A delightful tour of the gardens, pubs, food and history of Edinburgh

We spent two relaxing days at sea getting from Aarhus to Edinburgh. The conditions were reasonably good for the North Sea. We had dinner with friends, caught up on reading and photo editing, and I did a bunch of work.

After our morning arrival, we headed into the main part of Edinburgh. We had two great days of weather in Edinburgh and walked all around the city.

We avoided the touristy Royal Mile and instead took the first opportunity to make a beeline toward the New Town (“new” meaning late 17th century). We stopped for lunch at a French Bistro, walked through town and into the Royal Botanical Gardens, which were spectacular.

We’ve been visiting a lot of gardens on this trip because the weather has been really nice. These were the best so far. Every kind of flower was in bloom and there were giant bumblebees everywhere. They were literally bouncing off of one another to get to the flowers.

We found some great shaded pedestrian paths following old railway lines and took a long walk back to the Ship which was docked in Leith. Our second day we took a guided food tour and got some Scottish history as well as haggis, smoked salmon, and scones. I found out that the phrases “daylight robbery” and “laughing your head off” both originate from the conflict between the English and the Scotts. Look it up.

That evening we walked around the port area in Leith and had dinner with friends at a local steak house.  When we left the Ship had to exit the harbor through a narrow lock that only had 70cm of clearance on each side. While we were maneuvering a Scottish fox was watching us from the side of the lock.