We arrived in Edinburgh just yesterday after an uneventful train ride. Wellllllll..... Mostly uneventful. There was a person who pulled a thin trolley through each train car selling food and drinks. Amanda excitedly pointed out the Harry Potter connection.
Waking from the train station to our AirBNB gave us a quick glimpse of the town, and let me just say... it is awesome. Everywhere you look are really old beautiful buildings. You would think we would be used to this by now... but clearly not! We got in a bit late, so quickly checked in with our hosts before getting dinner and heading to bed.
Today we really only had a single thing planned: a tour of Mary Kings Close. How to describe a close... Well the main strip in Edinburgh is called the royal mile. The royal mile goes uphill ending with Edinburgh Castle at the very top. Stemming off the royal mile are a series of alleys and in these alleys are where the common folk used to live. So a close is an alley... Ok yeah sorta. I guess I didn't need to explain the rest... *Ahem*. Walking down the royal mile there is a close entryway every 50 feet or so (there's a whole bunch of them).
The tour we went on brought us underground to see the way people used to live. The city of Edinburgh used to be walled off for protection against attackers and whatnot, so instead of growing outwards the city grew upwards. On top of the close they ended up building another structure (no idea what it was now that I think about it), so the entire tour takes place in the dark underground where they have preserved some of the homes.
Photography wasn't allowed on the tour, and even if it were, we wouldn't have had any good shots anyway. It was really quite dark throughout, though there wasn't too much down there to actually see. The tour guide had the difficult job of getting everyone to visualize what would be contained in the mostly empty rooms, and for the most part, did a decent job. In the end I think it was a good introduction to the city and helped give us an older frame of reference.
On a whim we were able to enter The Scotch Whiskey Experience. We had no expectations going into it, but I think we were both pleasantly surprised.
At the start they have you hop into a large barrel and take you on a tour of the brewing process (even Guinness didn't have a ride!).
You then take a virtual trip across Scotland as they show you a movie giving you an idea of each area where Scottish whiskey is brewed and the different flavors you would expect to taste from each region. Before the movie begins they hand you a little card which has all the main distillery areas listed out. During the movie as they show you sprawling landscapes from each region you then use the card to get a scent representing each regions whiskey giving you idea of what's in store from each. Super cool!
Having learned about each region, they take you to the next room where you get to pick which regions whiskey you would like to sample. All of this culminates in taking your drink to the whiskey vault and sampling your choice surrounded by thousands of bottles of unopened whiskey. Now I don't know enough about what I'm looking at, or even drinking, to fully appreciate what I'm experiencing.. but Amanda and I enjoyed all of it.
Not being satisfied with just a single taste, we had opted to get the gold tour which included a whiskey flight with all of the regions represented. This gave us a nice opportunity to sit down and relax, slowly working our way through the different tastes and enjoy some nice drink.
Finally it was time to visit Edinburgh Castle. I was completely unprepared for the view we were to be greeted with upon getting to the top. You can see over the entire city all the way out to the ocean. It's incredibly peaceful, and almost fake... like looking at a painting. I know that pictures can't possibly do these things justice (I think I may need to take up photography and buy a better camera) but here goes:
We stayed nearly until closing time and managed to see just about everything. We're both happy and tired. Goodnight.
