After our tour of Ireland and our trip to Liverpool, we took the train from Liverpool to Edinburgh via York. The train ride was great. We met some fun guys from Finland who where into football (soccer) and were going to watch a match. Once we switched trains in York, we saw some beautiful scenery along the coast. We arrived at Waverly station mid afternoon & caught a taxi for the ride to the apartment I had rented on Drummond St. The apartment was perfect for us. It was very small, especially the bedroom but had everything we needed including a washing machine since we had been on vacation at that point for 11 nights! So the first night we got some groceries at the Tesco Express around the corner from us and stayed in so I could catch up on laundry. Boy am I glad we do not have the same type of washer/dryer combos they have over there. It took over 5 hours to do 2 loads of wash. And it wasn't quite dry after the dry cycle! I found a clothes dryer rack & draped our stuff over it so it could dry overnight. Problem solved & went to bed. LOL
The next morning was Sunday and we set out to explore the Royal Mile. Our first stop was St Giles and since a service was about to begin and we hadn't went to church the last Sunday (we were in Galway I think), we decided to attend the service at St Giles. The week's theme was Europe Day and it was all about unity. Great sermon & service. We stayed around and took pictures afterwards. I believe they have the most beautiful stained glass windows I've ever seen. Loved it.
Walked down towards Edinburgh Castle & stopped for a pint at Deacon Brodie's Tavern. Ended up sitting with a group of about 8 English gals & chatted with them for a bit before leaving. We popped in a few closes and took lots of pictures. There was a bagpipe player near St Giles and he was really good. We stopped for lunch at the Witchery by the Castle. We wanted to split a lunch and the waiter had to ask if that was OK. It was so we stayed to eat. Very fancy place, nice meal, food was great too. For dessert we had the most delicious chocolate torte I have ever experienced. It was heaven. Seriously.
Next we toured the castle. We explored for 3 hours and took a ton of pictures. It was great. Walked a different way home & found the Frankenstein Pub (set in a former church). Stopped for a pint and a shot that tasted like a cosmo. Then walked to Greyfriars Bobby and rubbed the dogs nose then went into the cemetery to find the grave of his owner. We had dinner that night in the apartment again (I think we had just had our fill of big meals while on our tour of Ireland so it was nice to just relax and eat in). After dinner we walked down the street to a tiny little pub called the Captains Pub and listed to music. Met a guy there who told us to go to Sandy Bells. He said the music was really great there.
The next day after breakfast we headed out to explore the other end of the Royal Mile. Went to the Palace of Holyrood House, the Queens Gardens, the Abbey and the Queens Gallery. Loved that & the audio guide was so easy to use. (Usually I don't like them so I don't take them but this one was good.) Next we went to find Calton Hill, cutting through a cemetery and going the back way to find it. We climbed up the hill and saw all the monuments, took a lot of pictures & video. My husband decided he was 30 again and tried to climb the one that looks like a Greek Acropolis but slipped & tumbled down. Luckily he didn't hurt anything but his pride (and a couple scratches on his arm).
Time for lunch after that so we went to the Royal Mile Tavern and had the haggis bon bons. Good stuff. Did a little shopping & even took a nap. Dinner was in again then we walked to Sandy Bells to listen to music. It really was worth walking to. Eventually there were 10 people around a small table in the back playing both Irish & Scottish music. A couple of them were from the USA. Great stuff there.