May 26, 2025 - We took a taxi to the Belfast City Airport (2.5 miles) for our 6:50 flight to Edinburgh where we're meeting up with Jim & Jeanene for the UK part of our trip. They got in from KC 45 minutes after us and we took the tram to the city. We couldn't get into our Airbnb until 3:30 so we dropped our luggage at a post office (part of Luggage Hero for $5/bag). Next we found a 3 Co store so Jim & Jeanene could buy their SIM cards. The cards we bought in Ireland still work here in Scotland (we are now using roaming because we are in the UK instead of the EU where we bought our cards, although we aren’t using much roaming data since we always have wifi in the apartment). Our Ireland SIM cards are only good for 28 days so we also bought cards at the 3 Co store which we will swap out as we get toward the end of the 28 days. These cards were a lot more expensive and in hindsight we probably didn’t need unlimited data SIM cards (they were $50 a piece). After 2 weeks of using our SIM card from Ireland we had only used 10 Gbs of roaming data). So in all we spent $144 for 2 months of SIM cards for both of us (expensive, but still cheaper than the ATT intl day passes for us both for 6 weeks at $360). After figuring out the SIM cards, we walked down the hill (Edinburgh is very hilly) to the Palace of Holyroodhouse for a tour. After the tour we picked up our luggage and checked into the Airbnb. And then dinner up the street at the Doctors. It was a 7+mile day and we were tired at the end of the day!
We found the Brakes!
Edinburgh is a very interesting city, lots of cool buildings
and interesting passageways (called a close)
this was a stairway up to the next level of the city
Balmoral Hotel
Canongate Tollbooth (built in 1591) on the Royal Mile. We’ve seen lots of clocktowers.
The Palace of Holyroodhouse
The self guided tour comes with audio. We're ready to go
Holyroodhouse has served as the official residence of the Royal family when they are in Scotland since the 16th century
The courtyard (we weren't allowed to take pics inside the palace)
Holyrood Abbey was founded in 1127
It was used as a parish church until the 17th century and the ceiling collapsed in 1768. It has been this way ever since.
Holyrood is translated as Holy Cross (rood being cross)
the abbey from the outside
On our way to the apartment we spotted our first bagpiper (and then we saw him every day at various spots around the city)
Our apartment is on the campus of the University of Edinburgh. This clocktower is visible from our kitchen
Innes & Gunn (a local Scottish beer) at the Doctors Pub
May 27, 2025 - In the morning we walked across the street to the bakery and picked out pastries for breakfast. Today we will do a tour of St Giles Cathedral, visit the Museum of Scotland and then we have tickets for Edinburgh Castle at 1:00.
Cinnamon and blueberry pastries
the kitchen and living room of our apartment
It was a rainy morning. Our first stop was St Giles Cathedral
a heart mosaic in front of the cathedral!
Admission to the cathedral was by donation
St Giles is a beautiful cathedral, with lots of pretty stained glass windows
John Knox - he was trained as a Catholic priest but became part of the growing reformation movement in the 1540s. In 1558 Protestantism was beginning to take hold in Scotland. In 1559 Knox marched a group of followers into the St Giles Cathedral and he preached there for the first time. A week later he was elected the minister and the cathedral was stripped of its Catholic decoration. By the time of Knox's death in 1572, while still a minister at St Giles, Scotland was becoming a leading Protestant European Nation. Knox was essential in the beginnings of Presbyterianism.
One of the newest stained glass windows
This was Kev's favorite window. It told a story about a battle and finished "Many of the people are fallen and dead, Saul and Jonathon are dead also"
The Grand Gallery of the Museum of Scotland was built in 1866
We made sandwiches for lunch and ate them in the museum. I finally got to try hula hoops a weird kind of potato crunch I've been seeing. They were pretty good (but I think I was the only one that liked them!)
The Royal Mile to Edinburgh Castle
The Castle
Our 2 week Scottish Explorer passes ($133 for 2 of us) got us in free.
beautiful views of the city from the castle
we're headed to the top
listening to the audio tour
the Union Jack is blowing today!
more views
They are busy putting up the stands for the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo which is held in August
The Great Hall was completed in 1511 for King James the IV
a gun wheel
the Royal Mile is busy
I liked this brick work
A walk down Victoria Street. It is considered to be the inspiration for Diagon Alley in the Harry Potter books. JK Rowling wrote the series while she was in Edinburgh.
looking up Victoria St
At the end of Victoria St is Grass Market and at the bottom of that there is a great view of Edinburgh Castle
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