Edinburgh Days 28-29 (8/25-26)
After a good night’s rest at our new flat, I got up and went for a run before making some breakfast. I only set the smoke detector off once 🙁 Then, we got ourselves ready for our morning adventures - first donuts with Beth at Kilted Donut, then off to tour the grounds at Edinburgh Castle.
After a leisurely walk into Old Town to Grassmarket, the three of us shared several donuts sitting in the square in the shadow of the Castle (my personal favorite was the Pistachio Crunch) and had a contentious sighting of Ian McKellan (Kari thinks yes, Beth disagrees).
Then, off we went up the stairs and into the Castle. Things were pretty windy up on top of the hill, but otherwise it was comfy on the grounds. My favorite of the exhibits were the restored Great Hall, the War Memorial and the Swords with the Crown Jewels.
Once we finished our walk through the Castle, we walked through Greyfriars, including the cemetery, and then paid a visit to Greyfriars Bobby himself, before hustling over to Sandy Bell’s to meet the rest of the team for our gig, including both Justin and Seth who had been playing for an hour already!
We spent the next two hours playing through most of the tunes from the show, as well as a handful of fiddle tunes, and some individual tuners from Justin and I. Our time fairly flew by, and the crowd seemed to have a good time. The musicians that followed us were even asking if we had recordings of our we were selling!
We finished our pints, collected our tips (13 pounds) and our pay (100 quid!) and promptly put that loot towards work at a celebratory meal at a restaurant called Arcade down the road. Then it was time for some goodbyes, as folks would be starting to separate, and this would be the last time the larger group was together.
Kari and I headed back to our flat and relaxed and cleaned up, before meeting the folks remaining at the actor house at a cute restaurant nearby called Herringbone, for a final dinner and drinks together. Too soon, the goodbyes began again, and I said a final, bittersweet farewell to the rest of the team (except Beth who we were planning to see later in the week in Portree).
Luckily that means vacation proper would start tomorrow, and we’d finally be climbing Arthur’s Seat, and touring Holyrood Palace!
Today, August 26th, would be our final real day in Edinburgh - looking back it feels like it’s flown by.
Today we had 2 big adventures. The first order of business was a walk to and take a tour of Holyrood Palace and its grounds. For this visit, we got a self-paced audio tour. We got pretty lucky with the weather, and it was mostly calm and clear, allowing us to really appreciate both the history of the palace, as well as the grounds themselves, and the views of the surrounding hills including Arthur’s Seat. And speaking of…that hill was our next stop.
After leaving Holyrood Palace we walked across the street to Holyrood Park to join the crowd of folks summiting Arthur’s Seat and Salisbury Crags. The weather continued to hold and we had a nice (if fairly technical) assent of the hill. We reached the summit where we were afforded incredible 360 degree views of Edinburgh, the Firth of Forth into Fife, and the surrounding countryside.
Once we descended, we had no more strict agenda, so we began walking into the city to see what would strike our fancy. We ended up doing a bit of shopping on Victoria St., walked through the Princes St. Gardens, then stopped in St. Andrew’s Square to grab an early dinner at an Indian restaurant we’d flagged before, called Dishoom. After a tasty (and appropriately spicy) dinner, we trekked down the Leith Walk looking for a dessert spot, ultimately grabbing bodega ice cream treats that we brought back to eat in the flat where we celebrated our final night in Edinburgh. Tomorrow, we’d begin our journey into the Highlands!
