Like most tourist-centric European cities, Edinburgh is full of open-topped double-decker hop-on-hop-off bus tours.
Edinburgh
Question Time at the Scottish Parliament
Down at the lower end of Edinburgh’s Royal Mile, across the street from the queen’s summer house, you’ll find the architectural anomaly that is the Scottish Parliament. You’ll have no trouble picking it out from the surrounding medieval buildings that make up Old Town.
Edinburgh: experiencing the Scotch Whisky Experience
On our recent bout of being tourists in our home town, we headed up the Royal Mile to the Scotch Whisky Experience. Edinburgh itself doesn’t contain any whisky distilleries, so tourists in the city seeking knowledge of Scotland’s great liquid usually end up here.
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Notes from a winter in Edinburgh
Despite being low on snow (one of my favorite wintery things), Edinburgh is extremely alluring in the winter months. (Stop laughing – I’m serious.) Winter just suits Edinburgh, with its medieval architecture and cozy pubs and whisky and fireplaces and all. I almost don’t want spring to come.
Edinburgh: learning the secrets of the Royal Mile
There are a plethora of walking tours on offer in Edinburgh, with good reason: it’s a highly walkable city, bursting with history, architecture, and monuments all within a relatively compact city center. In the months since we’ve moved here, we’ve walked all over the place, but always in the disorganized manner of those who are not on a walking tour. It was time to change that.
Notes from Christmastime in Edinburgh: the markets
This is our very first December in Edinburgh, and we’ve been looking forward to it all year. It’s always fun to experience the holidays in a new culture. Locals have been talking up the Christmas markets (usually followed by an expectation-managing “But I’m sure it’s nothing like what you had in Germany.”). Christmas goodies started appearing on shop shelves as early as October, making us wonder what new and exciting things we’d get to eat this season. Figgy pudding, perhaps?
So many bagpipes: the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo
Edinburgh is a frenzy of activity during August. One of the biggest draws during this time is the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo, a daily performance held inside a temporary stadium that is erected in front of the castle each summer. Military bands from around the world are invited to perform, and the whole thing ends up being a lot more interesting than the words “military bands” might lead you to expect.
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Exploring Edinburgh: The Real Mary King’s Close
We’ve been having fun playing tourists in Edinburgh over the past couple months. One of the attractions we tried out was The Real Mary King’s Close.
Edinburgh: seeing things at the Camera Obscura
Recently we spent a couple days being tourists in our own city, getting to know some of the attractions Edinburgh has to offer. One of our first stops was the Camera Obscura and World of Illusions.
Edinburgh: notes from the pub and other bits of daily life
Back in April I posted about how we were getting all settled into Edinburgh, how life here was starting to feel normal. The whole settling-in business was quite violently interrupted by Scott’s cancer diagnosis, which made us feel like ‘normal’ was a thing of the past. But here we are again, back on track.
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