Around The World – Edinburgh Scotland
My goal on this leg of the trip was to visit the city that we lived in for a year in 2000 – 2001, while I was posted on a series of projects at Bank Of Scotland. In a city this old, things don’t change fast and that’s great because I just love Edinburgh, the history, the architecture, the city, the villages, but the Scottish food not so much! It’s the leader in Heart Attacks in all of Europe due to the poor eating habits of the locals. The ubiquitous fish & chips shops discovered they could put things other than fish in the fryer and bam, deep fried pizza and deep fried Mars bars became a thing.
I went down to the Glasgow train station and jumped on the the next train to Edinburgh for $12.75, fast and smooth, couldn’t be better. Came out of Waverley station in Edinburgh and checked Google for the bus route to my Airbnb house. It said to walk about 100m and pick up the #5. I did and it took it straight out to the house. Man, I wish all of my journeys were this smooth.
At the Airbnb house I met Carolyn and Ross, a young couple with two kids Ava and Luca. Ross has been extending and renovating the house for about 3 years and it is nearly finished and looks great. My bedroom is large, the bed is very comfortable and the guest bathroom is huge. I got set up on the wifi and then had a power nap from lack of sleep.
I came out and began watching TV with Ross. Turns out we’re both fans of Wheeler Dealers and other car shows. We talked a lot about solar power and electric cars too.
In the morning I bought a day pass on the bus and headed into city center.
I spotted the parking area for the sightseeing buses. I bought a 2 day ticket which includes entrance to Holyrood Palace, Edinburgh Castle and the Royal Yacht Brittania. There are 4 buses, color coded as to which route they take through the city, although one is closed down for the winter. I got on the green bus and went around to Holyrood. I always thought Holyrood was the old words for Holy Road, as it’s at the bottom of a road from the city center called The Royal Mile, but no. The Rood part is because the abbey on the side of the castle, which has now mostly fallen down, was supposed to have held a piece of The One True Cross, where Jesus got nailed up one day for saying wouldn’t it be good if we all were nice to each other for a change… Sorry, that’s from the HHGTTG.
I got at the palace and did the audio tour, shame pictures aren’t allowed because, besides the history, the woodwork throughout is amazing. The Queen (yes, Liz) has a summer garden party here every July and last year she invited 8000 people. Mary Queen of Scots lived here for a while and her Italian secretary was stabbed to death by her jealous husband and his supporters. They have a small plaque on the wall next to where he bled to death. Cheery.
I took the green bus back to the starting point and then jumped on the red bus to go around on its path. I’m amazed how the buses can get through the narrow, windy roads through town. At one point we were coming up a steep, windy and wet Victoria Road when the tires on the bus started spinning. The driver slowly got us up the hill as the tires were pouring off smoke. I asked him about it at the end, he says it’s always like that in the rain and the snow makes it even harder.
I walked up the hill into Old Town (which eventually turned into a giant slum, so the rich people built New Town and moved out) and spotted the Bank Of Scotland’s museum. I saw displays about the history of Scottish banking, the minting of coins and bills and a case with a million pounds of cash but every note was stamped Cancelled, too bad. They went into detail about the start of Scottish banking and the eventual printing of currency by three banks that alert readers will remember I discussed before.
I walked up to the Castle and took pictures just as the sun was setting, but it was closed so I couldn’t get in. As I walked back down I spotted The Scottish Whisky Experience. Um, yep! I did the Gold tour, which allowed for the tour and five tastings. First we went on a Disney-like ride through an imagined distillery narrated by a ghost. He described the water, barley, peat, yeast and distillation steps. Then we came into a video room where our live human guide Matt explained the four major whisky regions of Scotland, Lowland, Highland, Speyside and Islay. He went through the distillation process again but highighted the regional variations in flavour due to the water, peat, weather and whether the scotch was aged in cheaper American bourbon barrels or vastly more expensive Spanish wine barrels. He also talked about blended vs. single malt. Blended means the whisky came from more than one distillery while single malt means it came from one distillery but potentially different barrels, which I didn’t know, I thought Single Malt all came from a single barrel, damn another childhood truth destroyed. We then walked into the whisky bottle collection which numbered over 3,000. The oldest bottle was about 150 years, the most expensive was bottle numbered 89 out of 100, and was made up of 2000 combined years of whisky from separate barrels at the distillery. The first two bottles were auctioned for charity at $100K each, the next 3 went to The Queen, the Prime Minister and Bill Clinton. Those of us who bought the Gold ticket got to sample four more whiskies, one from each region. I was the last one out of the room at closing time of course. It turns out Matt has been to Thailand before but wants to take his girlfriend with him next time so I invited him to visit me. Matt wrote down a list of veggie restaurants for me.
I managed to stumble my way out, down the street and over to New Town to the first veggie place on Matt’s list, a vegan place in fact. The waitress and I narrowed down my non-onion choices to a cold pasta salad which was excellent. I then went back to Old Town to find a nice pub. I spotted one with a guy playing acoustic guitar. I was surprised when a large group of people came in wearing fancy dress, then the waitress from Arizona told me it was Guy Fawkes night and people like to dress up for the blowing up of the Parliament Buildings. That also explains the fire crackers I heard and small fireworks I saw earlier. I just thought it was the whisky…
The next morning I went back into town and got on the yellow bus to finish up the tourist bus triumvirate. I got off at the Royal Yacht Brittania in Leith. Not a bad little runner. Saw the bed where Lady Diana spent her honeymoon with Charles… Big-eared prick didn’t deserve her!
Hungry again I pulled out Matt’s list of restaurants, and decided on an Indian place but it didn’t open for an hour so I had a hot chocolate and read my book near the castle.
I walked down and got to the restaurant with about 10 minutes to spare so I waited in the cold outside the door. The waiter came and unlocked the door and walked away, he saw me but didn’t even open the door and invite me in. I sat down and reviewed the menu. When he came I explained the onion thing and he told me absolutely everything they make has onions in it, so I have to try something else.
I went outside to look at the list and realized that Empire Cafe was right next door, Turkish food with lots of vegan and veggie. The waitress was from Latvia with a great accent. I explained the onion thing, she told me the three choices I made (it’s like tapas you can have 3 or 5 from the list), were all fine. When it came out there was a sliced onion on top of the salad so she took it back and fixed things. I had tzaiki, hazelnuts with garlic and something else, spectacularly good, like oh-wow-yummy. I started walking back towards the bus stop when I felt something going onion-y wrong in my guts. I remembered there were public toilets near the castle and just made it in time. I then walked to a place called Bow Bar on Victoria street. I had a pint of Doc Brown ale, created in celebration of the Back To The Future date last week. Dark brown, not especially thick, good flavor. I was disappointed it didn’t come with a flux capacitor umbrella.
The next morning I took the bus into town and finally went to the castle while it was open. Drizzling, rain getting harder. I walked up the path and through several of the small buildings, saw the 1 PM cannon fire and went through the walkways to see the Honours, the Scottish Crown Jewels. Well, it’s a big sword, a mace (silver stick good for hitting someone with) and a wee crown, but it’s cute they think they’re jewels.
I then got on the bus and went down to our old neighbourhood of Currie. I got off the bus right at the car dealership where I bought my car and met the son of the man who sold us the car. Nothing much changes in small towns.
I then walked through the back streets to the house. Quite a lot of renovations were peformed on it since we left: double garage doors, bricked driveway and a wee extra room on the end of the house. I tried to visit with the neighbour across the street but nobody was home. They were vets with a newborn baby (or twins) if I remember. They were the recipients of a *lot* of our wine since we couldn’t ship it back home.
I grabbed another bus back into town and went to Empire Cafe again. I tried tzakiki, roasted aubergines and falafels. I then let any onions kick in while I read my book for half an hour, no problems so I got on the bus and came home.
The next morning was my last day in town and I’ve seen most everything, so I ironed all of my washed-and-hung-to-dry clothes. That evening I was picked up for dinner by Rhian Smith and her boyfriend Ryan, daughter of Thailand friend Marion, and we went to an Indian restaurant but of course they had onions in every sauce so therefore onions in everything that they make, no chance for me. We jumped back in the car and went to TriBeCa, an American-style burger place. I ended up having onion-less fajitas which were happily quite nice, I normally have to avoid Mexican food entirely. We waited a bit to see if anything was contaminated but good news again!
All in all, a very satisfying visit to Edinburgh. The memories came flooding back, much was as I remembered and new things were for the better. Terrible weather but good veggie food and drink. Just about what I expected. Next stop, the Midlands of England, to meet up with fellow Hobbit Kimarla!
