Edinburgh, Scotland

We had a pretty exciting Valentines Day weekend (even though Vday is no big deal here). Friday we were in London and ate at our favorite restaurant we have been to so far, Antico, a delicious Italian spot. 

We got up bright and early Saturday morning and headed to Edinburgh, Scotland. Edinburgh is such a beautiful city with SO much to do! We wanted to make the most of our time there so we were very busy seeing as much of Scotland as we could. Heres what we did with our 48 hours there:

Our home in Edinburgh was the Stay Central Hotel on Cowgate St right in the middle of Edinburghs Old Town.

First stop Palace of Holyrood (a Blackbaud customer actually)

A fox we spotted in Holyrood Gardens

We stopped for lunch at The Pie Maker. If you are looking for a cheap lunch in Edinburgh I'd recommend it. All the pies are around 1 pound and really yummy!

We strolled up the Royal Mile taking it all in on the way to our next stop

Our next stop is the Edinburgh Castle which had great views of the whole city

After we explored the castle we had signed up for one of the Free City Tours where we got to see all of the hot spots and hear more about the history of this beautiful city! The Scottish people are so proud of their culture and history (so much in fact that we stopped telling people we were living in London to avoid irritating them)!

Some of the highlights were:

Mercat Cross

St Giles Cathedral:

Cemetery and Greyfairs Bobby

Inspiration for Hogwarts for the Harry Potter fans. We walked through the cemetery JK Rowling used for inspiration and also saw The Elephant Cafe where she spent a lot of time writing the series.

 Grassmarket

We had dinner at a tapas restaurant called:

Then our own impromptu pubcrawl featuring... Brewdogs (ipa bar), Frankenstein (a little too clubby for me), Captains Bar (pub with local musicians playing traditional Scottish music- so fun!) and Whistle Binkys (live music bar).

Sunday we had an all day tour through the Scotland Highlands. We were blessed with sunshine and great weather almost the whole day. We stopped in many towns that represent everything you would imagine when you think Scotland. They are almost frozen in time so it was a really cool experience and the scenery was amazing! Heres some pics from our tour:

The tour was called the Hairy Coo Tour and was a free one we found on trip advisor (tips only) it was a really fun and cheap way to spend the whole day. Heres the big orange bus:

Forth Bridge:

William Wallace Castle/Monument in Stirling

Monty Pythons Doune Castle from the movie Holy Grail

Then we stopped in a town called Callander where the highlands officially begin. It was a cute little town with lots of shops restaurants and pubs. We ate at a little place called Mor Bread and I had one of the best meals since I have been here! With REAL scrambled eggs!!! Sidenote: there are rarely ever scrambled eggs available in London and when I ask for them they have been dry and not very good. Also people consider baked beans a breakfast food here...

We made a photo stop where we had a great view of the lochs and mountains 

Next was the most fun part of the tour- the Hairy Coos! We headed up the mountains where the coos were- they were so cute! We fed them and all got to take some great photos with them.

Lake of Menteith

Our last stop was the town of Aberfoyle for a drink in one of the traditional pubs. After that we headed back to Edinburgh and took in the beautiful scenery on the ride home.

For dinner we headed to New Town had drinks and ate at The Queen Arms.

We ended our trip to Edinburgh with a ghost tour and lets just say we went out with a bang.  Let me start by saying this was the scariest ghost tour I have ever experienced (granted I have only done ghost tours in Charleston and New Orleans but I have been to a lot of haunted houses and this takes the cake). I was already scared because most of the tour takes place in vaults below the city where thousands of ppl died from the plague so many years ago. Because of this it is known to be one of the most haunted areas in the world. Before we were heading to the vaults I insisted we go to the front of the group right beside the guide so we would not be lagging behind in scary vaults. Since we were right beside the guide she points to Matt and asks for a favor he says yes before hearing what it was...she asked if we would stay at the very end of the group so when we moved from vault to vault she could just say...Matt are you here? And if he was she would know the whole group was there...I was not thrilled! The tour was CREEPY all on its own but at one point the group was moving to another vault and another couple was lagging behind taking tons of photos in the dark so of course we had to wait on them alone. The wife of the couple then told me she was a medium and there was a spirit of a man right in the vault with us. Then her husband showed me his phone where he was taking pics and in the middle of the pics there was a very distinct orb of light...at this point I was terrified! I could not wait for the tour to be over but once it was it was definitely an experience to look back on... This was definitely a LEGIT ghost tour !

Our time in Edinburgh jam packed but we had a great time and got to see so much of this wonderful city!