A rather relaxed experience traveling by air from Shannon Airport near Limerick, Ireland to the capital city of Scotland: Edinburgh. No lines at all at either airport to speak of, security was easy to negotiate and customs was no effort at all.
We flew Aer Lingus, on a puddle-jumper operated by Ryan Air. The plane was on time, the crew polite and weather made for smooth if cloudy flying all the way to Edinburgh.
It was lightly raining when we arrived, and the forecast for the rest of the week is more of the same. Not surprising, it's Scotland after all and we're glad just to have had good weather during most of the sidecaring portion of the trip.
We got on the Tram and about 35 minutes later got off in the middle of the old city center right on Princes Street. Our hotel was just a couple of blocks away and we stopped at a Vodaphone store along the way to get our UK cellphone sim cards. Easy Peasy.
After we got settled in, we went out for a late lunch. In spite of a slight mis-orientation, we got to Vittoria on the Bridge, an Italian Restaurant where we had a really nice lunch. Turns out, its located two doors down from The Elephant House, a write-friendly coffee house where J.K. Rowling wrote the first part of the Harry Potter series.
After lunch we just wandered over to the Saint Giles Cathedral to take a look.
St. Giles Cathedral, Edinburgh
Mother Church of Presbyterianism
Preston Aisle of Saint Giles
St. Giles Cathedral and the statue of Adam Smith
Philosopher and Father of Modern Economics
Our first bagpiper...and yes, we saw men walking
about in kilts...
Calton Hill
I believe that's the Nelson Monument in the middle, shrouded in fog
The obelisk on the left is the Political Martyrs monument, located
at the Old Calton Burial Ground.
World's largest monument to a writer: Sir Walter Scott
After this point, we picked up some snacks at a supermarket nearby and retired to our hotel room to rest. Foggy and cold, but at least the rain had stopped. It never did rain really hard, light showers at most.
7 comments:
Italian food in Scotland!? Aren't you supposed to be having haggis? Or is that for later.
It apparently had a good rating from trip advisor and it was close RichardM, as to Haggis, it probably won't happen. :)
Great pictures, thanks for the share!
Great photos again. The cathedral is awesome. What a great trip you are having.
Rachel, thanks for your comment.
Thomas Osburn, thanks for the kind words, the trip is going great so far.
Edinburg has quite the eclectic selection of food. We also opted for Italian while we were there. We didn't go to the Elephant House though, ratings weren't good enough. Will you be renting another rig?
SonjaM, yes, quite the diverse city in many ways. Alas, we couldn't find another company that rents rigs in the UK. Martha tried.
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