Edinburgh, Scotland.  (May, 2022, Part I). 

Our plane from New York landed in Edinburgh about 8:00 AM.  Passport control was a quick trip through automated scanners.  Customs was non-existent.  No forms required.  Our checked bags arrived at the luggage carousel before we did. 

Instead of jumping into a taxi we took a 30 minute tram ride into town.  Our Airbnb, in New Town, is only a five minute walk from the tram stop at Prince Andrew Square.  We are just outside the tourist zone in a primarily residential area.  It is a perfect location.

Edinburgh is an absolutely beautiful city when the sun is out.  Not so much when it’s overcast, foggy, rainy, and windy.  Luckily we had good weather most days.  Though rain showers were frequent, they rarely lasted long. 

The weather changes quickly.  Our rain coats were constantly put on, taken off, tied around our waist, carried on an arm, and so on.  By checking the weather forecast several times a day we were able to dodge major rains.

We were in Edinburgh for nine days, which was just about right.   A week is plenty of time to see the major sites.  Although hilly, Edinburgh is very walkable.  Everywhere we visited was within about a 30 minute walk.

Two things we noticed right away.  One, there is a lot of ongoing construction.  A lot.  Roads, sidewalks, buildings, and bridges are all being worked on.  We walked through or past construction areas daily.  Several photo opportunities were lost because of construction fences and orange barriers.  Two, there are sea gulls everywhere.  Old Town is only a few miles from the North Sea.

On our first day we wandered around Old Town and visited St. Giles’ Cathedral.  In 1559 John Knox was elected minister of St. Giles’ and promptly converted it from a Catholic church to a Presbyterian one.  Sunday services continue to be held weekly.  For visitors, St. Giles’ is open daily and is very welcoming.   

There is no charge to visit St. Giles’.  Instead, donations are requested.  No worries if you don’t have cash or coins.  For the first time – but not the last – we saw a credit card scanner placed on top of the old school donation box suggesting a £4 donation via Google Pay. 

If you go to a cultural site in Scotland, you will see a credit card donation station.  We noticed them frequently.  I’m surprised the street beggars do not carry them.

A short distance from St. Giles’ Cathedral is Greyfriars Kirk and Greyfriars Kirkyard, a church and its surrounding cemetery. 

Originally the cemetery was famous for Bobby, a terrier that guarded his owner’s grave for 14 years.  More recently the cemetery is known for inspiring many names of the characters in the Harry Potter novels.

The Scottish National Galleries has four art museums in Edinburgh: Scottish National Gallery; Scottish National Portrait Gallery; Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art One (“One”); and, the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art Two (“Two”).

Each has a credit card donation station that is impossible to miss.

We first went to the Scottish National Gallery.  As you might expect it is filled with paintings and a few sculptures.  Several of the rooms are closed for renovations and new exhibitions.  Signs are posted apologizing for the construction work being done inside and out.

Overall, it is a nice museum, but nothing special.  From our perspective the museum shows too many styles, over a dozen, in too few rooms.  Admittedly this is an issue we have with most general art museums.  Some of the art is awesome.  The rest is hit or miss.

The Scottish National Portrait Gallery is surprisingly well done.  Largely paintings, with some photographs, it has exhibitions and displays ranging from historical Scottish and British leaders to ordinary present day citizens.  We enjoyed the Portrait Gallery much more than anticipated.  It was my favorite of the four art museums.

I don’t particularly care for modern art and, quite frankly, hoped to avoid going to One and Two.  But Stephanie insisted, so on our last day in Edinburgh we trudged over to them.  Across the street from each other, we first came to Two.  A special exhibition was being staged there at a cost of £14 per person.

Thank God this was too much for even Stephanie.  We skipped Two and walked across the street to One.

As with the other galleries, One is free.  It took us 30 to 40 minutes to walk through it.  On the top floor there were six paintings, three each by two different artists, that I really liked.  But it was not worth suffering through the rest of the modern art just to see those six paintings.

One somewhat redeemed itself with a nice café where we enjoyed a coke and pastry afterwards.  Every museum, castle, and palace that we visited has a café on site.  One, by some distance, has the nicest café.  While it does not have the largest selection of drinks, food, and pastries, the café is spacious with indoor and outdoor seating.

After leaving One we detoured to take the Water of Leith Walkway, a riverside trail, back to our Airbnb. 

Fortunately we had enough sunny days to enjoy a few outdoor activities, the best of which was going to the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh for an afternoon.  It is a large park (over 70 acres) just outside of New Town.  We spent well over an hour aimlessly walking through the gardens.

The flowers were in bloom and the grounds very well maintained.  Maybe it was just the right time of year with the flowers, but the gardens were beautiful.  Stephanie promptly elevated the Royal Botanic Garden to her favorite botanical gardens after the first 10 minutes of our visit.

Unfortunately it also had construction, as the Biodomes and glasshouses were closed for renovation.

Our timing for a visit to Edinburgh worked out very well.  The weather was good.  The city was busy but not crowded.  Tourists had not yet overrun the place.  I can imagine Edinburgh being uncomfortably crowded during the summer vacation season.

And we quickly found our beer of choice in Scotland: Tennant’s.  It is a Scotland brewed lager.  It was the least expensive, not to mention pretty decent tasting.  It was the only beer we tried.  Sometimes you just know a good thing when you find it.

Garrett and Stephanie

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