On Saturday we got to explore Edinburgh, which was a great change of pace. Rather than beating ourselves up in the mountains, we meandered through the old city soaking up whatever we could. I was excited to see Edinburgh, as COVID caused me to miss it the last time I planned to visit in March 2019.

Every time I journey to Europe, I am reminded just how young the cities and civilization we know today as the United States are. We all know it to be true, but when you see carvings and plaques commemorating things that happened 1,000 years ago, it feels different.

We decided to walk the mile from our Airbnb to the National Museum of Scotland, which is a remarkable building. It blends perfectly with the ancient architecture on the outside, but inside it flows in and out of design type depending on the exhibit. The entryway is a gorgeous open area that really struck us before we started exploring the exhibits.

As we had toured the castle the day prior, and had been reading things about the Isle of Skye, we realized we knew almost nothing about the history of Scotland so wandering through the exhibits explaining the ancient past were quite informative. The influence on Scottish culture by Vikings and centuries of conflict were both tragic and foundational for the culture that exists today. Seeing some of the items which were dug up from farmers’ fields and other unassuming areas was remarkable. It’s funny that as children we learned all about the internal struggles of England and France, without ever learning about the horrible things they did to the world around them. Additionally, the conscription of Scottish military forces into English service, especially the Highland units, carried the soldiers all over the world in the name of British Colonialism well into the 19th century. As Americans we don’t learn about that either.

After dragging ourselves from the museum, we headed to Edinburgh Castle. We were truly fortunate to have been able to find two tickets on short notice, and also downloaded the audio guides onto our phones so we could self guide during our visit.

Having grown up in a part of the country where ruins of battlements are not uncommon, I always find old military structures interesting. This was incredible, and I truly recommend a trip to Edinburgh if even just to see the Castle. Being able to walk through the chambers which were built for Robert the Bruce’s son – and realizing that people were much shorter in the 1000’s – was a unique feeling. The story of the One O’clock gun which goes off at 1pm so the soldiers can keep their watches synced is unique and innovative. I can’t tell the whole story, or even a fraction of it effectively, so I’ll add some photos and encourage you to take your own trip. I know I’ll be back.

From there we traveled a very short distance to try a place which stated it had the best fish and chips. As we had become connoisseurs, we had to try. We started with some halloumi tacos – Stretch’s new favorite – before diving in to the meal. I also had to sample some whisky as I had dodged that so far on the trip. The photo below shows my sheer joy in the meal, potentially influenced by the whiskey. It also shows what happened to stretch when he mentioned a second beer to two different servers, he got a third…. The fish and chips were good, but nothing compared to the Seafood Marketplace in Kyle.

This was really our last day of the trip portion, with the remainder of our time primarily focused on traveling home.