The day after we got home from Skye we spent the day walking around Edinburgh. It was the best weather day Edinburgh had all year, 17 and sunny. We both managed to get sunburns in Scotland! We started our day by climbing the Scott Monument. The Scott Monument is in the Princes Street Gardens and is for Sir Walter Scott who was a Scottish playwright, novelist and poet. It is the largest monument to a writer in the world and it is 287 steps to the top. From the top there were some pretty incredible views of the city.
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| Down Princes Street toward the Balmoral and Calton Hill |
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| Edinburgh Castle |
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| Princes Street |
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| Back at the bottom of the Monument |
After the Scott Monument we continued down to Dean Village and walked along the water of Leith. After walking for a while we came back to George Street and had some fantastic burgers.
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| Sun's out in Dean Village |
After our late lunch we walked up and down the Royal Mile. We went into all the touristy shops and found some pretty hilarious "Scottish Gifts". We finished our day out with hiking up Arthur's Seat to watch the sunset.
The next day we took a little bit easier. The weather wasn't as nice so we decided to do more indoors. We decided to visit some museums. We started with the Scottish National Museum which I have been to quite a few times. We focused mainly on the Scottish history section and the kids section. After the Scottish National Museum we went to the Scottish National Gallery. We finished that day with a movie.
The following day we started with Edinburgh Castle. It was school holidays so there were so many people there. I don't have any pictures but I plan to go back and visit again. I decided to purchase an annual Historic Scotland membership because I have a couple trips planned that I am hoping to visit some Historic Scotland locations. So hopefully the next time I go back to the castle it will be a little less busy!
After the castle we went to the Signet Library for afternoon tea. I had seen pictures of the inside of the building which looked beautiful and the reviews of the food were fantastic so I always wanted to try it. And we were far from disappointed. We started our meal with an amuse bouche of butternut squash soup. Then it was onto the savouries. There were various different pastries and sandwiches to try. After we were satisfied with our savouries our sweet tray arrived. It had scones, pastries and other desserts. Our meal finished off with a palate cleanser of a lemon sorbet. Throughout the meal we were given unlimited tea so both my friend and I had two pots of tea each. It was such a fun experience. I definitely plan to take my friends and family there when they visit.
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| Savouries Tray |
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| Sweet Tray |
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| Lemon Sorbet |
On the last day of my friend's trip we went to North Berwick, a cute little coastal town. We started by walking along the beaches. Even in the middle of the week there were quite a few people walking along the beaches with children and dogs. When we were walking along the beach we noticed there was quite a lot of sea glass. So we both collected some sea glass for some future crafts. We then spent the rest of the afternoon strolling down the streets looking at shops and stopped at a cafe for some lunch.
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| North Berwick Beach |
We finished up my friends trip with an evening tour at Mary King's Close back in Edinburgh. Mary King's Close was a narrow street that had tenement buildings up to seven stories tall on both sides of the street. The close is now covered because the City Chambers were built on top of the close. But you can still tour the lower levels of the close and since it was covered it has been incredibly well preserved. It gives an interesting insight to what life was like in Edinburgh from the 16th century onwards.
The next day I took her back to the Glasgow Airport. I think she got a pretty good taste of Scotland in her short trip.
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