Edinburgh, Scotland: Holyroodhouse and Edinburgh Castle

 

                               

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

Belfast, Northern Ireland

 

                                               

                                             

May 24, 2025 - We're  headed to Belfast this morning using Irish Rail.  It's a 2 hr train ride and we should get there around 1:00, so we'll have some time to do some exploring today.  We're staying 2 nights at the Bullitt Hotel which looks like it should be pretty centrally located.  After getting settled in our hotel we walked around a bit and had a few beers at the Duke of York.  It's a bank holiday so the bars in town are busy!

Waiting for the 10:50 train to Belfast.  It was a 15 minute walk to Connolly Station from our apartment and looks like it will be about a 20 minute walk from the Belfast Station to our hotel.

Kev's deep in another Jack Reacher book

Lots of cute little train stations on the way

we brought lunch, yum

pretty countryside

and cute little towns

We made it to Belfast Grand Central

A little rain on our way to the hotel.  This area of Belfast has lots of pedestrian only areas

We walked to the St Georges Market

Love this Bell Tower

The Duke of York

great little spot for a Guinness

the walls and ceilings are covered

We had dinner at a little restaurant in the area and then we headed to the Bullitt rooftop for a view and a pint

The clocktower lit up at night

May 25, 2025 - Today we booked a black Cab tour.  These guides give you their perspective on life in Belfast and talk about the impact of the Troubles (1968-1998).  Jim was a Catholic and talked about his family and how they were involved in IRA life.  It sounded a lot like the mafia to me.  We saw many murals and remembrance gardens.  We went to the peace wall, which is longer and taller than the Berlin Wall was.  There are 5 areas that have Gates that still close every night separating the Catholics from the Protestants.  After our tour we walked to the Titanic Museum and then we did Sunday Roast at Taylor & Clay Grill in our hotel.

These murals were designed by Palestinians and sent to Belfast where Irish artists painted them on the wall.  This mural will remain here until the conflict ends.  The Catholics are on the Palestinians' side of the conflict and the Protestants are on the Israeli side.

A memorial to the men who died on a hunger strike

Garden of Remembrance

The black cabs

Bobby Sands memorial

The Peace wall behind this garden

The other side of the Peace Wall

We signed the wall

When the Irish were polled as to whether they should remove the wall, 97% said no.  

A Protestant memorial wall

When we were in the Protestant area, the Union Jack was visible everywhere.  Jim said the Irish Protestants are more British than the British.  

Our hotel's weird entrance.  It was a pretty cool hotel with several restaurants and several bars.

Our walk to the Titanic Museum was next to the River Langan, which had a nice pedestrian walkway all along it.

The Titanic Museum looks a bit like an iceberg

We really enjoyed the museum ($34/person). The ship was built in Belfast at the Harland & Wolff Shipyard starting in 1902, by the White Star Line.  It took 9000 men to build it and 2.5 yrs.  There was a lot of detail in the exhibits that told just how much physical labor was involved to build it, which I found fascinating.  For each rivet 3 men were involved in seating it.  They would take a red hot rivet, put it in the hole.  One man would hold it in place with a special hammer while two men beat synchronously on it until it was flattened (all while it was still hot and malleable).  This was done 3 million times!

 

The scaffolding for the cranes used to build the ship 

One of the original life vests

These were pictures taken of the Titanic when they were launching it. It was on its way to Southampton where they completed the interior. 

The Big Fish sculpture

I've seen the Bell Tower from all over the city, but it's the first time to see it up close.  The Albert Memorial Clock was built in 1869.  It was built as a Memorial to Queen Victoria's husband who died in 1861.  It is of similar construction to Big Ben and a 2 tonne bell is housed inside.  The tower has a lean to it since it was built on wooden piles in marshy land.  In 2002 it was repaired and the foundation strengthened.

For dinner we decided the try the "Sunday Roast" which is popular all over the UK. "Almost as good as your Mum's"

Of course dinner starts with a Guinness

A really yummy appetizer plate.  I especially liked the mushroom parfait and the Bombay hummus.

Now that's a plate of meat (and potatoes, green beans, carrots).  SOOOOO good!

and of course bread pudding for dessert.  

Wow!  We were stuffed.  It was a "shared" dinner, but I think it really could have fed 4 people ($40 each)

We're off to Edinburgh tomorrow to meet up with Jim & Jeanene.  We need to get packed up and ready to go, we have a 7:00AM flight.   So glad we decided on this quick stop to Belfast!