Edinburgh was the one place in Scotland that I had actually visited before, way back in 2001 when I went to Poland and the UK with Grandma. On that trip, we took a train from London to Edinburgh and stayed two nights in a (not Air-) B'n'B. We hadn't booked accommodation, we just went from the train station straight to the tourist information booth, and they found something for us.
One day we rode the red tourist bus, and the next day we rode the blue tourist bus. We didn't go up to the Castle because it was too much for Grandma, but we did visit the Art Gallery which I adored and was thrilled to return to on this trip.
28 August 2017: We pulled ourselves a bit reluctantly away from St Andrews in the early-mid afternoon. Time was a factor because our accommodation in Edinburgh was booked through Air B'n'B (I have now joined the 21st century), so we had to make it on time to meet our hosts. It's a trade-off when booking accommodation - staying at a hotel, you can usually rock up at almost any time. On some travel days, that flexibility is really handy. But on the other hand, in Edinburgh, we scored a really lovely two bedroom apartment in Leith for a very reasonable price.
After settling in, we wandered down to the centre of Leith to meet my aunt and uncle for dinner. They live in Queensland but happened to be in the UK for a holiday at the same time as us. Our time in Edinburgh coincided just for this night - they were leaving the next day, heading into the west and Highlands. (Which - yes - still gave me a pang or two - I must go back to the highlands and islands before too long.) We had such a nice time catching up with them in a sort of fancy pub/restaurant down by the water.
The next day we hopped on a bus and took the short ride into Edinburgh proper. We wandered from the new town into the old. We visited (K) and revisited (me) the slightly heartbreaking Greyfriars Bobby statue. We also, without really trying to, went past The Elephant House where apparently J.K. Rowling used to write. We bypassed its enormous queue and went for a cuppa next door at the French place instead.
We wandered the Grassmarket, and then we took on Edinburgh Castle.
It's big. We joined a tour and managed to see some decent proportion of the place - less than half, I'm sure.
The Great Hall
St Margaret's Chapel - the oldest surviving building in Edinburgh.
Cemetary for soldiers' dogs
The next day we packed in lots more Edinburgh touristy experiences. We climbed the Scott Monument (the blackish tower in the right of this photo). The upper staircases were very narrow and a bit claustrophobic...but doable. It was totally worth it for the views and also for the gorgeous decorative elements like stone dogs and other sculptures.
Seen from the Scott Monument: Edinburgh Castle, Scottish National Gallery
In the afternoon we wandered the new town and checked out the Oxford, Inspector Rebus' favourite bar. Walking in, the few people at the bar in the front room all turned around to see - it felt like maybe it was a locals place and they are sick of tourists? Anyway we settled in a back room happily enough. Later we went nearby for Mexican food, and then, the search for folk music sessions.
We managed to find sessions in three bars through. At the Captain's Bar, we found not a lot of people (it may have been a bit early) and only one musician, a man playing guitar. After a while we moved on to the Royal Oak, a tiny bar full of people, about half of whom were jammed in the corner playing music. Not the trad folk I was really keen for but more singer-songwriter acoustic guitar-based songs. Pretty sure we heard American Pie here. Finally we went to Sandy Bells, a bigger and also very popular pub. The music here was excellent, with a large, very tight ensemble who seemed like they probably play together a lot, cranking out the trad tunes. The musicians were all jammed into an end room/space and with the bar quite crowded, it was hard to find a good spot to listen. But when you wanted to go to the toilet you had to squeeze right past them, trying not to bump anyone while playing! It didn't feel like a session where a newcomer could join in, but I don't really know session etiquette so I could be quite wrong about that.
We did go to a session back in Aberdeen as well. For some reason I didn't write about it in the earlier post. That one drew a group of 8-10 musicians, almost exclusively older men. They played a mixture of American songs (yes, American Pie!) and celtic tunes, the style and genre really depending on who started up each tune. We sat there for quite a while so it was good to observe a bit of the group dynamics. There was a younger man who arrived with a fiddle and played hesitantly along for just one tune. Then he went to sit with his friends again but let one of the old guys pick up his fiddle and show us all how it should be done.
Above - a very Edinburgh-specific photo, the floral clock in the Princes Street Gardens. I remembered this park well from my 2001 visit, as well as the very bold little grey squirrels.
On the other hand, this street scene really could have been taken in any big enough town/city in the UK. Ubiquitous USA Nailz. (Oh and Indian food.) It's so interesting to see 'USA' used as a selling point. I don't think that would play so well in Australia.
