Edinburgh

  Edinburgh was our first stop on our own.  We traveled from Glasgow to Edinburgh the day after the Ordination (Sunday).  It was a bit of a challenge getting out of Glasgow and trying to get onto the motorway.  After a time driving through the heart of Glasgow, we managed to get out and on our way.  As a side note, driving on the motorways was very easy.  People are more polite than in the states, and everyone really stays to the left unless passing (keep in mind this is on the other side of the road)!  It feels so natural when you and everyone else is doing it; it's a shame everyone in the US drives in the middle lane.

  We enjoyed our B&B in Edinburgh as you can see on the B&B page.  Getting around was easy, the bus system was simple, and walking around down town was very manageable.  There is the Old Town and New Town.  Old Town fit us much more.  The main street in Old Town is the High Street or the Royal Mile.  We must have walked most of the length of it three times while we were there.  At one end is Edinburgh Castle, at the other end is the Palace of Holyroodhouse and the new Parliament building.  In between are many shops and pubs.  We had some of our best lunches at a small cafe about midway up this road.  Can't remember the name but I recall it had a blue awning and had random metal objects (pots, pans, cups, etc) hanging from the ceiling inside.

  Further up towards the Castle was also where we did the underground tour.  It wasn't quite what I expected, but interesting none-the-less.  In that area a number of buildings were essentially cut off and their bottoms reinforced to build the "new" town hall.  Since the ground falls away from the road, this means that more of the buildings were left further from the High Street.  In the space that was left underneath, they now give tours.  Ours was "The Real Mary King's Close."  "Close" is the word for "alley."  Most of the tour is about life in this area before it was covered over; not much of the original structures are left except the walls and floors.  However, there was one house that was still mostly intact in which someone continued living for some large number of years after they essentially sealed over the top!

   We really enjoyed our stay in Edinburgh and we would both go back in a heartbeat.  Other than feeling very comfortable there, there were also a number of things we didn't manage to see in our two days.

  Between Glasgow and Edinburgh, Edinburgh wins hands down.  We only visited these two cities in Scotland, but we'd both highly recommend Edinburgh.