Home Exchange - Scotland - Edinburgh - Holyrood Palace

Saturday, October 23, 2021

I hopped on the HoHo again because my voucher was good for 24 hours and I still had plenty of time to do another loop.  This time I used my GoPro camera instead of my cell.  My cell phone camera allows me to zoom in/out but the GoPro doesn't.  Videos taken on my cell tend to be a bit jerky, but the GoPro turns out amazingly smooth.

I walked the Royal Mile and over to the Scott Monument.  It doesn't look like it's possible to climb those skinny columns but I did....33 years ago.  It was closed due to Covid this time.

Then I walked down to the Edinburgh Dungeon via Cockburn street, an S-shaped street free of cars but lined with lots of restaurants, coffee shops, outdoor dining, and quaint shops.

I did the dungeon tour.  MEH!!!   Coulda done without it.  It was too schticky.  No photos allowed.

Stopped in at Starbucks, bought a coffee, and nabbed an outdoor spot to sit and watch the world walk past me.  I didn't know beforehand, but this week was a school holiday so there were lots of young adults and loads of families with baby buggies, all being tourists like me.

Sunday, October 24, 2021

I watched a 10K run pass my apartment at 9am and 50 degrees.  

Things I took notice of while here:

• Unlike where I live, there were next to no motorcycles.  Maybe that's because of the rain, ice/snow in the winter.
• I think I saw all of TWO electric scooters (the kind you stand on like a skateboard)
• I never saw any special bike lanes, nor did I see many bicycles
• Somehow, Edinburgh has successfully prevented/controlled the scars of graffiti.  Wonder how?  So many other cities could benefit!!  The graffiti I did spot was primarily scribbles of initials.
• I went to a grocery store.  There were 3 all in a row in the same block.  On the other side of the street was coffee shop after coffee shop after....
• Ham is king here.  Not so much with chicken.
• When I was on the HoHo tour, I spotted a large, modern, office building with the name in large letters 'Scottish Widows'.  Huh?  Is it a home where widows live?  I Googled it later....

• Scottish Widows was set up in 1815 to take care of women and children who lost their fathers, brothers and husbands in the Napoleonic Wars, taking its name after the people it was founded to look after. Now more than 200 years on, we look after almost 6 million customers across the UK. Today our commitment is still the same - to help people plan for their financial futures.

Monday, October 25, 2021

A nice, sunny day, I walked from my apartment down the Royal Mile to the Holyrood Palace.  I had booked an appointment and barely made it in time because I made a few wrong turns along the way.

I spent an hour and a half self-touring the palace, abbey, and gardens.  

There was no way I was going to walk back to the apartment given the state of my knee.  I walked a few blocks to the #35 bus stop and waited.....annnnnnnnd waited.  Never saw it come or go.   Then I noticed #35 busses were using a different route and didn't include the stop where I was standing....for some unknown reason and Google Maps didn't know either.  I climbed a hill and over to another #35 stop and finally made a connection.

Here's a 10 minute video of the Holyrood Palace:

Or, click here:  https://youtu.be/dHdoBWa8ars

Thursday, October 28, 2021

Time to head home.  A rainy departure day, I was up at 4:30am to be ready for my scheduled taxi at 5:30am to take me to the airport for my 7:40am flight.  Luckily, EDI airport is pretty efficient and I didn't have to walk too far to reach my gate.  Once there, I wondered 'where is everyone?'  We ended up with only 20 passengers aboard the 737 heading non-stop to Palma.  I was informed it was the last day of the holiday, most people had already made their way home, and this was the last day the airline was going to fly between Palma and Edinburgh for the season.

Approaching Mallorca

Formentor Peninsula

Port of Pollensa

Upper left is the City of Pollensa

City of Pollensa under columnar cloud

Next up, in the last installment...

Edinburgh's Architecture

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.