The porridge was topped with red fruit which added ... read more