First Night in Edinburgh

Driving to Edinburgh from Hadrian's Wall wasn't too hard. Driving through Edinburgh to our guest house (or bed and breakfast) was very hard. We had to drive through town from the south, which meant crossing the historic area in the middle. Google's directions would have been okay if they hadn't directed us down one-way roads and roads that are only for buses and taxis!

Luckily, we had a fairly detailed map of the downtown area, so we were able to navigate around, though we still came to corners where we'd like to turn except for the "buses only" signs. Oh, and there was a point where we wanted to turn left on the South Bridge, which would have worked if we hadn't been down below driving underneath the bridge. Someday, someone will invent 3D maps to avoid such problems.

We finally made it to Ardenlee Guest House on Eyre Place.

Our room was behind those upstairs windows

After unpacking a bit and having some tea (Scottish shortbread cookies were left with our tea things!), we headed out to explore a bit and find some dinner.

We walked back up to the heart of New Town. Lots of shopping and restaurants and construction and the Occupy Edinburgh protest could be found there. We wandered quite a bit and couldn't find a restaurant that didn't have a long line or wait (it was Friday night), so we wound up at a mall food court where we had fish and chips from a Scottish chain. The children ate quickly which was our priority since we had walked them uphill almost all the way.

We then walked over to the Walter Scott Memorial, which had a large display for Remembrance Day (Veterans' Day in the USA).

Walter Scott's Statue

Honoring the war time dead

We also saw the castle at night from a distance and then headed back to our hotel. The children needed to go to bed. We stopped at a little store to get milk for Lucy and some snacks, and discovered Jammie Dodgers!

What's so exciting about those cookies? Doctor Who used one to fool the Daleks into thinking he could blow up his Tardis with a cookie-shaped remote control (if a time machine can look like a police call box, then why not a cookie-shaped remote?).

Spoiler! He did wind up eating it.

We returned to the hotel for more tea and treats. The children went to sleep quickly, with Mommy not far behind. That left Auntie Rosemary and I to explore after hours. We chose to go on one of the many ghost tours of the city, which will be the topic of the next post!