Day 2: Conquering Edinburgh Castle

Up to the castle . . .

We began today with a group walking tour along the Royal Mile of old town and up to Edinburgh Castle. This topography is described as crag and tail. Essentially, the castle sits atop a mountain with cliffs on three sides and a tail of land trails gradually down on the fourth side. These are rare and perfect for castles, and today, we experienced it first hand on our journey up to Edinburgh Castle. When we arrived, we found bleachers set up at the castle for the annual Tattoo military music event. They also had guards on duty because the queen is in town. Highlights for us included watching the changing of the guard, seeing the crown jewels and touring the historic prisoner holds. We also had a great view of the city and saw the canon they fire every day at 1 o’clock.

Conquering the Castle

At the Georgian House

At The Voyage of Buck

Extending the tour on our own

We left the castle at about noon and headed out on our own. We walked back down to the grass market where they once had public hangings and then headed up to the museum. We also saw the statue of the famous Greyfriars Bobby, the dog who is legend in the city for guarding his owner’s grave site for 14 years after his owner's death. It's supposed to be good luck to rub the nose of his statue, so of course, I did! We then used our Heritage Pass to get in to see the Georgian House, a historic home of a wealthy local. It was an informative and interesting visit, and I took my turn at leaving a note with the quill and ink.

An optional group outing

We met at The Voyage of Buck, a local bar, for an optional group activity at 5:00. About two-thirds of our group members showed up, and Nigel bought us all a drink. We loved how so many of our group members wanted to gain as much local experience as they could take in. Nigel's friend highlighted the visit with a neat presentation about whiskey, gin and beer. After our first Scotland bar experience, we grabbed some dinner with two of our tour mates, Dave and Diane from Seattle. ​