Home Exchange - Scotland - Edinburgh - St Giles Cathedral

Thursday, October 21, 2021

It was time for another Home Exchange adventure...this time to Edinburgh, Scotland!!

At the Palma airport, the flight reader boards directed me to Concourse A.  I could SWEAR I've been on 'A' before, but it was very foreign to me.  It led me to Immigration to check passports.  I've NEVER had that done at this airport before and I've flown out of PMI many times.  I finally figured out it was because of Brexit.  Now that the UK is no longer a part of the EU, you can no longer freely travel there without joining the snaking line to passport control.  I noticed everyone in the concourse was speaking English and it appeared all the flights departing from that concourse were headed to a destination in the UK.

After an uneventful 3-hour flight, we landed in Edinburgh and disembarked via the aircrafts built-in stairs onto the tarmac.  No long concourses...I was out of the terminal in quick time.  Just outside waited the Airlink bus and the light rail tram.  I chose the bus.

First thing that threw me off was driving on the left side of the road.  Weird sensation!  The whole 'left' thing is much more than just the side of the road you drive.  Vehicles are outfitted with the drivers seated on the right.  You get on the left side of the bus.  Normally, you determine which side of the street you need to stand for your bus based on the direction you want to go.  But, in this 'left' world, it will be on the opposite side than you think.  I kept swerving on sidewalks because I naturally wanted to walk on the right but constantly found myself having to correct my course and walk on the left side.

When I got off the Airlink bus to switch to my next bus, I had to wait in a somewhat chilly, brisk breeze.  I thought 'no shorts here', but just as I was thinking those words, two guys came along in shorts and carrying surfboards!  Huh?  There's surf in Edinburgh?  A few minutes later, skateboarders whizzed by wearing shorts.  Darn, I didn't pack mine.  I usually LIVE in shorts.

While riding the bus, I noticed what is typical in the older parts of most cities in Europe.  That being, the buildings were old, with lots of character, apartments on the upper level but at the street level were endless Mom/Pop-sized shops, cafes, and bars.

The 2nd bus dropped me off almost directly in front of the apartment building where I'd be staying for the next 7 days.

Like many of the old buildings in Europe, there was no elevator.  The apartment was a 55 step climb via a tight, circular stairwell.  I imagined what it would be like to move in and out of these kinds of premises.  I bet once they purchased furniture, that furniture was there to STAY!

My hosts left me a bevvy of 'welcome' gifts including wine, shortbread cookies, cheese, Scottish ham, and whiskey.  I was doomed to gain weight as I have NO willpower.  Zip.

I stayed in, logged onto the interwebs, and booked my next day activity which almost always includes a tour on the HoHo bus (Hop On Hop Off) to get a feel for the layout of the city and note places I wanted to go back to.  The cost?  15 pounds...approximately $20.  The UK continued to use the Pound Sterling as their currency even when they were part of the EU.

Hello Scotland!!

A large percentage of the city transit busses are double-decker

The stairwell leading to my Edinburgh apartment.

Interior of my Home Exchange apartment

View from the living room windows

I stayed in a neighborhood called GrassMarket with the GM square right outside my door.  Lonnnnng time ago, they used to sell cows, pigs, and sheep here.  BUT, it also has a sordid history in that most executions by hanging were done here.  Well over a hundred of them up until the late 1700’s.  There’s a marker showing the place where they were conducted.  A few of the cafes that line the square take advantage of the history.  One place is called ‘The Last Drop’.  It either meant it was where the person being executed had his last drink, or the act of the hanging and dropping from the gallows was his/her ‘last drop’. 

Also on the square is the oldest pub in Edinburgh, the White Hart Inn.

'X' marks the spot where hangings took place

Notice the light fixtures inside the café!!

Friday, October 22, 2021

I went for a walk and headed up to the 'Royal Mile', a popular shopping street that stretches from the Edinburgh Castle down to the Holyrood Palace.

Greyfriars Bobby Bar....there's a story behind it

Every Saturday, there's an outdoor market on Grassmarket square.  Notice the Edinburgh Castle in the background.

Interesting combinations!!

I'm a peanut butter freak.  I couldn't help myself.

Typical items you find on menus here

In case you’re wondering what Haggis, Neeps, & Tatties is….here’s a 'splanation from the world wide interwebs:

Haggis is a tradtional Scottish dish containing sheep's offal (heart, liver and lungs), minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt, mixed with stock, and traditionally simmered in the animal's stomach for approximately three hours (although nowadays haggis tends to be simmered in a casing rather than the stomach). It is often considered to be the national dish of Scotland, and is memorialised in Robert Burns' poem Address to a Haggis.

Originally a modest dish ensuring no part of the sheep goes to waste, haggis can now be found on the menu in most pubs and many restaurants where one can encounter it in anything from Filo pastry, to Drambuie sauce, to the haggis, neeps and tatties roulade on sale at the Scottish Parliament’s Holyrood cafe. Furthermore, some supermarkets have been known to sell products which are not sheep based. This is very wrong! A vegetarian version is now also available and while still ‘wrong’, is quite tasty! Haggis is traditionally served with mashed neeps (turnips) and mashed tatties (potatoes).

The first place on my list to check out was the medieval church St Giles Cathedral.  Though it was founded in the 12th century, the current building stems from the 14th century and enlarged over time.  In 1970 it was designated as a World Heritage site.

Here's a 5 minute video of arriving in Edinburgh, then touring the St Giles Cathedral.

Or click here:  https://youtu.be/ykm8_f9fQQA

Next up...

We'll tour the

Edinburgh Castle!!!

Dano

By the way, if you're interested in viewing any of my past entries about travelling around Europe and where I live in Mallorca, simply scroll down past my signature to the end.  There, you'll see 'Blog History'.  You can click on any Month/Year to see the titles I published at that time.  Simply click on the title you're interested in and it will take you to that page.