Edinburgh day 1

Well Hello there!

We’ve been in Edinburgh since September 24 and we have all loved it! Scotland is an easy place to travel to in the sense that Scottish people are so nice and helpful, the tap water is safe to drink, and the food has many similarities to ours. The plants we see growing also have a lot of similarities to the plants that we see at home, and because Edinburgh is a main hub of a city we see many similar companies with store fronts that are familiar. However, Edinburgh is very unique and beautiful and much different from Regina, Saskatchewan as well.

Unlike Regina, everywhere one looks in the city of Edinburgh is a gorgeous stone building that is very old. We saw buildings from as long ago as 1100 on the castle grounds. Much of the Old Town Edinburgh was built in the 16th and 17th century in a medieval style. (I read somewhere that by the year 1400 there were only 350 homes there). The old town has steep and narrow cobblestone streets, and really neat little closes such as Advocate’s close which is a narrow staircase connecting higher and lower streets. The streets zig zag and cross cross and curve around and are very lovely for waking around in.

We stayed in a hotel across from Edinburgh Castle just beside the Princes Street gardens. The gardens today are very lush and green with walking paths throughout at the base of the castle. But in the 17th century used to be a stinky putrid human made lake called Nor Loch filled with human and animal waste. Gross. It also was the site of the Witch Trials in Edinburgh. Between the 16th-18th century around 3000+ people were trialled for being witches and if found guilty were torchered and burned.

On this trip we learned much about the history of Scotland and their history of being colonizers as well. Much of it is dark.

My brother and his wife joined us in Scotland and so we ended up doing fun tourist things together.

Day 1 - we wandered the streets with the aim of getting to Victoria St. which has been said inspired Diagon Alley in Harry Potter. It did not disappoint and the kids got a wand and have been playing with them ever since. We grabbed some fish and chips as one does in Scotland and then we went to Tom Riddle’s (Voldemort’s) grave in a famous graveyard Greyfriar’s Courtyard.

After we had a short nap we head out for a walk down Rose St. to find some supper. It is a really hip street that looked great for night life. We found an awesome Italian restaurant called Veeno that had been making wine for 125 years and had their own olive oils as well. They had a great kids menu. Our server was wonderful and gave us many tips and funny stories about Scotland.