Approaching Edinburgh Castle.
After a leisurely breakfast in the hotel, we strolled up the Royal Mile to Edinburgh castle. We spend some time wandering the grounds before walking through the exhibit of the Scottish crown, scepter, and other regalia that are referred to as the “Honours of Scotland”. Neither of us was interested in seeing the bedroom where Mary Queen of Scots birthed James VI/I, so we headed out of the castle checking out the castle gift shop. Just outside, there is a tartan weaving museum that we poked our head into but decided it had all the earmarks of a tourist trap. A few stops further down is the Whiskey Experience – a museum focused on that most famous of Scottish exports. It looked high end, but the charge admission and Jonathan wasn’t that interested, so after a quick peak in their gift shop/liquor store we went looking for lunch.
The Lonely Planet guide that I used for this trip recommended the Outsiders Café, so I was steering towards that establishment. We got to the restaurant at 1130 but they didn’t open until noon, so we walked the half block to the Royal Museum. As admission is free, we spent the next half hour wandering through the exhibits before returning to the restaurant. Our meal was worthy of the recommendation – we started with Kir Royale and rustic bread with herbed olive oil and a dish of olives. Jonathan had crispy gnocchi while I had a herb and cornmeal crusted pork loin on mushrooms and black pudding that was very tasty. For dessert, we split a spiced plum tarte tatin topped with ice cream. Afterwards, we crashed in the hotel room for an afternoon nap.
For dinner we checked out a restaurant called Montieth’s, but they were fully booked. So we ended up in a pub. When we returned to the hotel room and picked up our email, we saw the request from the Greene Gals to get a photo of the castle that inspired Hogwarts of Harry Potter fame and the café were JK Rowling penned the series. We had no clue where these landmarks might be, but a couple of quick Google searches produced the answers. There were two castles that inspired Hogwarts – one was Edinburgh Castle so that task was already completed. The second castle was somewhere out in the countryside. The café turned out to be a couple doors down from where we had lunch. So grabbing the camera, we headed out before the sun set and took a couple pictures of Elephant House café.
Before going to bed we rearranged the luggage as we would be checking our roll-ons along with the big raspberry colored bag on the return trip.
Approaching Edinburgh Castle.
Canons lining the battlement.
I took this shot from the parapet of Waverley Station with its glass roof in the valley below the castle.
The gardens below the castle to the north - the rail station is off the image to the right.
Jonathan taking pictures with his iPhone.
The entry to the inner portions of the castle.
The Scottish National War Memorial.
The butt end of the cannons.
Peering through the cannon battery looking southeast.
The Royal Mile from just below the castle looking east.
Olives for appetizer.
Rustic bread with herbed olive oil. Pity I didn't get any pictures of the main or dessert.
The Royal Mile from our hotel - looking east.
I arranged for a taxi the night before, and he arrived precisely at 0630 and drove us to the airport where we grabbed one last breakfast with haggis on the concourse. We recognized a goodly number of CW folks at the gate including Joe and Judyann, and Manda.
So the plane is pushing back from the gate and we are on our way home.