36 hours in Edinburgh
Last week, my father-in-law Jeff visited us in England. He arrived Easter weekend, and for his birthday a couple days later, we went to Scotland!
The three of us caught the 5am train out of Cambridge, and got to Edinburgh just after 10am. It was absolutely beautiful to watch the sunrise from the train as we got closer and closer to our destination. The sun rose into a beautiful day, a bit chilly but thankfully not rainy!
Upon stepping out of the train station, the first thing I noticed was the gothic architecture standing tall in the city. I think I expected it to look the same as England, but Edinburgh does have it's own distinct look to the city. The second thing I noticed was the bagpipers busking at street corners, and the amount of non-bagpipers wearing kilts. Not every man was in a kilt, I probably only noticed a handful, but that's still more than I tend to see on a stroll in other cities!
On our first day in Edinburgh, we went to the National Gallery. While smaller than I expected it to be, it was host to many notable pieces by artists like Van Gogh, Monet, John Singer Sargent, Gauguin, and Degas. Impressionism is my favorite classical art style, so I was partial to enjoying that gallery especially. My favorite piece in the museum, however, was not a painting, but a Bartolini sculpture! I am always impressed by marble statues of figures wearing flowing fabric that you forget is part of the marble and not actual fabric.
After exploring the museum, we went to lunch at Contini, a lovely Italian restaurant in the city. As it was Jeff's birthday dinner, we went all out and enjoyed some yummy Italian desserts as well. My brief review of the restaurant and meal is here on my tumblr if you want to read more about it and see pictures of my bruschetta ;)
Before heading to the AirBnB cabin we rented for the night, we meandered about town and noted some places to return to the next day. Despite showing up in a search for places to stay in Edinburgh, our accommodations were a 45 drive outside of the city. However, while that made it impractical to go to and from the cabin as we had expected to be able to, it was in a lovely little bit of the countryside. Surrounded by fields of sheep, horses, and cows, with a walking path to Loch Leven, the cabin was very peaceful and relaxing.
The second day's agenda included a whiskey tasting tour and visiting Edinburgh Castle.
I'm gonna be honest, I am not a fan of whiskey. Or scotch, or bourbon, and whatever else is also whiskey... But I quite enjoyed the whiskey tasting experience! I learned a lot about how it's made, just how much Scotland actually produces (it's a whole lot, okay, it's literally so much), and how different regions produce whiskies with varying flavour notes. The one I tried on the tour was from the Speyside region, and had notes of pear and cinnamon. Personally, I could only taste the alcohol in it. But it sure smelled like cinnamon! Ben and Jeff found whiskies they really enjoyed, and I was mainly excited to keep the cute little tasting glasses we were given. Alcohol preferences aside, it was also fascinating to see all the interesting bottles and very aged scotches in collection at The Scotch Whiskey Experience. They host the largest collection of unopened scotch whiskey bottles - 3,384 bottles to be exact! The deep ruby red one pictured here caught my eye. I appreciate that it has a matching bottle stopper that looks like a huge ruby, waiting to be put to use in case the bottle is ever opened...
We next spent our afternoon at Edinburgh Castle. The impressive structure sits on the edge of a cliff, looking properly Scottish and medieval.
Inside are several niche museums, with information on world wars, aspects of Renaissance/Medieval life, and local history situated throughout different chambers in the castle.
Something interesting that I found on Atlas Obscura was located within the castle as well - the Dog Cemetery. It's a small garden area that was used in Queen Victoria's time as a final resting place for soldiers' dogs. It's a sweet little corner with headstones and flowers that honestly made me tear up a little bit...
As we walked around, exploring the castle's interior, I liked looking out over the canons and seeing parts of the city from different angles through the relatively small openings in the castle walls. This castle was very much a structure for fighting invaders and protecting the city, not just for housing royalty. It's very impressive, and if you ever find yourself in Edinburgh I highly recommend checking it out!
So that was our 36-ish hours in Scotland! We managed to see a lot in less than two days, and I would love to go back for a longer trip. (Mom, if you're reading this, I hope you want to go to Edinburgh later this year, cuz when you visit I will be taking you up there!)
Comment question: what's a city you've taken an overnight trip to? or one where you would like to take an overnight trip? I've done overnights in Columbus and Philadelphia, and I think it's fun to see how much you can squeeze into a day and a half visit!
take care of yourself <3
~heather
if you're enjoying this blog and want to see more of what I do, scroll down to my ko-fi tip jar, or tap the linktree button to find my other online spaces!
Sounds wonderful! And I’ll be happy to skip the whiskey tasting tour with you. What else do they drink there? 🥂