We arrived in Edinburgh at about 5 – which equals one long-ass bus ride. We had two rest stops, snow, traffic and a detour for a car accident. Sheesh! We had about 40 minutes to get checked in before getting back on the bus to go to The Thistle Hotel for a traditional Scottish night. There were bagpipes (duh), a fiddler and Scottish dancing. It was pretty cute and the food was OK. There was a very interesting presentation of and toast to the Haggis. I am usually an adventurous eater but I saw the sheep stomach come out on a platter with antlers attached to it (yes, really) and I just could not eat it. It didn’t look too bad – it actually looked like Jimmy Dean sausage crumbles, but I couldn’t get the sheep stomach out of my head. Lee ate it and survived!
Day 2 was spent touring around the city. Edinburgh is really beautiful and I can’t wait to go back when the days are a little longer. We went to a whiskey tasting…in Scotland, whiskey is Scotch. I found I could drink it with a little water and I didn’t hate it. Didn’t love it either. We broke up from our tour group at about 1PM and walked around/explored a little bit on our own. We went back to our hotel and had a nap, in preparation for the Hogmanay festivities. Hogmanay means “end of year”. That night was spent at the big street party down in Charlotte Square. I’m glad to have been there done that and don’t regret that we went – it’s pretty different than anything we have done for New Year’s before – but never again. Most of the people there were really young, really drunk, and there was lots of peeing in public. I have never seen so much peeing, even when Laura was getting potty trained. Yuck! We did take a really quick, really expensive Ferris wheel ride and got a nice bird’s eye view of the street party. The fireworks at midnight were pretty amazing.
We were supposed to go to Stirling Castle on Day 3, but after coming in at 2:30, a 9:30 group tour departure did not sound like fun. We slept in a little bit and had a late breakfast and then ventured out on our own. We went to Hard Rock Café Edinburgh and got some souvineers, walked around the city a little bit, stopped to get some hot whiskey drinks (hey, it was cold!) and then went to the Edinburgh Dungeon. The shopping and food were pretty nice. We both got some really warm (if slightly silly looking) wool hats, and I got one of the heavy cabled wool cardigans I’ve been wanting for awhile. It isn’t the most flattering thing I have ever worn – it’s kind of like a bathrobe/sweater combination, but it’s warm.
All in all, a GOOD TRIP! If you get the chance to visit, DO IT! The one thing I forgot to mention is the Scotch porridge we had for breakfast every day. It was delicious. Let me clarify – it was Scotch porridge because we were in Scotland (I guess…that is what the sign on the breakfast buffet said), NOT because there was whisky in the porridge. Or, maybe there was…cheers!
