A Scottish right Royal time! TRIP REPORT COMPLETED 1/10 About This Page:

[chezp]

Originally Posted by SuperDave

Nice start to your trip but too bad was a bit off and the crowds at the gate before boarding your flight. Seems like the flight went well but that was just crazy with the disembarking! Sounds like the bureaucracy if NYC unions were involved.

Yes, I suspect there was a lot of bureaucracy involved.

It's amazing about some of this stuff in NYC and especially with construction projects. Mark is in his element as a tram driver but I think seeing his photo is better than being in the the same tram if it was a reality!

I suspect you're right on that.

[chezp]

Originally Posted by cubfancolleen

Glad you eventually got off the plane, but how frustrating! Tram looks very nice, and a smidge safer with Mark as a passenger. (Although I can attest to him being a safe driver!)

That was in a car, not a tram though.

[chezp]

Originally Posted by Cam22

Goodness! This early flight was not exactly your most pleasant. Glad you finally were able to disembark.

It wasn't. The sad thing was there really weren't any other options apart from that one.

The trams look very nice and I'm sure the "trained" driver did quite well.

Well, the "trainee" driver next to me had no objections!

[chezp]

Saturday 26 August – part three: this wasn’t in the forecast

The customer service rep on board our tram, who checks your tickets, was Alba, and she was so lovely to talk to. She kept telling us how crammed the tram would be, but actually it wasn’t. We reckoned it was because the previous tram that left had been pretty busy. Her stories of the trams when they’re full though weren’t fun.



We were right at the front, so got a great view ahead…





… and at one point, we even saw the castle from a distance, although through the window of the tram, it wasn’t the greatest photo…



We went past Murrayfield, which is the home of Scottish Rugby Union. It’s a massive place, and seats over 67,000, and is the largest stadium in Scotland, and is the fifth largest in the UK. Although its main use is for rugby, it’s also been used for concerts, and American football matches.





It was fascinating to see how things changed as we went along in the tram. There were a lot of parts that were obviously very new, particularly areas with new office complexes, and at one point, the old literally met the new, with it almost merging into the existing houses that must date from a couple of hundred years ago.

We got to our stop, and headed to our hotel, which was literally just a minute or two’s walk away. It was very nice in the reception.





Our room wasn’t ready, which was fine, as it was only just after 11:00am. We left our hand luggage, and set off.



Our first stop was the Royal Scots Grey Memorial, which is a tribute to the cavalry regiment of the British Army. It existed from 1707 to 1971, when they were amalgamated into another regiment.



As we were by the Princes Street Gardens, we decided to walk through them. This is a public park right in the centre of the city, which was created in the late 18th century and early 19th century following the draining of Nor Loch. You’ll hear more about that later on in this trip report…. Anyway the gardens cover a total of almost 40 acres and are home to various fireworks concerts, one of which would be taking place on Bank Holiday Monday, after we headed home, but we would know all about it later.








This is the staging for the Royal Military Tattoo, where we’d be sitting later

As we did, the skies that had been so threatening started to deliver rain on top of us. Ok, this wasn’t in the forecast.

We huddled under a shelter, as the rain really came down.






Eventually, when it eased off, we set off again through the gardens.








Next: a real veggie lunch

[purplegal]

Love the detail in the ceiling of your hotel. The gardens look really beautiful, hope the rain stays away.

[disney_duke]

That's a fantastic way to get to the city, awesome! Great choice in hotel for the location too.
They drained a loch for this park?! That is really interesting. It's a beautiful park!

[chezp]

Originally Posted by disney_duke

That's a fantastic way to get to the city, awesome! Great choice in hotel for the location too.
They drained a loch for this park?! That is really interesting. It's a beautiful park!

Well, I think they had to drain the loch, let's just put it that way... you'll hear a bit more about that particular loch and the state it was in later in this trip report...

[pamcarey]

The tram looks like a great way to get into the city!


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[chezp]

Originally Posted by pamcarey

The tram looks like a great way to get into the city!

It was very convenient. I was impressed with it, especially given all the bad press I'd heard about it being over budget and its opening date being delayed. It was certainly worth the wait.

[SuperDave]

Looks like a fun ride on the tram. Too bad with the rain. Hope the rain holds out for your show tonight!

[chezp]

Originally Posted by SuperDave

Looks like a fun ride on the tram. Too bad with the rain. Hope the rain holds out for your show tonight!

Oh don't, that was my biggest fear about this whole thing.... when it rained in the morning and it wasn't in the forecast, I was just horrified.

[Cam22]

The gardens are lovely, but drats on that unexpected rain.

[chezp]

Originally Posted by Cam22

The gardens are lovely, but drats on that unexpected rain.

I know. It was such a shame.

[chezp]

Saturday 26 August – part four: a real veggie lunch

We found the floral clock and wow, this was beautiful! For those who don’t know, it’s an actual clock, with the clock face made up of bedding flowers, and this was one of the first in the world. It was unveiled in 1903, so the fact it’s still running today is just amazing. I find these things just unbelievable, in terms of how do you create something as beautiful as this?






We made our way over to the Mound Precinct. As you might remember from the pre-trip report, it’s home to some of the street acts from the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. It was packed in here, but I’m glad we can see we at least saw some of the fringe.





Not long after we arrived, the rain came down again – honestly had it not read the forecast? This was not what it was supposed to do. It was such a shame.

Fortunately, we found somewhere to shelter, as Mark had spotted a guy with some beautiful photos from around Scotland. Having done our Scotland road trip just a few weeks earlier, to see such stunning scenery again, we were immediately drawn in. We stood there, poring through the various photos he had, while it rained outside. In the end, we got a beautiful photo of a Highland cow and her calf, and one of Glencoe. They were both stunning.

Once the rain was done, we wandered further along, and we got some views of Princes Street Gardens, and towards the main Waverley station beyond…







We did stop for a couple of minutes to watch one performer, mainly because I heard him say something about the crowd’s oohing sounding more like a cow! He had a knife (for knife swallowing of course ) and a bed of nails. I dread to think…






We moved on before his show really got going, and headed past the National Gallery…



… before making our way up here…







As you can see from these photos, by now, it was a lot sunnier, and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival is seriously everywhere. It was a bit surreal to see so many adverts in amongst so many ancient buildings…





We found the Bank of Scotland building, and later on, we found out that it was originally purchased by a family of crooks… anyone think things have changed much?



We found the next section of the Fringe Festival here…





… and this is where Mark spotted a sign for Henderson’s, which is apparently a vegetarian and vegan restaurant. I was really shocked when he suggested going to lunch there. I checked it on TripAdvisor, and it was very well rated, so in we went. What a lovely place, and a great find. As one of the women at the table next to us said it’s the sort of place a lot of cities need. It’s got a nice touch of luxury that most vegetarian restaurants don’t have. As she said, usually they’re trying to be hip and trendy, but this one isn’t at all.




I want to say a word here about the toilets. You literally went through a door, and suddenly it was boiling hot in there – goodness knows where from, as I checked, the radiator was off. It was also massive back there, way bigger than I expected. I love it when you make little discoveries like that.

For appetiser, I went for the oven roasted cumin potato skins with guacamole, after seeing what the girls at the table next to us got, and it was excellent. You could certainly tell the guacamole was home made.



Mark had the falafel Scotch egg, a vegetarian twist on the traditional Scotch egg (as the menu said ) served with tzatziki. I had a taste and the egg was beautifully cooked, but he said it was a bit dry, and I could understand that after a few bites, I’d probably feel like that too.




For entrée, we both went with the curry of the day, which was aubergine and chick pea, served with rice, yoghurt and poppadum, after checking whether it was hot. I was assured it wasn’t, and they were right. It was very nice, but also very unusual tasting. It had a tomato base to it, and a taste of lemon to it.



We had to wait ages for it, as we know that our two curries were delivered to the two women at the table on the other side of us. We suspected that had happened, and when we had to ask what had happened to ours, we knew it. Oh well.

All in all, the place was a little gem, and I’m glad Mark suggested it.

Henderson’s

Appetiser 9 7½
Entrée 9 9
Service 7½ 8
Atmosphere 8 8
Value for money 8 8½

Average score: 8.25

Next: painting a picture back then…

[purplegal]

Too bad about the rain, the Fringe is really spread out. Your lunch looks very good, nice that Mark suggested it.