Edinburgh: Part 2 - Day 2: Walking tour, Scotch Whisky Tour Experience, Arthur's Seat

Day 2

Here is a summary of what is spent on Day 2.

24/9 Day 2: Walking tour --> Lunch at Greyfriars Bobby's Bar --> Scotch Whisky Tour Experience --> Arthur's Seat --> Dinner at Edinburgh Street Food

Costs

(A) Food

(1) Breakfast at Hobz cafe - Sugar bun £4, morning bun £3.20, cappucino £2.95 each

(2) Cappucino at Copper Still bar - £4.40

(3) Lunch at Greyfriars Bobby's bar - Haggis £11.50, ale £5.75

(4) Slice of cheesecake - £5.50

(5) Dinner at Edinburgh Street Food - Sweet potato fries £4, Korean fried chicken bao £6.50, Chicken sandwich £8

(6) Snacks from Lidl for road trip (4 bananas, chocolate bun, energy drink, sweet drink, cashew nuts, squidgy fruit jelly, 2 bottles of mineral water) - £9.02

 

(B) Miscellaneous

(1) Tip for the walking tour  - £10

(2) 20GB Sim Card 02 - £15

(3) The Scotch Whisky Experience - Silver Tour £21 per person

The Story

24092023: We headed out from the apartment at 7.30am. Our apartment is the second window on the right with a flag. The apartment has a view of the river. It was cloudy today so the view was not exciting.

We had breakfast at Hobz Cafe which was on our way to town. I had booked a Free Walking Tour that starts at 10am. We went into a random cafe and we checked in Google too on the ratings. The cafe that we went in accepted dogs. It was a small cafe so when a dog and its owner came in, the cafe can get noisy with the barkings. Breakfast was just buns with lots of sugar on it. Good thing we are going to do a lot of walkings today. There were no sandwiches. We saw more cafes opened as we walked further.

The walk continues after our quick breakfast. I was amazed by the buildings' architecture and every building was brown in colour. Nice that they a have small library in the neighbourhood. There are lots of these bookshelves in Stockholm where one can borrow books for free or exchange them. There was a small garden behind the mini library but unfortunately, it was not well-kept.

This picture does not do the rows of buildings justice. I was in awe by them and I wanted to have a photo of them as my background. 

We went to the Tourist Information Office to get some advice on where to purchase an O2 Sim card. This is me right in front of the door, minutes before 9.30am while waiting for the doors to be opened. A staff told us that there is a shop in St. James Quarter shopping mall that sells the sim card. We could not find any O2 Sim card in the airport. 

Of course, a photo with the obligatory red telephone booth that is, by the way, broken. It was messy inside. I think the tourist office should do something about it as we were on the touristy road - Royal Mile.

We met the Free Walking Tour guide in front of Copper Still Bar. I booked the tour with City Explorer Tours as it received good reviews on the web. Copper Still Bar has very expensive coffee. Luckily, we bought only one cup of cappucino. Initially, it was two cups while waiting for the walking tour to start but we saw the guide and more people started to gather around the guide, so we cancelled my order as it was taking slightly longer. The walk took 2 hours. 

We walked past St. Giles Cathedral. King Charles was crowned here in Scotland after his coronation in England.

This is The Heart of Midlothian which is a mosaic located outside St Giles' Cathedral. The heart marks the location of the entrance to Edinburgh's Old Tolbooth which was demolished in 1817. Some locals will spit upon the heart as a sign of good luck, so if you are not a local, you will not notice the mosaic and walk on it. While the tradition is now one of good luck, it was originally done as a sign of disdain for the executions which took place within the Old Tolbooth. The silver stones that are along the Royal Mile and one that is beside The Heart was the outline of the jail.

We went inside one of the university buildings of University of Edinburgh where it was the inspiration of Hogwart Castle of Harry Porter. It is the religious studies building. We even saw a statue of a prominent figure, whose name I do not remember now, that reminded me of Professor Albus Dumbledore. 

Stood outside Edinburgh Castle. The guide said that the castle was not worth a visit. It is now a place for the military. The royal family stays in another castle when they are in Edinburgh. We were told on the story of the Stone of Destiny (that is kept inside this castle), how it was moved from Scotland to England and a group of 4 students stole the stone to bring back to Scotland but the car tyre punctured, and finally the stone was returned to Scotland in 1996. This stone was used during the coronation of King Charles. My boyfriend's colleague told him that the castle has a dungeon which was very interesting to see. Well, we did not have time to visit the castle anyway. Also, since the castle is located in Edinburgh and quite accessible by public transportation, it is easy to visit the castle if we are in Edinburgh again.

We ended the walk at Greyfriars Kirkyard. The graveyard is also famous for Bobby, a dog who became known in 19th-century Edinburgh for spending 14 years guarding the grave of his owner (John Gray) until he died.  

Then, we had lunch at Greyfriars Bobby Bar! The Bar was located right beside the exit of the kirkyard. It was recommended in a website and I planned to eat here on our arrival last night but that did not happen. What a coincidence that our walking tour ended here! According to the guide, the bar's owner paid the municipal to turn the statue of Bobby so that when photos are taken, the bar is in the photo too. Free marketing.

I ordered ale and haggis, neeps and tatties! Ale is from the beer barrel and I preferred it more than the beer that is not from the barrel. Neeps = swede mash. Tatties = potatoes. Haggis is a traditional Scottish food composed of the liver, heart, and lungs of a sheep minced and mixed with oatmeal and seasoned with onion, cayenne pepper, and other spices. The mixture is packed into a sheep's stomach and boiled. I was nervous in the beginning but it tasted quite good. 

After lunch, we went to St James Quarter shopping mall to buy a 20GB Sim card to use for GPS purposes when we drive. On hindsight, the least GB was sufficient for us as we used around 3GB only. We headed towards a shop that had a display of a calling card case made from the skin of a murderer (William Burke) who murdered people to fulfil the request of a professor Robert Knox in anatomy for his classes. You can google and read about the murders committed. The walking tour guide gave us a brief story on the history.

Right opposite the shop is a shop that sells Harry Potter mechandise. Check out the queue waiting to get in. Thankfully, I am not a Harry Potter fan. 

Next stop - The Scotch Whisky Experience! My boyfriend loves his whisky and since we are in Edinburgh, we have to join a whisky tour. I booked tickets for 3pm. It is an hour tour. I learnt a lot about making whisky. We got a brief introduction on the 5 main distillery areas in Scotland. Each area has their own characteristic which makes their whisky different. Whisky is made from barley, distilled two times and aged in a barrel. 

Then, we were ushered into a room where we get to choose which kind of whisky we would like to try. I tried the blended whisky. Blended whisky is made from barley and mixed with a few drops of other whisky. We got to keep the whisky glass as our souvenir.

Then, we were ushered into a room where a man who collected whisky bottles donated his whisky collection. He did not open any of the whisky bottles and you can see that some of the whisky volume has reduced due to the evaporation of alcohol. The guide thinks it is a waste that whisky is kept and should be enjoyed. 

After the whisky tour experience, we had a short break to fuel up so that we can hike up Arthur's Seat. Cheesecake and a glass of water. Coffee is too expensive. 

Arthur's Seat. It is an ancient volcano in Edinburgh town and has a height of 250meter. Fantastic that the people here has a place to hike for leisure and probably a good training good for running up mountains! It took us 30 minutes to get to the summit. Be warned about the crazy wind! I wished I brought a pin for my hair. My hair was flying everywhere! It is an easy hike. No difficult terrains. It is just the wind that may push you off the cliff. One can see a panaromic view of Edinburgh town too!

Here I am at the summit with my hair flying up! I was very afraid to go up to the summit as I could feel myself being pushed off by the wind. I was really unstable. We went down a different way and ended up at another exit which has lesser hikers. It took extra time to walk back to town. 

I thought that the scenery here was amazing and I wondered how much more beautiful can Isle of Skye be. So green thanks to the abundance of rain!

Saw a rainbow at the end of the hike! Thank goodness for long daylight hours. This is 6.46pm. 

We had dinner at Edinburgh Street Food and saw lots of students here. It was a place with lots of food stalls. We shared three small meals and realised we were still hungry. But I was too tired to eat more.

End of first day! I was satisfied!