Hi friends! Today I’m sharing the second part of our Scotland trip. In case you missed it, you can catch up on part one here.
On our second day in Edinburgh, third day of the trip, we started with breakfast and coffee at Southern Cross Café and it was delicious! I got the blueberry pancakes and Jon got the Eggs Benedict.
With full bellies we headed to our city tour with Rabbies. I actually thought this was going to be a walking tour, but we actually got into a van and wore headsets while we were driven around Edinburgh. It was nice seeing more of the city that we wouldn’t have been able to walk to easily and learning a bit of history.
We climbed Calton Hill after our tour and it was a little bit of a hike. We aren’t used to steep inclines in NYC! We were rewarded with a great view of the city!
We also climbed the National Monument and it was not easy! The ledge you have to climb on is about 4 feet tall and there’s nothing to grab onto. Jon had to help me up and once we were up the wind was insane! I thought I was going to blow off the back at some points.
We went to the Museum of Scotland after our climb and had a great time. The museum is free and is the perfect size, not too big or too small. I like the center of it how it’s open.
After the museum we were very hungry, so we went to dinner at Ransacked Black Oven which was a cute little Mediterranean restaurant. We started off with some hummus and pita, and then we both ordered the chicken gyro bowl. It was so tasty! I liked having a healthier meal too.
On the last day of our trip, we were originally going to go to Glasgow, but we both decided there was more to see in Edinburgh. We started our morning the best way possible, getting coffee. We went to the Lowdown café and it was great! It reminded me of Blue Spoon Coffee in NYC.
We got ham and cheese croissants from Rabbie’s Café for breakfast. We had these one morning and I couldn’t leave Scotland without having another one. They aren’t anything fancy, but they’re delicious!
The first activity on our agenda was to hike Arthur’s Seat and it was a great hike. It had rained the previous day, so the ground was a bit slippery. The hike was steep and not for the faint of heart, but we made it to the top. There were incredible views of the city. You can see Calton Hill and the castle off in the distance.
The very top was pure rock so it was very slippery, not a great combination with the huge gusts of winds at the top!
At the bottom of Arthur’s Seat stands Holyrood Palace, which is home to Queen Elizabeth when she visits Scotland. This is a working Palace, but the Queen was not in town so it was open to the public. We got to go inside (at a cost) and I really enjoyed this! I could only take pictures of the outside unfortunately.
The palace is beautiful, and the inside was just as nicely decorated as the exterior. We each got a headset that connected to a little electronic device kind of like an iPod that would tell us about each room. It was almost like a self-guided tour.
Afterwards, we walked up the Royal Mile to eat lunch at Oink. They are the #1 “fast food” place in Edinburgh and they sell pulled pork sandwiches. We both enjoyed our sandwiches.
We went inside Gilles Cathedral and it was beautiful! We also couldn’t take pictures inside here.
We had to make a pit stop for some ice cream!
Then we went to The Scottish Whisky Experience. We started with a barrel ride to learn about how whisky is made, and then we learned about the different regions of Scotland and the whisky they make. We got to sample some whisky, but I am not a big fan so I let Jon have all of mine 🙂 We also got to go into the world’s biggest whisky collection in the world!
I absolutely loved Edinburgh! The people were friendly and the city was rich in history. My favorite part of Edinburgh is the castle. I love that you can see it from almost any point in the city, and it was cool exploring it. We spent three days in Edinburgh and I think that’s the perfect amount of time to feel like you’ve seen everything without feeling rushed. Stay tuned for my next post about our day trip to St. Andrews.
It looks like a perfect trip. Edinburgh is one of my favorite cities too. We loved Glasgow but you made the right decision. To really see a destination it takes time and thoughtful planning. The “4 countries in 6 days” excursions don’t work. With all the hiking and climbing you did there is no question that you experienced Edinburgh.
Just discovered your Scotland posts! So much fun to read and go down my own memory lane. What a great trip you had!
Thanks!! Every day I wish I could go back, it was amazing!!