This morning I woke up and started my day just like any other day. I said my good mornings to the husband and the dog, made the bed, and promptly started preparing a pot of coffee. As I was measuring out the coffee grounds, I inhaled the aromas and immediately I longed to be back in Edinburgh. It's funny, really. Of all the wonderment that the city of Edinburgh offers a traveler, the one thing I miss the most is the coffee. We stayed right in the middle of Grassmarket, where we could pick any direction, walk for five minutes, and stumble on a multitude of gourmet coffee shops. I still dream about the velvety flat whites I enjoyed each morning during our stay in this fabulous city. It's interesting how taste and texture leave imprints on our memories, even more vivid and lasting than the images we encounter. So, I'm sorry I can't deliver those senses to you here. We'll have to settle for pictures and a bit of imagination! And the city of Edinburgh is indeed the perfect city to let your imagination run wild. Undoubtedly, the atmosphere certainly inspired J.K. Rowling's imagination when she was here writing her first Harry Potter book. Edinburgh's medieval streets are filled with centuries of fascinating stories, and when you step off the main street to walk through the descending little cobblestone alleys, called a "close", you feel as though you might be stepping into a gap in time.

Day 1

We spent two full days in this grand city, and we were able to see and do a lot without feeling very rushed, since the city is very walkable. It also helped that we stayed in a fabulous area, the aforementioned Grassmarket, which was very near all the main attractions.

Grassmarket was originally used as a cattle market, but in the late 17th century it became an infamous place for public executions. This picture was taken early in the morning when we had the square to ourselves, but by midday it becomes a bustling place for people to congregate to enjoy a beer from one of the many pubs (which Thomas did) or an ice cream cone from the little pop-up ice cream stand (which, of course, I did). The pubs all have interesting names, and even more intriguing stories behind them. Maggie Dickson's was the one Thomas and I went to, and it was named after Half-Hanged Maggie, who was hanged here at Grassmarket because she "concealed her pregnancy". She survived her hanging though, waking up in her coffin a few hours later, and was allowed to go free due to the fact that her sentence did not specify that she would be "hanged until death". So apparently you could be hanged for pretty much anything those days, but if you survived you were off scot-free. (No pun intended).

Gory history aside, our stroll from Gassmarket to the Royal Mile was definitely my favorite walk. I could not get enough of picturesque Victoria Street.

And, by the way, this street was apparently the one that inspired J.K. Rowling's literary depiction of Diagon Alley--even more reason to venture through here!

We settled into this adorable little cafe on Victoria Street for delicious coffee and French breakfasts. We actually loved this place so much that we had breakfast here twice, and I had the quiche and a flat white both times with zero guilt.

And I just couldn't pass up this little tasty morsel. When in a French cafe...never say no to croissants.

Next we made our way to Edinburgh Castle. Unfortunately our view of the castle as we approached was obstructed by a massive grandstand from the previous night's Jazz Fest concert. (And, as Thomas informed me, they will be keeping it up during the month of August for the famous Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo).

But I wasn't too miffed about the eyesore here, because we had a pretty fabulous view of the castle from the window of our hotel.

Am I right or what? You can hardly beat that view in Edinburgh! We were afforded even more beautiful views from inside Edinburgh Castle, due to its elevated position on an extinct volcano that overlooks the city.

There is a lot to see and learn inside this giant fortress, as the entire grounds are surmised of various different museums and buildings of historical importance. We bought audioguides and spent a whole three hours exploring this place!

Thomas snuck a picture of the baby bump and me, admiring one of the many grand buildings. We toured military museums, old royal quarters, jail cells, and dungeons. We viewed the Scottish crown jewels and a plethora of old swords, artillery, and cannons. There is an interesting story about the more modern cannon pictured below though. Every day at 1:00 pm it goes off. (Except on Sundays, darn it, which happened to be the day we were here). This tradition has been in place since 1861 to allow sailors to synchronize their maritime clocks, though of course they have upgraded the cannon since then. Since we all have smart phones that do this for us automatically now... I guess they just do it for fun!

After we felt we had exhausted ourselves with information and exhibits at the Edinburgh Castle, we began to amble our way down the Royal Mile, which is the nickname of the main road which starts at Edinburgh Castle and concludes at Holyrood Palace. We utilized a free audioguide, compliments of the Rick Steves iPhone app, to gain a little historical perspective as we walked.

This place was PACKED. We were looking for a bite to eat at this point in the day, but there was no way we were getting a table here. Deacon Brodie's Tavern is named after the real Edinburgh character, Deacon William Brodie, who lived in the 1700's and inspired Robert Louis Stevenson's book Jeckyll and Hyde. So basically, it was named after an infamous character who was a saint by day and a gambler and thief by night, and now requires a 1.5 hour wait for a table? No thanks. There's no lack of great pubs in Edinburgh, and they all have amusing names and tons of character. The best strategy, in my opinion, is to find one off one of the side streets. This one we picked was quite good, located on a really cute street less than a block off the Royal Mile, and there were plenty of open seats!

After lunch, we hit up St. Giles Cathedral, which dates back to the 14th century. It was closed so we didn't go inside, but we enjoyed the exterior and marveled at the unique crown-shaped spire, before continuing on our journey.

So we walked.

And we walked.

And we walked some more...

Side note: If you are a whiskey connoisseur, I have been told that Cadenheads Whisky Shop is the place to go. But they were closed, so we hopped into a nearby fudge shop instead for some tasty samples! Okay and maybe we bought a few blocks of it for later. But that's just the unwritten rule of obligation when you take free samples, right? We were just doing our duty as good citizens of the world.

Next we went into the Museum of Edinburgh. The museum looks small on the outside, but it is crammed with lots of interesting artifacts on the inside. I'll be honest, I really just went inside because the museum was free and I assumed they would have a decent and free restroom, which they did. But it actually ending up being a really great stop for a snapshot history lesson on the city of Edinburgh. We could have spent at least an hour in there, but we were pretty burnt out on history at this point. Apparently we didn't even have the energy to take pictures of anything we saw, since I couldn't find a single picture, but truly this is a great and very underrated museum! And it's free, so why not give it a go?

Now, can one ever be too tired for a castle tour though? The answer, I found, is YES. We finally made it to Holyrood Palace and my thoughts were, "Okay, it's cute. But let's just take a picture and move on." Holyrood Palace has been a royal residence since the 16th century, and the Queen of England stays here once a year. So, I'm sure the interiors are nothing short of glamorous, but unless there was an actual fire-breathing dragon lurking inside this thing, you couldn't have paid me to go on another castle tour at this point. So we snapped a few pictures from outside the gate and made our way toward "New Town".

This involved a nice, steep climb, but at least it was scenic! We had a great view of Arthur's Seat, which is the mountain we would tackle the following day.

Construction of the Georgian style New Town began in the late 1700's. It was designed to inhabit the wealthy citizens of Edinburgh, seeking to escape the grime and squalor of densely-packed Old Town.

The architecture is certainly beautiful, but the best part of New Town, in my opinion, is Princes Street Gardens. This vast and inviting green space actually used to be Nor Loch, which I later learned was a lake where the city dwellers would dump all their waste and occasionally drown a few "witches". Yikes. Well, that's not really a good selling point for the park I just realized. So maybe don't wander around here at night, but by day it sure looked like a great spot to sit and soak up some sun.

We were tired and thirsty at this point, so it was time for a rest break anyway. But instead of stopping at Princes Street Gardens, Thomas surprised me with a much more elegant respite inside The Dome restaurant.

Tea and scones under this ceiling? Yes please.

We finished our day of sightseeing in Edinburgh with a tour of the "Real Mary King's Close". This entailed an hour long underground tour of a 17th century close, which was covered in the 18th century in order to build a government building on top. For centuries the close remained untouched, and it wasn't until 2003 that someone decided to unveil it and open it up to the public. However, you can only access it by booking a tour, and we were told we weren't allowed to take pictures once inside due to the fact that it is positioned underneath a government building--which seemed like a load of crock to me. But they do offer you a hilariously cheesy "professional" photo of your group at the end of a tour, for a good chunk of change. (Perfect for collecting dust somewhere alongside your Splash Mountain picture from 1997.) Anyway, all joking aside, the tour provides you with underground access to see what the rooms looked like for the people living in them, and your costumed guide provides stories about the real people who lived and worked here, not to be complete without a few ghost stories. Next time I'd probably opt for a fun ghost tour of the underground vaults instead, but we did get some interactive history lessons out of it, so it was worthwhile.

Day 2

Day 2 started with coffee and scones at a cute little coffee shop called Kilimanjaro, a fitting choice considering we were able to climb an extinct volcano.

Side note: Scones are basically glorified biscuits in the UK. And "biscuits" are cookies. And "flapjacks" are things that resemble granola bars. Confused? Yeah, me too. Apparently our need to be as different as possible from England seeped even into our breakfast vernacular.

Moving on! Here we are heading toward Arthur's Seat for our adventurous climb. Rumor has it that this now extinct volcano was named after King Arthur, because the real Camelot was located here. I don't think that has been verified by many, if any, historians, but it's a fun thought nevertheless.

We decided to take the difficult way up, naturally. And ended up actually doing a bit of unexpected bouldering...

And then a little more hiking...

Then, finally, we conquered that one last hill, to officially reach the top of Arthur's Seat.

And we enjoyed awesome bird's eye views of the Royal Mile and Holyrood Palace.

On our way back to the hotel to freshen up after the hike, we stopped at the famous Greyfriar's Kirkyard, which is a 17th century church and graveyard, now notable and even more photographed for the fact that J.K. Rowling used a few names from the headstones for characters in her Harry Potter books.

We also dropped by the massive National Museum of Scotland that afternoon, perusing the exhibits for barely an hour before I looked at Thomas and said, "I'm over it. You ready to get out of here?" The feeling was very mutual. We were museum-ed out for this trip, and admission was free so we didn't feel bad leaving without seeing it all. But we did get a nice view of the Royal Mile from the rooftop before we left.

We pretty much just shopped and relaxed the rest of the day, so I think this is a great picture to conclude this blog post with! It was a very eventful two days, with much to see, do, and learn. But we were able to fit it all in, without feeling like we had no time to relax. I have found that to be a tricky balancing act when vacationing such historical places in Europe, so I am happy to report it was an altogether successfully planned trip! I tried to throw in a little history here and there for you, but I guarantee there is an interesting story lurking behind every nook and cranny of this enchanted city. To really take it all in, you just have to come out and experience it for yourself!