Edinburgh: Day One

"Here's a bottle and an honest friend!
What wad ye wish for mair, man?
Wha kens, before his life may end,
What his share may be o' care, man?"





Well, we're here. We landed at 10:40AM and arrived at the hotel around noon. The hotel staff allowed us to check in early and we entered our room to find a chilled bottle of champagne and two glasses. The staff called once and knocked on the door to assure everything was in order, what a wonderful start! After a quick nap, a shower, a nice cuppa tea and a look at the BBC, we set off on our first walking tour of Edinburgh.
Edinburgh is an amazingly beautiful city, and at 1:00PM, also a bustling one. We wound our way through the heady crowd toward Princes Street and the Royal Mile. Along the way, we popped into Starbucks to fortify ourselves for the journey ahead (a brief nap was not up to the job after a rough night of travel). After a caramel macchiatto and a wonderful caffe mocha, and some excellent advice, we were off again toward the Royal Mile.
Turning on to Princes Street, we caught our first glimpse of Edinburgh Castle. Commanding and majestic atop its volcanic redoubt, the castle loomed formidably above Princes Street Gardens. The Gardens (Edinburgh's answer to Central Park) are an island of verdant calm amongst the bustle of this busy city. We had our photo taken by two nice ladies from Oregon (note Melody's crazy hair - it was the wind, we swear!), and then wandered the park before heading back up into the tumult of the city's streets.
Continuing down Princes Street, we passed the National Museum, the Walter Scott Monument, the Robert Burns' memorial, and an old cemetery (about two miles of walking) before making our way back to Holyrood House. At the bottom of a quiet and tree lined road, the Palace of Holyrood house is Her Majesty's official residence in Scotland. Behind the palace loom Arthur's Seat and the Salisbury Crags, the highest of the natural promontories in the area. Opposite Holyrood sits the new Scottish Houses of Parliament, which Melody and I agree are a monstrous carbuncle.
Wandering up a side street, we found ourselves at Jenny Ha's Pub. Feeling a bit dry and peckish after our long walk, we decided to pop in for a quick bite and a pint. Nearly five hours and many pints (and 3 whiskys and 1 brandy) later we shut down the pub and headed home. To digress, after a pint of Wayfarer IPA for me, and Chocolate Stout for Mel, we fell in with two couples of English retirees. Having divined that we were honeymooners, they stood us a few rounds and some lively conversation. After holding forth on life, the universe and everything, the English departed. We left them feeling that, though we would likely never see them again, we'd made some very good friends. Mel and I had another pint, for strength, then closed the joint down (also discovered, from James the barman, that Glenfiddich makes a 21 year, aged in Cuban barrels, that we can't get in the US - may have to hunt that down....).
Last orders comes early in Scotland, so we headed back to the hotel at 11:00PM. The formerly crowded streets were empty, the Monday night crowds having found their way home. Mel and I strolled the deserted streets hand in hand, the spot-lit castle our guide home. The night was cool and bracing but, warmed by our love for the city and each other, we wound our way home.
Back at the room, we opened the champagne, wrote you this blog, then ... to sleep.
First impressions of Edinburgh: Lovely city, compact and easily navigable by foot. Though small, the city has so much to see and do. The people here have been uniformly warm and kind (we haven't been stabbed once!). Tomorrow: bus tour to mark the spots we most want to explore, possibly a ghost tour. Next up: does the doll soothe the little girl? are all double decker buses romantic? is it possible for Americans to avoid Starbucks and/or McDonald's and/or Hard Rock Cafe? does exploring a city really count as exercise?

More communications to follow....