Thanks to a strategic hotel choice the train to London City airport took less than 10 minutes, much better than spending an hour going back to Heathrow. The airport was packed with people and according to the departure board all flights were running behind schedule by 9:00am already. Thanks to a bit of padding from the airline however we left late but still landed at Edinburgh on time.
Edinburgh isn't a massive city, so it's a bit strange that the airport is so far from the city. They have a new tram line that goes from the airport to the city (and nowhere else), but it takes a long route so the airport bus seemed like the better, more direct option. The bus was a bit crap as it was also making lots of residential stops along the way so it took quite a while too.
As we approached the city I got my first view of the unique city, a massive castle up on the hill and a lot of steep roads and old cathedral style buildings surrounding a large park in the middle. There were people everywhere when we got off the bus, I'm not sure how much of it was normal or how much was due to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival being in progress.
Possibly due to the festival as well, I had a hard time finding a good quality, good value hotel in the city, so I chose one at the nearby waterfront instead. This meant getting on another bus which took an interesting route through some back streets to get there. It was only a little after midday but we were able to check-in to a room which was good. The big Ocean Terminal shopping centre was just across the street which was convenient, I found some bread rolls for lunch and finally a pack of mini yum yums!
After lunch I got the same bus back to the city and got out at the Princes Street Gardens. They have a really cool looking gothic structure called the Scott monument, named after Sir Walter Scott, I just found it funny that Scotland has a Scott monument. After checking out the gardens for a few minutes we battled through the crowds of pedestrians, generally standing around and getting in the way, to make it up to the top of the hill to Edinburgh Castle.
The first benefit of visiting the castle is the nice view you get of the rest of the city, from a number of different viewpoints as you make your way around on the self-guided tour. Some of the other things to see at the castle were:
One of the funniest part while reading through some of the history was some of the conflicts with England. It seemed like they kept stealing all their precious royal items and destroying them, then Scotland would have to go and create new ones.
The hotel review:
Edinburgh isn't a massive city, so it's a bit strange that the airport is so far from the city. They have a new tram line that goes from the airport to the city (and nowhere else), but it takes a long route so the airport bus seemed like the better, more direct option. The bus was a bit crap as it was also making lots of residential stops along the way so it took quite a while too.
As we approached the city I got my first view of the unique city, a massive castle up on the hill and a lot of steep roads and old cathedral style buildings surrounding a large park in the middle. There were people everywhere when we got off the bus, I'm not sure how much of it was normal or how much was due to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival being in progress.
Possibly due to the festival as well, I had a hard time finding a good quality, good value hotel in the city, so I chose one at the nearby waterfront instead. This meant getting on another bus which took an interesting route through some back streets to get there. It was only a little after midday but we were able to check-in to a room which was good. The big Ocean Terminal shopping centre was just across the street which was convenient, I found some bread rolls for lunch and finally a pack of mini yum yums!
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| Yum Yums. |
After lunch I got the same bus back to the city and got out at the Princes Street Gardens. They have a really cool looking gothic structure called the Scott monument, named after Sir Walter Scott, I just found it funny that Scotland has a Scott monument. After checking out the gardens for a few minutes we battled through the crowds of pedestrians, generally standing around and getting in the way, to make it up to the top of the hill to Edinburgh Castle.
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| Scott monument. |
The first benefit of visiting the castle is the nice view you get of the rest of the city, from a number of different viewpoints as you make your way around on the self-guided tour. Some of the other things to see at the castle were:
- Mons Meg - A big cannon with a weird name
- David's Tower - The crown jewels were buried there during World War 2 to avoid being destroyed or stolen, pretty remarkable
- Royal Palace - An exhibition and the crown jewels
- Scottish National War Memorial
- Military Prison and POW exhibition
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| The city. |
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| The castle. |
One of the funniest part while reading through some of the history was some of the conflicts with England. It seemed like they kept stealing all their precious royal items and destroying them, then Scotland would have to go and create new ones.
The hotel review:
- Another Holiday Inn Express, about the same as the previous one
- A quiet location, a bit far from the city though
- Free breakfast again
- No sports channels on TV again
- Crazy shower random sends out a burst of boiling hot water at random intervals
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