Sightseeing Weekend in Scotland

My wife had a business trip to London. With only two weeks' notice and limited vacation days, we decided I'd fly over at the end of the week to meet her at London's Heathrow Airport (easier said than done without a cell phone) and then fly to Edinburgh for the weekend. Afterwards, we'd spend two nights in London before heading back to the States. Here are the highlights of our weekend in Edinburgh:

Edinburgh Castle: We saw the Crown Jewels that date back to 1543, the 12th-century chapel of St. Margaret, centuries-old graffiti on the doors of the castle prison, and more. The National War Museum of Scotland also resides at the castle. It was here that we learned about the lives of Scottish soldiers. All these attractions plus the magnificent views of the city make Edinburgh Castle a must-see when visiting Edinburgh.

The Royal Mile (High Street): This street connects Edinburgh Castle to Holyrood House Palace and was used by Scottish Royalty for centuries to travel between the two residences. Although the street is lined with historic buildings, it also has many souvenir shops, restaurants, pubs, and stores.

Loch Ness & the Highlands Tour: This is a full-day tour offered by Scottish Tours. It leaves the Edinburgh Bus Terminal and does a 360-mile loop through Scotland's Midland Valley region and Highlands. The excursion goes as far north as the modern city of Inverness before returning to Edinburgh. Some of the places we saw were scenic Glen Coe, desolate Rannoch Moor, Loch Ness, and Urquhart Castle. It was day of incredible scenery and fascinating history.

Best Western Braid Hills Hotel: We stayed in this quaint hotel which is located 3 miles from the center of Edinburgh. There is a convenient public bus stop in front of the hotel. Although the rooms are small, the hotel is big on hospitality and professional service. The staff really made us feel welcome.

Quick Tips:

Be Prepared For Rain: We were in Scotland during the last weekend in October. We were blessed with 60 - 70 degree days, which I'm told is above normal for that time of year. (Global warming is a major concern there.) However, there were periods of cold rain that seemed to come without warning. Make sure you have a small umbrella or rain gear handy. The good news about these spontaneous showers is that they often produce brilliant rainbows.

Use the Edinburgh Castle Audio Tour in Moderation: I thought the audio tour of Edinburgh Castle worth the extra £3. Basically, you are given a hand-held number keypad and headphones. There are numbers posted beside the exhibits within the castle. Enter the posted number in your keypad and listen to the narration. I strongly recommend using this device in moderation. Otherwise, you will move through the castle at an extremely slow pace and probably not get a chance to see much else that day.

Best Way To Get Around:

We did the 75-minute flight from London Heathrow Airport to Edinburgh. I had originally looked into doing the 4-hour train ride on BritRail between London and Edinburgh but the British Airways flight turned out to be cheaper. It was not until we got to Scotland that we began seeing advertisement for potentially cheaper transportation such as the GNER train system and domestic airlines such as FlyBE and EasyJet.

Public Bus: We stayed at the Braid Hills Hotel, which has a public bus stop in front of it. It was a 3-mile ride to downtown Edinburgh. The cost was 80 pence per person. Exact change is required.

Walking: Once we were in downtown Edinburgh, we found it easy to walk to the attractions and restaurants of interest.

Taxis: We used a taxi to go between the airport and the Braid Hills Hotel. The cost was £17. We also used a taxi the morning we had to be at the Edinburgh bus terminal at 8 am for a full-day tour of Loch Ness and the Highlands. The cost of this ride from our hotel was less than £5.

The Best Western Braid Hills Hotel is a quaint hotel located in a residential neighborhood 3 miles from downtown Edinburgh. The exterior kind of reminds me of a small castle. The interior is elegantly decorated in an early 1900s decor. It's an old hotel that doesn't have an elevator.

Our room, although neat and clean, was very small. It was about the size of an inside cabin on a cruise ship. The television stand was so low that you couldn't lie in bed and see the whole screen. The bathroom was small and had a tiny shower. The hotel supplies towels but no washcloths.

For what the Braid Hills Hotel lacks in size, it more than compensates in service. The hotel has a small staff that is very friendly and helpful. Whenever we needed anything, they were at our door within 2 minutes. The room was kept spotless. Every day, housekeeping supplied our room with complimentary tea, coffee, cookies, and bottled water.

The price of our room included a delicious breakfast buffet each morning in the cozy dining room. The buffet consisted of eggs, ham, sausage, beans, potatoes, fruit, hot/cold cereals, bread, and fruit juices. Lunch and dinner (not included in room rate) are also served in the dining room, but we were normally out sightseeing during these hours.

The head server of the dining room was Nino. This guy was full of personality and would bend over backwards to make sure we were happy. He was a joy to talk to each day. Even in the morning, when the dining room was suddenly inundated with a tour group of 60 people at 7am, Nino still managed to stop by our table to find out if we were enjoying our vacation in Scotland. This guy is a class act.

There is a convenient public bus stop in front of the hotel. The double-decker bus was our means of transportation for getting to and from the city. The area around the Braid Hills Hotel is very dark at night, making it difficult to tell when to get off the bus. We learned to use the Shell gasoline station as a landmark to tell us when our stop was coming up. In one case, the bus driver actually glanced back and nodded at my wife and me to let us know our stop was coming up. This was just another example of the friendly, helpful people we met in Scotland.

I recommend the Braid Hills Hotel for its courteous, professional staff and clean facilities. The standard room with a double bed is cramped, so request an upgrade if you require more space.

The Loch Ness & the Highlands Tour offered by Scottish Tours is an 11-hour excursion that departs Edinburgh and travels through Scotland's Midland Valley and Highlands before returning. Leaving the city, our tour entered the farm country of the Midland Valley. These green fields and rolling hills were dotted with farmhouses, cottages, and livestock.

As we continued into the Highlands, I felt like we were riding through a painting. We began to see lochs (lakes), glens (valleys), and mountains (bens). The fall foliage of late October added splashes of color. These scenes briefly gave way to the desolate land and peat bogs of Rannoch Moor before revealing colorful glens, bens, and misty lochs once again.

Although, the Highlands are popular with tourists today, this region has a brutal history. Our tour guide told us about the clans such as the Campbells and the MacDonald's, who occupied these lands. They often fought gruesome wars centuries ago that lead to the massacre of thousands of men, women, children, and animals.

My favorite stop of the tour was Glen Coe. We were given 90 minutes to check out the visitor center, get lunch, and enjoy the magnificent scenery. It was here we met Scotty who was dressed in traditional Scottish Highland attire from the 1600s. He gave us a demonstration of the weaponry and everyday tools a Highlander would have used during that time period.

The tour continued along Loch Ness, a 23-mile-long lake that was made famous by reported sightings of the Loch Ness Monster ("Nessie"). We made a stop at Urquhart Castle, which sits on the banks of Loch Ness. There is a visitor center dedicated to the castle. We viewed an excellent 8-minute film on the castle's history and how it was eventually blown up in the 17th century to keep it from being plundered by the invading Jacobites. At the film's conclusion, the screen went up and the window curtains opened to reveal a great view of the castle ruins and Loch Ness. It was the first time I've ever viewed an educational film that caused the audience to applaud. We were given some time to climb the narrow circular stairs of the castle.

From Urquhart Castle, we continued north to the modern city of Inverness. We stopped at the bus terminal to pick up two people who were doing the 2-day version of the tour. The rest of the 3-hour ride back to Edinburgh was uneventful. We made a quick stop at a cafeteria-style restaurant along the way for dinner. Meals are not included in the tour, so be sure to have money (credit cards are accepted) for snacks, lunch, and dinner.

I enjoyed this tour. Unfortunately, the stops are brief, since this excursion covers 360 miles. The multi-day version of this tour should be considered if your schedule permits. Otherwise, the 1-day version we did is a great introduction to the Scottish Midland Valley and Highlands.

We bought admission tickets and the self-guided audio tour for Edinburgh Castle which sits on top of a rocky extinct volcano in the middle of the city. There are several buildings within the castle walls. Our first stop was the National War Museum Of Scotland. This museum tells the history of Scotland in battle from the 17th century to modern times through displays of weaponry, uniforms, medals, short films, diaries, and battle scene paintings. Being new to the audio tour experience, we started off listening to just about every narration available in the museum. Before we knew it, three hours had gone by and we had only seen one building of the castle. We put the headphones away and headed out of the war museum to explore the rest of the castle.

Since the castle sits on a hill, it provides great views of the city and the River Forth (Firth Of Forth). Our view of the city was enhanced by the sight of a beautiful rainbow that followed one of the daily sporadic rain showers.

Over the centuries, Edinburgh Castle has been conquered, destroyed, and rebuilt several times. The only two original structures that remain here are the tiny 12th-century Chapel of St. Margaret and David's Tower. We had to walk down steps to get to the remains of the David's Tower because the rest of it was destroyed during an attack in 1573. The interior of the tower looks like an old dungeon with a quarry of rocks.

One of my favorite castle attractions was the Crown Room, which houses the Honors Of Scotland (Crown Jewels). The crown was first possessed by Mary, Queen Of Scots who was crowned in 1543 at the age of 9 months. The story of how the crown has been passed from ruler to ruler over the years is told through paintings, mannequins, dioramas, and audio narration. In the medieval days of Scotland, the castle and throne were constantly changing hands. The crown had to be smuggled and hidden during these upheavals. In 1707, the royal crown, scepter, and sword were hidden in a chest in Edinburgh Castle not to be found again until 111 years later. Our tour through the nearly 500 years of history presented in this building ended at the Crown Room where we were able to gaze upon the actually crown, sword, and scepter we had spent the last twenty minutes learning about. The relics were guarded and enclosed in a glass display in the middle of the room. Unfortunately, photography is not permitted.

We enjoyed our time at Edinburgh Castle. The views were great, and we were able to take in some Scottish history. I recommend purchasing the audio tour, because there is a great deal of information to enhance your visit; however, use the audio in moderation if you hope to have time to see any other attractions in the city.

The Royal Mile (High Street) is the street that was used by Scottish royalty to travel between their residences at Edinburgh Castle and Holyroodhouse Palace centuries ago. It is now a hub of tourism. Along with the centuries-old buildings that line this street are souvenir shops, old pubs, tour agencies, and restaurants. This area is alive with sightseeing buses, a bagpiper dressed in traditional Scottish garb, and crowds of tourists.

We went in and out of the numerous souvenir shops. Some of the common items being sold were wool clothing, plaid scarves, Loch Ness Monster dolls, whisky (Scottish national drink), haggis (Scottish delicacy of lamb or pork organs wrapped in its stomach tissue and cooked), toffee, bagpipe and drum music, and kilts. With the exception of the pubs and restaurants, the businesses close at 6pm.

We visited the Royal Mile during the last weekend in October so by 6pm, not only were the souvenir shops and stores closed, but it was also dark. With all the old medieval buildings that line the Royal Mile, the street seems to transform itself into a scene out of a witch tale in the evening. Naturally, this is the time that various tour companies get dressed up in ghoulish costumes and conduct ghost tours. My wife and I did not do any of these tours but we saw groups of people following their guides up and down the street.

Unfortunately, groups of tourists walking the dark streets and listening to ghost stories become tempting prey for pickpockets. I saw a group of four giggling teenagers pretending to inadvertently bump into people and then attempt to take their wallet. I even saw one of the guys stick his hand into an unsuspecting lady's pocketbook, but he came up empty-handed. My reason for mentioning this is not to discourage people from visiting this wonderful city. We always felt safe walking in Edinburgh. However, since I did see this one incident, I would like to remind you to use your street-smarts and secure your valuables, regardless of where you are traveling. Even in a place as friendly as Scotland, there are still a few people who wouldn't mind ruining your vacation.