Edinburgh - what a city!

After a 3½ hour train trip from Manchester I arrived in Edinburgh at 9.30am!

After settling into an apartment I started to explore and quickly discovered what a beautiful city this is. The only downside is a tramline that has been under construction since 2008 and is still nowhere near finished !

The ‘famous castle’ dominates the whole city and is a wonderful site. The city still has many of their original buildings most of them have been renovated and restored, in fact the new modern buildings look very out of place here.

I had no idea of the literary & early medical history of this city – it is amazing with so many of early writers such as Sir Walter Scott, Robert Louis Stevenson, Arthur Conan Doyle & JM Barry - who either lived here or were inspired by this city. It is also home to JK Rowling of Harry Potter fame. There is a huge monument to Sir Walter Scott – it is so large you can pay a donation and walk to the top.

I have certainly played tourist here, there is just so much to see. I have done all the usual sites Edinburgh Castle, Holyrood Castle, the Royal Yacht Britannia and used the ‘hop-on-hop-off’ buses.

Other times I have just walked – to see things like Greyfriar’s Bobby via the Grassmarket. The Grassmarket area was originally a market place for grass eating animals and was the place for the people to view public executions!

Many of the streets are named after occupations for example ‘Candle Makers Row’, Baxter Street (or, we know this as Baker).

I have been to the National Gallery and the Portrait Gallery. The Portrait Gallery is amazing, there are paintings there dating back to the 1500’s including one of Mary Queen of Scots mother that was painted in the early 1500’s.

Like most cities there are many old and beautiful churches here – one at the end of Lothian Road (St Cuthbert’s) is the earliest Christian site in this city dating back to the 1100’s. The site is just below Edinburgh Castle. The present church was built in the 1890’s but there were six earlier church buildings on the site. It has a very old cemetery and the grounds have been a mass of colour with flowering blue-bells and other spring bulbs.

Joining the National Trust before I left has paid off – I have been to two NT sites here. One is the Georgian House in the fashionable area of Charlotte Square, the other is called Gladstone’s Land which is an old apartment building located on the Royal Mile.

It is amazing what trivia you learn along the way – many of the sandstone buildings are quite black due to the coal burning fires & smoke from earlier days. The authorities did try to chemically clean the sandstone but discovered the cleaning chemicals were damaging the sandstone and stopped – but the buildings are coming cleaner with time due to the much cleaner air in the city now.

One of the highlights has been the gardens in Edinburgh – the Princes Street Gardens are stunning with spring flowers in bloom and an avenue of Cherry Trees in flower. I have been surprised that there are several ‘private’ gardens in the city, usually located in good residential areas and if you want entry to these gardens you need to pay a substantial amount each year to get a key!

This city certainly has a WOW factor and I now understand why several people told me to spend some time here – I am so glad I did.



The Grassmarket



Sir Walter Scott Memorial