Edinburgh
Edinburgh (there are two accepted pronunciations: “ed-in-bruh” or “ed-in-burra”) is the capital of Scotland and rich with history. There are lots of beautiful old buildings and gardens and churches and there’s also a big castle on a hill. Apparently, there’s only one cruise ship dock and someone was already in our parking space, so we parked out in the Firth of Forth and tendered in. That sentence had two terms you might not be familiar with:
A firth is a narrow inlet from the sea created when ice age glacial melt created a wide river to the sea. The sea’s tides then pushed sea water back upstream and eroded the surroundings.
Tendering is when they drop a few lifeboats into the water and use them to ferry the passengers from the anchored ship to the shore rather than docking the ship itself.
It took around 15 minutes or so to get from ship to shore, then we hopped on a bus for a quick tour of Edinburgh highlights. Fortunately, the sun was out and skies were blue. Unfortunately, that meant that about 90% of the photos I took from the bus were mostly of my own reflection in the bus window. I did salvage a couple of them, though, such as this shot of the school that James Bond went to, according to the Ian Fleming novels.
…and this centre for modern art.
The bus dropped us off at the end of the Royal Mile, just below the castle.
That’s as close as you’ll get to a smile, as the temp was around 8 C with a wind chill of -45 C or something. Maybe lower.
The castle certainly seems mammoth, towering over the city as if it sprung up directly from its rocky base.
We poked our noses into a few shops and Rob found a whisky shop (everywhere outside of Scotland, it’s called Scotch or Scotch Whisky - but in Scotland, it’s just whisky, as if there were no other kinds) that was really nice.
And of course, there was the obligatory burly man in a kilt busking his bagpipes.
Full disclosure: I love bagpipes.
For maybe a minute.
Then I want them to stop.
Rob found his Scotch shop and I set out to find a nice haggis for lunch. (If you don’t know what that is, it’s probably best that you don’t look it up.)
On my previous trip to Scotland, I was about to order a haggis at a little pub and then realized that we were pressed for time to make the last tour of the castle. Fearing I might not like it and knowing there wouldn’t be time to order something else without missing the tour, I passed on it. There just wasn’t time. I ended up trying it after I got back home, when I found some in a can.
Trust me: don’t ever do that.
Yes, it looks awful. It tasted even worse.
So this trip, I was determined to get a proper haggis. There was a restaurant below the whisky shop, but I needed to find something a bit quicker. I found a little cafe called “The Thistle Stop” that had it, but by then we were afraid of missing the bus back to the ship. What is it with this dish and me having to skip it because I’m out of time? Worse: I had posted to Facebook that I’d be in Edinburgh and would be looking for a haggis near the castle. A Scottish friend of mine replied, but with the 9-hour time difference, the reply came in after we were back on board the ship. He said that I could get a very nice haggis at a place called “The Thistle Stop.”
Of course.
We’ve got two more stops in Scotland, but our time is going to be seriously limited in both and I think they’ll both be tiny towns. My chance at trying the national dish of Scotland might’ve passed me by again.
Edinburgh, like other Scottish towns we’ve visited, has more church buildings than it has congregations. Many of them are being repurposed into new things, while the buildings are being saved. This particular church is St Giles’ Cathedral, circa 1124. Totally still a church.
Speaking of steeples, the church near the castle went a bit overboard on theirs. It’s almost as visible from a distance as the castle behind it.
Back on the bus and back to port, where we got on the tender to head back to ship. The wind was at our fronts on the way back and the firth was choppy, which made for quite the ride…
Afterwards, naps happened. Then fish & chips for dinner and a musical show by the ship’s assistant cruise director. I’m not sure why, but every Viking cruise we’ve been on has had an assistant cruise director that put on a musical show at least once during the cruise. Weird.
Anyway, we’re heading back north tomorrow to another Scottish island. Until then…