Edinburgh Review by Leslie Watson (eider@barrow.com)

Edinburgh, Scotland Tuesday, September 3rd

We arrived in Edinburgh and went right to Edinburgh Castle where we met Keith, our guide for the rest of the day. He was a large Scotsman fully dressed in the traditional kilt and everything. He was an extremely funny and entertaining guide with a booming voice.

Edinburgh Castle was fascinating, and you could really get a feel for the history of this remarkable fortress and former royal residence. We were greeted by the stones figures of Robert the Bruce on our left and Mel Gibson on our right. :O) Keith was a bit comedic in the way he would always refer to William Wallace as Mel Gibson throughout the tour. His tales took us back in time and we could envision the enemy trying to bust in through the castles seven gates only to be defeated by the proud Scots. We saw an exhibition of when Cromwell was on his rampage and the Scots were successful in hiding the ancient Honours of Scotland - the Crown, the Sceptre and the Sword of State from him. These items were displayed in the castle's Crown Room just like the Crown Jewels in the Tower of London. They are even older than the England's Crown Jewels. We were treated to some splendid panoramic views of Edinburgh from the top battlements of the castle. Within the Castle, there is much to see like the Great Hall, which now houses a collection of medieval weapons and armour. Nearby is the very moving Scottish National War Memorial, a building designed and created shortly after the First World War. The Royal apartments included a tiny room in which Mary, Queen of Scots gave birth to the boy who was to become King James VI of Scotland and James 1 of England upon the death of Queen Elizabeth in 1603. Edinburgh Castle is also the home of the One O'Clock Gun which is fired every day except Sunday at precisely 1:00 p.m. to provide everyone with an accurate check for their clocks and watches.

After the castle tour, Keith joined us on our coach and took over for Robin as our guide for our city tour of Edinburgh. Edinburgh's superb architecture ranges from ancient churches to monumental Victorian masterpieces. The most interesting site was Holyrood House, a royal residence which was founded by James IV in 1498. The infamous Mary, Queen of Scots (1542-87), reigned in Scotland for a mere six years but she left a lasting indelible memory. Married at 15 and widowed at 19 she returned to her native Scotland and ascended the throne on a great wave of popularity. Her secretary was dragged from her presence and he was stabbed to death (57 times). Afterwards her husband was murdered in a mysterious explosion. Mary is suspected, yet within mere weeks she re-marries the Earl of Bothwell and finds her throne assailed by John Knox of the Protestant Reformation. She's imprisoned, persuaded to abdicate, escapes in disguise, is defeated in battle, and flees to England. There she throws herself on the mercy of Queen Elizabeth and is under house arrest for the next 19 years before at the age of 44 she is beheaded at the Tower of London. Robin, our Trafalgar tour guide would tell us a different version of this tale tomorrow from Mary's perspective which made it even more interesting.

After the tour of the city, we disembarked at Merchant's Pub where we ate our evening meal which consisted of the usual limited fare. There wasn't much special about the place except the fact that it was a pub. It was the first of the two pubs we would dine in during our tour. The Scottish dessert we had was called Cranakin and tasted pretty good. It was a parfait type thing that had cream, raspberry, oatmeal and a touch of whiskey in it.

We stayed at the Holiday Inn which was right next to the Edinburgh Zoo for two nights. The hotel was nice enough, but our room was filthy, smelly, dirty! There was a used ashtray sitting on the dresser and there were dead bugs all over the floor. The bathroom had a big puddle of water on the floor so we didn't even go into it. We decided this was too much to put up with so we called down to get another room. The bell hop gave us keys to another room and this second room was even worse! The bathtub and floor was covered with hair for starters. Finally, the third room was acceptable, but it still looked like it hadn't been vacuumed in months. It was sad because with consistent cleaning, it could have been a very nice place! I did some laundry in the sink and called it a night. At about 11:00 someone tried to get into our room. When Brian went to the door, they apologized and said they had the wrong room --- but you got to wonder after what happened to Pete and Pat in Dublin.

We were kept company that night by the sounds of barking sea lions from the zoo. :O)

Edinburgh, Scotland Wednesday, September 4th

Today's breakfast was the typical fare, but with a slightly better selection and surprisingly, fresh squeezed orange juice. After the meal we set off on our optional tour of the Highlands in the Trossachs. Once again, we got a different guide and driver for the day. David, our guide filled us in on a lot of Scottish highland history with stories of William Wallace, Rob Roy MacGregor and Walter Scott’s ‘Lady of the Lake’. We already knew most of the William Wallace stuff, thanks to the film Braveheart. Scotland has a very rich interesting and exciting history. David said that the movie has brought so many tourists to Scotland and seven years since its release, tourism keeps increasing with no sign of slowing down. Of course not all of the movie is factual since William Wallace never met Prince Edward's wife, let alone did he get her pregnant. We went through the town of Stirling and saw the statue of Rob Roy, their most famous citizen. We stopped to take pictures of Doune and then Stirling Castle, where many more battles were fought than at Edinburgh Castle because it was more strategically located.

We had our morning break in Callendar at a coffee and gift shop. When we got off the bus, there was a Highland Cow named Ennish waiting for us in the pasture. He was a huge hairy bull with long horns. He looked so scary until we could see the big friendly brown eyes peeking out from the long hair. He was very tame and loved the tourist's attention. He stretched far over the fence hoping to be petted and mostly fed. David told us that he was supposed to have been slaughtered but he had such character that the shop bought him and saved his life. But the tourists will likely kill him off if they keep feeding him the fudge that I saw them give him. It was a rather rainy day, but the lochs, glens and mountains of the Highlands were still beautiful to behold. We stopped to take some pictures across the lake (lake is loch in Scotland) from the Trossachs Hotel. It was a large hotel that was just for time share owners. The draw there would be the hiking and of course the beauty of the lake and surrounding Highlands. In case you were wondering ‘Trossachs’ means ‘the bristly country’. The landscape here was a luscious green and there was a mist hanging around that made the it look a little bit spooky. We made a photo stop at the highest altitude point of the tour where we picked some heather that was now at the height of its season.

In the early afternoon, the sun came out as we arrived back in Edinburgh. We had the entire day to ourselves and spent it getting plenty of exercise walking up and down the Royal Mile. The Royal Mile is the main street that leads from Edinburgh Castle all the way down to Holyrood House. The mile was lined with shops, museums, attractions and the St. Giles Cathedral. In medieval times, the buildings along the Royal Mile were considered skyscrapers. They are five and six stories tall and because the city was kept safe within the city walls, the population kept growing and there was no where to go but up. We found a Games Workshop and this time I had my list of things that Shawn wanted with me. I was so happy until I was informed that the items were discontinued and they no longer carry the stuff! Bummer!

We stopped at Deacon Brodie's Pub and tried a couple of different single malt scotches. Brian thought since we were in Scotland, that it would definitely be the thing to do. They had a whole list of different scotches to choose from and we didn't know one from the other so Brian just picked a couple. The bar had a little water tap where you put as much water in it as you want. So we put a little water in and tasted. I liked the more familiar looking Glenlivet a lot and not so much the other one which Brian liked the best. It was called Lagavulin and it had a strong smoked flavor that stuck with you.

It had warmed up and I was wearing the heavy sweater that we had bought in Blarney. I thought it would be a lot cooler because we were in the highlands, yet now I was melting. Thankfully, Brian had a t-shirt on under his shirt, so while we were drinking our scotches, he went to the bathroom and took his t-shirt off and then I went and changed into it. That shirt was a life saver and I was then able to enjoy the nice warm sunny day. We had a delicious and reasonably priced lunch at the Jolly Judge's Pub. We got a couple of toasted sandwiches and a couple of pints of McEwan's Scottish ale for 8 pounds. We ran into Ric there and visited with him while he worked on some post cards and we polished off lunch. From here we decided to shop and went from store to store to find a Watson clan plaque in dark wood. We found it in light wood, but Brian didn't like it. Finally he found a store that would special order it and mail it to us.

Later we walked a ways off from the Royal Mile to a very large department store called Jenners which is older than Harrods of London, but not nearly as nice. It was really hot and stuffy inside so we didn't spend much time there. We also checked out Edinburgh's newest shopping complex which was like an underground mall. If I had been with some girls, we could have spent a lot of time there. Unfortunately, Brian was shopped out and no longer pretending to be a shopper with me. Before meeting the coach to the hotel, we decided to try a refreshing Irn-bru soda which out sells Coke in Scotland.

The optional tonight was the Taste of Scotland Dinner Show. Upon arrival, we were serenaded by bag pipes and introduced to the host for tonight's entertainment. There were only a couple of tour groups there so we got a huge round table near the front which was much easier to visit at. The beer and wine were included this time and everyone took advantage of that. Brian and I drank Guinness and more than our share of red wine throughout the evening. No one ever had to do without, since Robin kept bringing extra bottles of wine to our table of ten. For dinner we had the Roast Leg of Lamb which wasn't the best but a welcome change. The dessert was called Edinburgh Fog and it was really enjoyable. The show consisted of singers in kilts, dancers, a fiddle player, accordion player and of course bag pipes. They moved the show along very quickly and it was very entertaining. Just after the half way point, they did a big ceremonial tribute to the HAGGIS on stage and then they brought it around for everybody to try. It was served on a plate along with a helping of potatoes and turnips. Haggis consists of the entrails of a sheep that are sewn into the stomach casing and then boiled with lots of spices. It sounds terrible, but we both liked it very much, but then I also like all the giblets from turkeys and chickens.

Belle, from Australia lived in Scotland until she was 9 and had not been back since. It was a very happy and emotional homecoming for her. She and her husband, Phil had quite a lot of wine during the show and so did quite a few others at our table. We all were having a blast. There was still a couple of full opened bottles of wine on our table when the show was over. Phil grabbed one and Brian grabbed the other and they headed for the door. Brian was carrying Belle's jacket to hide his, but Phil didn't care to hide the one he was carrying. Robin saw Phil's bottle when she met him at the door and called him "a naughty boy". Brian agreed and said it was awful that Phil would carry a bottle of wine out. Then he told Robin it was more respectable to hide the wine before showing her his hidden bottle. Robin decided they both were naughty and needed escorted to the coach. She looped her arms through Phil's and Brian's and walked with them chatting all the way. We didn't stop to think that our temporary driver that we had all day was a full time police officer. But he pretended not to notice the open bottles parading onto the coach. On the way to the hotel, we were entertained by Robin and Tony with songs and some slightly cruder jokes than usual. When we got back to the hotel, a group of the more tipsy people decided Belle needed a shot of Drambuie. She was pretty toasted already, so she was game and we decided to join in as did Sister Charlotte. We finished ours and headed up to our room leaving the older people to party down. They were such bad influences on us. HA! :O)

Edinburgh, Scotland Thursday, September 5th

Everybody was pretty quiet this morning -- wonder why? :O) We headed south and left Edinburgh behind us with some very good memories.

Recommended: Yes

Best Suited For: Couples
Best Time to Travel Here: Sep - Nov