Edinburgh In The Rain

The View From My Beer

Today I enjoyed a pint of Tennants Lager at the Guilford Arms, established 1858. One big difference I have noticed between English and Scottish pubs is the space. English pubs are often very cramped with low roofs. Scottish pubs like this one are much more open.

Edinburgh

The final stop on my 14-day cruise around Britain. It also completed my circumnavigation of the island of Britain, having also stopped here on the last stop of my previous cruise.

My Walk

One of the great things about life cruising is that each day you can get up when you want and then do pretty much anything you wish until it is time to go to bed and/or the bar closes. The one exception to this is when you have a planned excursion, as that often dictates your timetable for the day. Today I had to be by Edinburg Castle no later than 12 noon. Because a water shuttle is required to get off the boat, it was going to be tight for me to make the trip from our port of South QueensFerry to Edinburgh. I got very lucky. I jumped on a bus instead of making the walk to the train station and the bus departed the moment I got on. This allowed me to arrive at Edinburgh Castle 10 minutes before my allotted time expired. It was a close call, but I made it.

I had nothing specific planned after that, but as luck would have it, I soon found a few other things to do that filled in my day. My luck with the weather finally run out and I experienced one of those grey wet Summer days that I am sure Edinburgh is well known for.

Edinburgh Castle

The number of people allowed to enter Edinburgh Castle is controlled to avoid overcrowding. I can see why, the lines were often long to various attractions inside the castle. I have visited a few castles over the years, and this was definitely one of the better ones. It commanded an imposing position high on a rock overlooking Edinburgh. I was there for the daily firing of the cannon at 1PM and managed to catch a show where a musician demonstrated various instruments and explained what it would have been like to have been a musician appointed to the castle back in the day.

Calton Hill

Whilst I was at Edinburgh Castle, I was able to see several interesting buildings off in the distance on what is known as Calton Hill. I decided to make that my next destination. Calton Hill forms part of the city’s UNESCO World Heritage Site. It offers panoramic views of the city and hosts a number of important monuments. In the 18th century Edinburgh was envisioned as the ‘Athens of the North’, and Calton Hill was its Acropolis. Several of the building had a distinct feel of Ancient Greece, that had me wondering which city I was in.

Edinburgh City

I spent the last couple of hours walking around central Edinburgh trying to visit sites I had identified as being interesting that I had missed on my previous visit. That of course, included the pub. Should I return to Edinburgh again I am sure I will find a few things I missed, but after two days in Edinburgh I feel content with the amount of amazing things I saw. Edinburgh is definitely not a city you can visit in a single day and it has worked oyt well that I had two!