Edinburgh, Take Two

This past Saturday morning we headed down to Edinburgh for our first overnight stay since becoming UK residents.  We took the bus down, leaving Dundee around 9AM and arriving in Edinburgh about 1.5 hours later.  We dropped our bags at our evening's accommodation, the Castle Rock Hostel, before starting our Edinburgh Castle tour.

view from our hostel

our tour guide at the castle

We began our castle experience by taking the free guided tour which provided us with some history and context for what we were about to see.  The tour took us from the base of the castle to the top of Castle Hill and then left us in the square to continue exploring on our own.  The most exciting parts of the castle were the crown jewels (there was quite a huge build up to the display room, much like the wait for the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland) and the amazing views of the city.

view of Edinburgh from the castle

We spent about two hours at the castle and then headed into town for some lunch before exploring some new parts of the city.  We stopped for a photo op at the Elephant House, where J.K. Rowling wrote parts of the Harry Potter series, and did some charity shop browsing but otherwise just enjoyed being in Edinburgh, one of the most beautiful cities we've ever seen.

The Cadies and Witchery Tour

Later that night we had an appointment with The Cadies and Witchery Tours.  It was a fun tour around Castle Hill highlighting areas related to Edinburgh's history of witch trials.  Edinburgh has many tours to choose from and we chose this one because it was rated highly at www.tripadvisor.co.uk.  Although we enjoyed it, next time we'll choose a tour with more of a focus on Edinburgh's reputation as the most haunted city in the world.

view from our hostel

The next morning we awoke to a beautiful view of the castle, just in case you forgot where you were.  We set off at around 8:30AM, down the Royal Mile to Holyrood Palace, where the Queen resides every summer.

Pictures at Holyrood were only allowed in the outside areas of the front courtyard, abbey ruins, and palace gardens.  The tour included areas of the palace still in use today but also some historically significant areas, like Mary, Queen of Scots private rooms.  It was fun and interesting touring a royal palace, especially one with such historical significance.

front courtyard at Holyrood Palace

After our palace experience we headed next door to Arthur's Seat for a hike and some amazing views of the city.  It only took us a couple hours to hike to the peak, where we stayed for only a few minutes before beginning our descent.  The hike seemed very popular, especially with dog owners, but we were very glad to have talked ourselves into doing it.  On such a beautiful day, we would've regretted passing up the opportunity.

Palace and Salisbury Crags

Holyrood Palace from the hike to Arthur's Seat

Castle, from summit at Arthur's Seat

Fried Mars bar

The rest of the day was spent wandering Edinburgh and taking advantage of things found in the big city which Dundee doesn't have, things like sushi, fried Mars (and Snickers) bars, and car boot sales.  At 6:45PM we were headed back to Dundee, exhausted but happy that our first mini-break had been such a success.