Edinburgh (Scotland)

...from our actual experiences of Edinburgh itself. It is all too easy to become carried away in great company and to see the gloss rather than the reality of the place that you have come to see.

Without naming names, I dedicate this review to the pair of them, for aiding my wife and I with our most enjoyable excursion of 2006.

RICHADA’S PREVIOUS EDINBURGH EXPERIENCES

In all honesty, had it not been for ...
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I have visited Edinburgh on two previous occasions, back in the 1990’s – again as a day tripper. Both times - firstly in July, then in October - the weather had been grey and cold, leaving me with a rather grim impression of this being a grey city under an even more grey sky.

On the first occasion I parked the car for a day in a multi-storey car park, walked my feet off around this very hilly city and then could not find it ... more

This particular review has been one heck of a long time in the pipeline. Last autumn, we had a wonderful weekend in Edinburgh, thinking about it on the long drive home it had been my intention to sit down the following week and write a “hot off the press” review of our experiences there. Sometimes however, that does not make for the best review and the more that I thought about this subject, the more difficult a one I found it to actually approach.

Yes, writing a “Hometown in General” type review is easy enough, especially, if like me, you have lived in that town for over four decades. Writing a “My Holiday in Exotica” review too is simple enough, lots of sea, sun, sand, and …… well, we won’t go there right now if you don’t mind!

However, a flying visit to a big city is a far trickier subject, especially if it is to a world renowned city, such as Edinburgh, London or any of the other European capitals. They are simply too big and complex a subject to cover in one “General” review, neither was this a proper holiday, spent over a week or two, in which we could really get under the skin of the place.

It would therefore be insulting to the many of you who actually live there, or nearabouts, for me to attempt to write any kind of authoritative review on Scotland’s capital.

There is an additional twist to this particular review in that we were invited to stay by, and shared all of the following experiences with, two fellow Ciao members – one who could be best described as dormant, the other probably rather well known to the majority of you. The “twist” is that this review has to separate their wonderful and extraordinarily generous hospitality from our actual experiences of Edinburgh itself. It is all too easy to become carried away in great company and to see the gloss rather than the reality of the place that you have come to see.

Without naming names, I dedicate this review to the pair of them, for aiding my wife and I with our most enjoyable excursion of 2006.

RICHADA’S PREVIOUS EDINBURGH EXPERIENCES

In all honesty, had it not been for my Polish wife, Adrianna, wishing to see Edinburgh, it would probably have been a very long time before I would have re-visited the city. My previous experiences there were not particularly happy ones.

I have visited Edinburgh on two previous occasions, back in the 1990’s – again as a day tripper. Both times - firstly in July, then in October - the weather had been grey and cold, leaving me with a rather grim impression of this being a grey city under an even more grey sky.

On the first occasion I parked the car for a day in a multi-storey car park, walked my feet off around this very hilly city and then could not find it again. No, not the car, I had lost the entire car park! Fortunately it was a pay on foot NCP car park – I had the ticket in my wallet and another NCP car park attendant was able to give me directions (to the other side of the city) in order that I could retrieve my car!

Laugh at me if you will, but, due to its hills and alleyways, Edinburgh can be a rather disorientating place, even for one with an A level in geography!

That was October, two years later I came to Lieth Docks to visit the Royal Yacht Britannia – the first year that it opened to the public, in July, the weather was pretty miserable, but, nonetheless, Edinburgh was choked with tourists and traffic. No danger of loosing the car on that occasion. There was not one parking space to be had in the whole city! I spent half an hour sitting in Princes Street (the main thoroughfare then, for those who do not know Edinburgh) in choking traffic fumes…...

……I carried on driving, not to return until Friday 13th October, 2006.

On that day we enjoyed a visit to the Forth Bridge and the Royal Yacht, both of which have been reviewed elsewhere, followed by a chauffeured tour in the car of the centre of Edinburgh. Whilst never the most relaxed of passengers, I have to confess that from the passenger seat I took in far more of this splendid city and its architecture and found myself warming to it, whereas previously it had left me more than cold.

With apologies then, to all of you Scots loyal to Edinburgh, but, I had always preferred Glasgow, it appearing to me a more honest “working” city, less dependant on, and infested by, tourists…….

……Like the RICHADA’S here about to tread the well trodden tourist beat!

GETTING INTO THE CITY CENTRE

Edinburgh is far from traffic friendly and unless you are escorted by locals “in the know” as we were privileged to be, then I would heartily recommend using one of the park and ride services – or taking a train in from one of the outlying towns. The main rail station - Waverly - is as central as it is possible to be, Edinburgh city centre and its attractions are all easily enough walkable from there.

NO NEED TO GET FOOT-SORE, BUT OF COURSE WE DID!

In hindsight, our sightseeing day really was tackled, to put it indelicately, ‘arse about face’. Having spent around four hours walking around the historic southern side of the city, we collapsed in a café for lunch, before boarding one of the many excellent open top tour busses, to be driven around some of the very streets that we had walked.

I would recommend doing this the other way around, or actually using the bus to take out a lot of the foot slog for you. The “Edinburgh Grandtour 24 hour” tickets last a day and are very conveniently valid on any of the Edinburgh licensed tour busses. If you do this on the spur of the moment, as we did, then you buy it from a ticket seller on the main bus stop on Waverley Bridge – just above the railway station.

At £12.00 for adults, £10.00 for Seniors and Students and £4.00 for a child, these tickets are not cheap – but they are very good value for money – if you get a full day’s use out of them. There is a slightly cheaper option, (£9, £8 & £3) and that is to buy a MacTours City Tour ticket – again it lasts 24 hours, but you can only hop on and off the MacTours bus – which is easily recognisable as it is an old London bus – yes a re-engined Routemaster!

Bearing in mind that Edinburgh’s attractions are priced in line with those in London, the “Royal Edinburgh Ticket” looks a particularly good deal. This allows you unlimited travel on the busses for two days – as well as free admission to The Royal Yacht Britannia, Holyrood House and Edinburgh Castle.

Prices for that are: £34.00 Adults, Senior & Students £27.00, child (5 to 15) £13.00.

WHAT IS THERE TO SEE AND DO ON A DAY OUT IN EDINBURGH?

Notice there that RICHADA carefully side-steps the issue of nightlife, of which I am sure there is plenty! However I am not going write about something of which we have no experience, so, this section will be looking at daytime attractions – purely from a potential tourists’ point of view.

On a fine day, such as the one described here, Edinburgh offers a rich feast of architectural interest, from quite ancient, the castle and Royal Mile, to the ultra-modern, the Scottish Parliament building at the bottom of that same street.

A WALK IN THE PARK

Our day started with a lovely stroll through the Princes Street Gardens, a long thin ribbon of a park running parallel to the main shopping street. Over the western end of the gardens towers the Castle, whilst the traffic choked main street, open only to buses and taxi’s these days – but still choked - is above you and out of sight, indeed, you would never realise that you were in the heart of Scotland’s capital city here. The autumn colours on this sunny October day were just breathtaking.

EDINBURGH – THE ATHENS OF THE NORTH!

We left the park via the gate facing the Royal Scottish Acadamy. On this fine day we were not inclined to spend time indoors, even in order to admire some of the finest collections of art in the Kingdom, housed here, and in the National Gallery of Scotland next door – both are buildings of outstanding architectural merit in their own right. These two pseudo-Greek galleries are however, not as old as they appear, having been built by William Playfair between 1822 and 1854. At the time, Edinburgh aspired to be the “Athens of the North”.

In actual fact, these buildings formed part of the rapidly expanding nineteenth century “New Town” to the north and below the “Old Town” to which we now climbed a long steep flight of steps to enter.

THE OLD TOWN

This is the tourist heart of the city – centred on the mile long High Street, more popularly known as The Royal Mile. Apart from the obvious, the Castle at one end and Holyrood House at the other – both royal residences, there is a lot to see packed into this fairly compact area.

Due to its layout, on hills with narrow twisty streets and twittens leading off the main thoroughfare, Edinburgh is a sightseer and photographer’s dream. Unexpected, between the houses, views over the much more orderly, yet no less attractive New Town to the Firth of Forth beyond surprise and delight here too.

Much of what surrounds you in the Old Town is at least 500 years old, some even older. The architecture in some cases is extraordinary, very tall houses clinging precariously to the side of the steep hill leading to the Castle, itself perched on top of an extinct volcano.

We make a dash for that very castle, it is mid morning and upon arrival we are told that there will be a 25 minute queue to get in, we agreed that with so much else to see here, it would make more sense to come back (early) another day and see the Castle. Admission at £11.00 each seems a little steep, with memories of our visit to Windsor Castle, I was not going to shed any tears over not seeing this one today.

“SCOTTIST TOURIST TREASURES!”

Immediately next to the Castle, atop the High Street were two particularly interesting tourist attractions / shops.

The Scotch Whisky Heritage Centre seemed popular, even at £9.25 admission – another one to see another day, when we’re feeling flush! I have for some time been looking for a replacement for my favourite Single Malt – Tamnavulin, here, in the Heritage Centre shop, I found it without any effort at all! Next to our computer sits a much cherished coaster, purchased here and given as a gift from the aforementioned Ciao member – showing in full detail what a Scotsman wears under his kilt……

……and no I’m not sharing that detail with you!

On the opposite side of the ancient street is the Tartan Weaving Mill and Exhibition, mostly shop, partly weaving museum, this was a fascinating Alladin’s cave, even for the non-shoppers (i.e. men) in our party, Mrs R, being a keen seamstress was enthralled by the sheer number of cloths on sale here – just do not expect many bargains amongst them! If, like us, you are unfamiliar with the full Scottish regalia, then this is a great place to familiarise yourself with it. In this area of the city you will see many specialist kilt makers and plenty of shops selling the material too. Here every aspect of the traditional dress was catered for.

I suppose one could say that it’s all down-hill from here – literally and figuratively! From the Castle to Holyrood House is a mile – hence the “Royal Mile” and yes it is quite steep going down from the top.

If the Castle at the top is regarded as the highlight, it is the most visited tourist attraction in Scotland, then the low-light at the bottom has to be the highly controversial Scottish Parliament building. Between the two is an extraordinarily eclectic mixture of up market boutique type shops, cheap knick knack touristy shops, pubs, fast food joints, visitor attractions (e.g.: Gladstone’s Land, Parliament Visitor Centre, Museum of Edinburgh, Museum of Childhood and Cannongate Tollbooth – The Peoples story) and of course, a couple of Cathedrals thrown in for good measure.

In that one mile, I have no doubt that you could spend at least a week, just visiting all of the attractions listed.

Already growing weary, we slumped into a cafe for a spot of lunch, before walking the last couple of hundred yards to view the Scottish Parliament building. We may well have a Scottish Prime Minister within days now, but viewing this monstrous carbuncle it is not surprising that they want to come south and govern from the Houses of Parliament! This is a very large, former brewery site, facing not only the very attractive old Holyrood House, but the most attractive Holyrood Park – an open green space, topped by Salisbury Crags.

As a mere visitor to Scotland, I will leave the highly contentious political issue of a separate Parliament out of this review, however, the building itself is an eye sore, a blot on the landscape. In Birmingham or Sheffield perhaps it would be merely regarded as ugly, but in the right position less out of keeping with its surroundings. Here in Edinburgh its’ sole purpose seems to be as shock value – built at OUR colossal expense!

It may well have been the awful appearance of this building, I had read much about it and seen photographs too – neither can fully prepare you for the preposterous reality – but at this stage of the afternoon, tiredness was overcoming me.

ALL ABOARD!

We decided to re-trace our steps to Waverly Bridge and hop aboard the MacTours bus. The open topped bus winds its way around the city streets taking approximately an hour to do the full circuit. On the bus is a gentleman carrying out a live commentary.

We set off leaving Princes Street behind us, passing under the great monuments – to Nelson, the National and Observatory, pass the Old Royal High School to find that we are back at Hollyrood House.

Of course, from the upstairs of a topless bus you have a splendid view, even having walked the same streets it gives you a different perspective on the city. Regrettably, the bus shook and wobbled its way around somewhat – my photographs from it were the most disappointing of the day!

From Holyrood House, the bus enters the Park, allowing us to have a look at both the Scottish Parliament building (again!) and its’ much more attractive modern neighbour “Dynamic Earth”. Billed as “The Mother Earth of all Adventures, this is another attraction to which I would like to return.

Back up the hill towards the Castle, the bus takes some interesting back streets, under and over bridges, passing as it goes St Giles Cathedral, George Herriot’s School and the famous statue of Greyfriers Bobby, before descending behind the Castle to turn back and cross over Princes Street.

THE GRACIOUS GEORGIAN NEW TOWN

This now was very much virgin territory as far as I was concerned. On the north side of the city, in the “New Town” I experienced a distinct feeling of deja-vu. Some years ago we took an open topped bus tour of Bath, the architecture and layout of this part of the Edinburgh, with smart terraces and leafy squares has much in common with Bath. It is very different to the ramshackle layout of the Old Town and is yet sill quite compact an area.

Particularly attractive on this part of the tour was Charlotte Square, not surprisingly a Robert Adam development – and one of his finest at that. The very handsome “Georgian House”, a National Trust of Scotland property, is open to the public here and is furnished to represent how it would have appeared when newly built and inhabited in 1796. As a matter of record, it set its’ first owner back £1,800, equivalent to £200,000 in today’s money – one could only guess at the actual current value!

Having given us a taste of gracious living in central Edinburgh, the bus now returns us to the starting point on Waverly Bridge.

A SPOT OF QUALITY RETAIL THERAPY

OK, so Edinburgh is not the best “shopping” city in the Kingdom, Princes Street however is well stocked with high street names. Other areas of the city are better for more original and specialist shops, however as our day in Edinburgh drew to a close, it was Princes Street that was our final “attraction”.

PRINCES STREET

Unlike a traditional high street – of which Edinburgh’s is fairly typical – if historic in character, Princes Street is a shopping street of only one side! For someone like me, more interested in architecture, Princes Street is actually fascinating for entirely different reasons.

Originally this was an entirely residential street, the southern boundary of the New Town, hence the park below the castle. During the nineteenth century gradually commercial interests took over here, merchants moved in, converting large houses into shops and hotels, the huge, landmark Balmoral Hotel - opened in 1902, being the pinnacle of this development.

From an architectural point of view, this is a most attractive street that has been vandalised by almost random and ugly1960’s additions adjacent to splendid historic buildings.

One notable shop here is Jenners, if in Edinburgh to take a look inside this department store. A rare, independently owned store, it is something of a Scottish institution having been founded in Edinburgh in 1838 and occupying the current site since 1893. The interior really is something from a bygone era, a huge glass roof and dark oak stair cases and balconies are highlights here.

A MONUMENT CELEBRATING SIR WALTER SCOTT

On the opposite, Gardens, side of Princes Street is situated yet another huge monument – the Scott Monument. We did not have time, it was closed anyway when we arrived there, to go inside and ascend to the top, but at 60 metres (200ft) high, the view would be well worth the climb. Dating from 1846, this is an extraordinary Gothic looking creation and is situated dead centre of the city. Millions were apparently spent on restoration prior to the millennium, unfortunately the money appears to have run out before they could complete the job and clean up the stonework which has been blackened, mostly by traffic pollution.

OUR SECOND DAY IN AND AROUND EDINBURGH DRAWS TO A CLOSE

Obviously this review has barely scratched the surface of Edinburgh and its huge number of visitor attractions. I was correct at the outset in stating that an “in depth” review of a city like this is simply not possible in one review.

Hopefully, you will have drawn the conclusion from my review that Edinburgh is a city well worth visiting, and, for a lot longer than the two days that we were actually here last October!

Given sufficient funds, we could quite happily spend a couple of weeks here exploring the very many attractions and just chilling out and soaking up the atmosphere of this multi-faceted city.

There are aspects which this review has not been able to touch upon at all – Edinburgh’s world-wide famous “events”. Prime amongst them has to be the Edinburgh Festival, started in 1947, held at the height of the tourist season, annually, in August, the city is heaving with not only sight seeing tourists, but with hundreds of street artists.

The Military Tattoo is just as famous as the Festival and again draws crowds of its own.

IN CONCLUSION

Whilst these events bring many tourists and much money into the city, they are not actually required to make Edinburgh an important tourist destination in its own right. Whatever your tastes, be they cultural, political, architectural, retail or, merely perhaps, curiosity, Edinburgh really does have plenty to offer everyone……

……just please though, one request, don’t all bring your cars into this city – it is already a nightmare to travel in! 

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