Edinburgh, Scotland

Just got back from Edinburgh, and really had the most marvelous time. Dovey and I rode in on the train on Saturday morning, and headed back early Monday. That gave us about a day and a hal of full-on city time, which was absolutely perfect.


Edinburgh is one of my favorite cities on the planet. The history and architecture of Edinburgh is really interesting, and the people all seem to be very warm and welcoming. It's not quite as spread out as London is, either, which makes it very easy to navigate. Once you get the general layout of the city down, it's pretty simple to walk from one place to the next. (Although, since I'm fairly directionally-challenged, it was great to have The Dove there with me. Still, even on my own I think I'd be just fine navagating around the ciy center. It's pretty simple.)


The only thing that takes a little getting used to is the amount of stairs climbing/hill walking that you have to do to get around Edinburgh. The city is built on a series of slopes and inclines, and Old Town near the castle is built at the highest point. From there, the major downtown streets slope downward and are bisected by narrow passageways between buildings called "closes." The closes are basically long, narrow staircases-- Imagine an alleyway, but totally made up of stairs. Some of them marvously steep, too. Not necessarily the best situation for the claustrophobic or easily winded. After a few days of walking around Edinburgh up and down the sloping streets and in and out of closes, my feet were feeling pretty beat. Still, well worth the effort.


One interesting side effect of the way the closes connect the different parts of the city is that it always seems like there are hidden secret passages through the city. Every close seems to have one or two interesting stores or pubs tucked away on it, none of which you'd be able to see unless you knew where to look. We stayed on one of the closes called "Fleshmarket Close," for example, and there were two pubs and a barber shop that were only accessible from various spots on the long stairway, none of which you could possibly see from the main streets above or below. The whole city feels a bit like that--- As if at any moment you could stumble across a hidden gem. It's really exciting. Or maddening, since for every amazing shop or pub you stumble across, you know there must be six or seven others right under your nose that you're missing.

Here's a look at the center of Fleshmarket Close, where we spent the night on Saturday and Sunday.

This is the pub that was immediately below our apartment, four floors down.

It's so tucked away, t'd be easy to miss. It was a really interesting and friendly pub, too called "The Halfway House." (It's halfway up the close, get it?) . It had two booths, two tables, a short bar, and that was pretty much it. I'd say that it woud fit twenty-five people, max. But that would be quite a squeeze.

Here's Dovey, hoisting a pint at The Halfway House.

The apartment we stayed at was perfect for our purposes. The decor was a little dated, but it was clean and rght in the heart of the city. We just had to walk up the close, cross the street, and we were right in the heart of The Royal Mile. A perfect location, really.

Waverly Station was right across the street from us, which was super convenient. (And not as noisy as you'd imagine.)

To add to Edinburgh's charm, most of the old buildings don't have any elevators. We had to walk four flights up a steep spiral staircaise to get to our aprtment. It was such a haul, that whn we came back to the apartment for a breather after a long day of tourist stuff, it was honestly just easier to plop down at one of the booths at The Halfway House for a bit of relaxation. Dovey and I played many card games and sampled quite a few Scottish pints there. It was very cozy and homey. I enjoyed it immensely.

I'll post more touritsy-type pictures of the city later...I have tons!