To borrow from Colin, what am tourist?
Does a tourist get up in the morning, leave quiet Glasgow, jump on a train and head straight to the touristy of all touristy cities in all the land of Scots with a full list of touristy things to do?
Of course! Our first stop off the Edinburgh Waverly train station—which is very nice, as far as train stations go—was Calton Hill, which offered spectacular views of the entire city, the castle, the coast, and surrounding areas.
Also included, siblings pushing each other’s buttons.
It was a brief, albeit steep at times, walk to our next stop which didn’t quite burn off the Indian food from the night before but helped us look forward to our meal at Vittoria’s On The Bridge. Having come highly recommended by our friends, and from friends of their friends, the Italian restaurant turned out to be lovely and the food was phenomenal. I didn’t know burrata had its own season.
Next up was walking around Edinburgh’s Old Town and New Town, slowing meandering our way up to Edinburgh Castle. We saw the alleyway (believe they call this a “close” in Scotland?) apparently famous for inspiring the author of the Harry Potter novels (she who must not be named) to come up with Diagon Alley.
Arriving at the castle, having made the executive decision not to purchase tickets for the tour in advance (despite the website expressly saying the tickets sell out in advance), we quickly found said tours were sold out for the day and to wander around the castle on our own was not an option. We immediately picked up our phones and purchased tickets for the next day, therefore setting the stage to return to Edinburgh even though we had Loch Lomond on our morning to-do list already.
To be fair, Edinburgh is the capitol of Scotland. We knew it would be bustling with attractions we couldn’t compromise on, such as Edinburgh Castle and Calton Hill. Adopting a walk through the city and “roll with it” attitude for the day worked for the most part but our flexibility wasn’t all that great to the throngs of other tourists hogging up the queues with their well-planned days.
Before leaving, we hustled over to the Edinburgh Museum (FREE!), having only an hour to spare before their closing, then found an excellent coffee spot on our way back to the train station.
Due to timing we succumbed to a grab and go dinner from M&S at Waverly station for the ride back to Glasgow but not before Ethan braved another public piano performance. A text from a friend let us know that Scotland was playing Ukraine and the evening’s plans were solidified. Ella was happy to take up a piece of the couch to read and Heather had to work so the boys headed out.
Scotland lost the match, and the pub kicked Ethan and David out before it was over since their license won’t allow children to be in after 9pm—a good rule, come to think of it.
