Travelblog from around the World

Another city trip brought us to Scotlands’s capital Edinburgh – from 30th September until 3rd October 2011. We’d got curious about it after Romy’s brother’s girlfriend Jana lived there for 3 months in 2010 and told us only good things about Edinburgh.

After arriving late on Friday night we found out that no hotel room was available in our prebooked hotel. Not very nice at 23:30 at night. After some searching the night portier found us a family room and finally we could lay our heads to sleep.

The next morning we started exploring the city in typical rainy and cold english weather. Edinburgh is a city full of history. The Old Town and New Town districts of Edinburgh are listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

We climbed the Calton Hill from where you should have a fantastic view over the whole city, the Castle, Arthur’s Seat and on the other side the Firth of Forth and the North Sea –  in good weather conditions. From this place, also called “Athens of the North” we wandered all the way down to the Palace of Holyroodhouse, the Queens official residence when staying in Scotland. On our way we passed the award-winning new Scottish Parliament. Then we started our climb up the 251 meter high Arthur’s Seat – a hill of vulcanic origin and a popular walking and running area.

After enyoing the views over Edinburgh we descended back into the heart of the city, strolling up the Royal Mile, checking out some of the pubs and cafes.

The next 2 days we were more lucky with the weather and we had some blue sky now and then. Exploring the city and its rich historical treasures, the Edinburgh Castle, Grassmarket and experiencing one of the scariest places in Edinburgh – Greyfrairs Kirk and Churchyard.

We also spent some time in the Royal Museum and took a bus to the Royal Botanic Garden. We definitely enjoyed Scottish food, which was far better than expected. It only got really crowded in the pubs in the evening which made it sometimes difficult to find a free table.

Anyway – we really enjoyed Edinburgh and we’d like to see more of Scotland with its beautiful landscape and castles. That’s why we are going to spend our summer holiday 2012 there.