Day 8: Off to Edinburgh & the Castle!

Here’s the seventh post sharing our adventures in the British Isles and Ireland from September 29 to October 17, 2025, for genealogy, business, and sightseeing. Hope you enjoy it!

Monday, October 6, 2025

Breakfast was a madhouse at the Novotel Glasgow that morning. Tour Director John had told us that it might be less busy after 7:30, but we didn’t believe him. Finishing our breakfast around 7:30, we realized he was right. By that time, there were plenty of tables and the staff was getting caught up.

Now, let me just say that one of my pet peeves is those fancy coffee makers. Anyone who knows me, can tell you that I like my coffee to taste like coffee, my beer to taste like beer, and my chocolate to taste like chocolate. All I need is some black coffee with a splash of creamer. Why can’t they just have a pot of regular and a pot of decaf? With these fancy machines, usually, parts of the machine are malfunctioning. It needs someone to empty its grounds, or it’s out of some ingredient. That day it was the cream, and this shut down the whole monkey works. 

At the previous day’s hotel, the fancy coffee maker’s grounds needed emptying. The machine this day, however, was the most complicated ever. You had to use a pod, okay, but the colors made no sense. You’d think green means decaf and brown means regular, right? You thought wrong! Also, we had to wait for the machine to rinse itself out, etc. There are lengthy instructions on the machine, and it would be great to read all of them–if there wasn’t a line behind you! The staff are generally too busy to help. This is all when you have a bus waiting that will leave without you if you’re late.

Before we hop on the bus for Edinburgh, let’s revisit the subject of outlets. Yesterday’s hotel in Harrogate had plenty of them (still none in the bathroom), but this one had one on one side of the bed but not the other. Across the room was an outlet with a speaker plugged into it, and one was hidden on the side of the console under the TV, which was incredibly small by today’s standards, even in the UK. I did mention that Novotels can be a bit “tired.”

As we departed Glasgow for Edinburgh, John said a chilly, rainy day is known as a “dreek” day in Scotland. This term will come in handy when we get home, because we have plenty of dreek days in northwestern Pennsylvania. We have more rainy days than Seattle, 162 to 156. 

It was an hour’s ride from Glasgow to Edinburgh, and by the time we got there the sun was shining a bit. The temperature was 57, but for some reason, it felt cooler in the UK, even when in the 60’s. Still, it ended up being pretty pleasant in Edinburgh, weather-wise.

At a bathroom stop at a Holiday Inn in Edinburgh, Guide Viv hopped on the bus, and then we drove along through Edinburgh while she narrated. Here’s a collection of random facts we learned from Viv. 

1. Edinburgh is pronounced “Edinburra.” Not Edinboro, like we have in northwest, PA, but I’m sure ours has connections to Edinburgh in Scotland because ours has Highland games every year.
2. Edinburgh is built on seven hills, like Rome. Edinburgh’s hills are volcanic remnants, just like Rome’s are.
3. Edinburgh has been the capital of Scotland since the 15th century. 
4. It’s not an industrial city, rather more services and finance. 
5. It’s a wealthy city. Edinburgh is second only to London for banking. 
6. There are many rich people in Edinburgh, and they do a lot of philanthropy.
7. Although Edinburgh is an expensive city, it is also known as one of the best places to live. 
8. About 500,000 people live in Edinburgh.
9. There are lots of Victorian villas in Edinburgh. Victorians liked bow windows to let in lots of light.
10. Edinburgh is made of two towns. When Scotland became part of Great Britain, it wasn’t threatened by invasions from England anymore, so many people moved out of Old Town and built New Town.
11. Old Town developed organically. New Town was developed as a planned town in 1757, during the time of George III.
12. There’s one river in the city, the Water of Leith, once known as one of the most-useful rivers with many mills on its banks. It flows into the Firth of Forth.
13. Near the Haymarket section of the city, the Heart of Midlothian War Memorial is dedicated to footballers: During WWI a group of footballers signed up to fight, and many did not return. 
14. Edinburgh has three cathedrals: St. Giles’ (Church of Scotland), St. Mary’s (Episcopal), and St. Mary’s (Catholic).
15. The Jacobite rebellions against England took place here. These uprisings in the 18^th century aimed to restore the Stuart dynasty to the British throne.
16. Alexander Graham Bell was born in Edinburgh! Who knew?
17. Scotland voted parliament out in the 1700s, and in 1997, voted it back in. 
18. Many famous authors came from Edinburgh. For instance, novelist Sir Walter Scott (Ivanhoe) lived at 39 Castle Street. The spire monument to Sir Walter Scott is largest writer monument in the world.
19. Robert Louis Stevenson, who wrote Treasure Island, lived in Edinburgh.
20. Poets Robert Burns and William Wordsworth spent time in Edinburgh.
21. Sean Connery grew up in Edinburgh, and he posed as a life model in the school of art!
22. JK Rowling (Harry Potter) received a lot of her inspiration in Edinburgh and wrote in its cafes.
23. Mary Queen of Scots fled here when her husband, Henry Darnley, had her personal secretary, David Rizzio, killed out of jealousy.
24. At the end of the Royal Mile is Holyrood Place, the official palace for the royal family, but they don’t really visit it anymore.

Part of our time in Edinburgh included entry to the castle, which was very impressive and offered spectacular views of the surrounding area. We toured the prisons and saw the largest cannon in the world. We wandered into a huge hall with a massive fireplace on one end. I could just imagine having a wedding reception there.

After the castle tour, we bought ice cream from a street vendor and walked around. Unfortunately, the Writers’ Museum was closed. The museum, which honors Robert Burns, Walter Scott, and Robert Louis Stevenson, is housed in Lady Stair’s 17th-century townhouse. She was Elizabeth Dalrymple, Dowager Countess of Stari, who acquired the house in 1719. How I wish I could have gone inside! Next time. . . 

Dinner that night was at a Glasgow pub called Mharsanta with the “mh” making a “v” sound. It’s an old establishment that values sustainability, recycling, climate, etc. It has partnerships with many tour companies and hotels. Dinner was very good, and we passed on the haggis-stuffed chicken.

A word about traffic in the UK. There are traffic jams everywhere, even on country roads, which we experienced when we had the rental car. I love where I live in Pennsylvania, because there are only a few places where it gets congested, and we know when to avoid those places.

Tomorrow, off to Ireland via ferry. It will take two hours, and our bus will drive right onto it!