Bonnie Scotland

Adios, Amsterdam! We hopped onto a ferry boat – that was basically the size of a cruise ship – to head toward the United Kingdom. I stumbled across this transportation option when researching ways on getting from Amsterdam to Scotland. We knew we wanted to drive around the northern parts of Scotland, so it made sense to start in Edinburgh so we could pick up our car there, but flights were pretty expensive and the timing of said flights wasn’t proving to be convenient for us. I saw a stray ad somewhere online for the company, DFDS, advertising “mini-cruises”. Intrigued, I clicked through, and turns out that it’s exactly what it says on the tin. There was a ferry that runs from Amsterdam to Newcastle, UK, and back, leaving Amsterdam at about 5:30pm and arriving in Newcastle around 9:15 am. We thought this might be a fun way to travel, and it took care of our accommodations for one night as well. The ship had shopping, a casino, a couple of restaurants, and entertainment. Compared to the one other cruise I’ve been on, (so limited experience) these things actually turned out to be pretty small potatoes, but it was fun to check out nonetheless. The casino was really just 4 slot machines. The “shopping” was one duty-free shop, but they did have a decent amount of merch for you to peruse… clothes, candy, alcohol. The essentials, you know.

We didn’t really take advantage of these offerings, but we did have a decent dinner at the “international buffet” – our meals were a weird amalgamation of Chinese/Japanese, American, and Indian food. As I told Kiley, none of the food was amazing, but it sure did fill you up. After dinner, we basically sunk into food comas and spent the evening reading. We opted not to pay for the onboard WiFi and we didn’t really have any cell service for most of the trip. I got through about 1.5 books.

We woke up early for a breakfast, and I took a shower in the very cramped bathroom. I had to hug the wall and straddle the toilet, pretty much, but it got the job done, lol. Kiley opted to skip the shower until we got to different accommodations. (Don’t worry, she wasn’t smelly yet). The ship arrived right on time to the Newcastle port. We disembarked and got through passport/border control, then immediately got onto another bus that would take us to the city center so we could catch a train up to Edinburgh. The timing was fortuitous, because the minute I finished buying our train tickets, we realized a train was coming in a few minutes and we could get this show on the road earlier than anticipated. I was thinking we might have to wait for a hour or so until we could get onto a train, but luck was on our side today.

We arrived to cool, drizzly Edinburgh and decided to walk to our hotel to see if we could check in early, or at least drop off our bags so we could go look for lunch. Lady Luck continued to be with us, and we were able to get into our room right away. This room is probably the most spacious one we’ve had the whole time we’ve been in Europe, Airbnb apartments notwithstanding. Our hotel is right on the Royal Mile, so we’re in the middle of everything in the Old Town!

The Royal Mile road connects two significant sites here in Edinburgh – Edinburgh Castle and Palace of Holyroodhouse. We enjoyed walking uphill toward Edinburgh Castle and checking out the sights. We stopped by St. Giles’ Cathedral – and that is a beautiful church! This year is the 900th year of its existence.

We walked up to the entrance of Edinburgh Castle and decided to book tickets for tomorrow morning since it seemed like a popular attraction and was basically sold out for today. We also booked tickets for a “Scotch Experience” tomorrow afternoon so that’s tomorrow sorted. We might also stop by the National Museum of Scotland to check it out.

We also came across a Writers Museum and checked it out since it had free admission. They had info about several Scottish authors, including Robert Louis Stevenson, of Treasure Island and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde fame. They had some neat artifacts there.

After walking the Royal Mile a bit, we decided to book a tour for the evening at the Real Mary King’s Close. This was really interesting! The tour started in a building currently known as the City Chambers – we got to see what lies beneath that building. In 1753, the city chambers building began construction and it was originally known as the Royal Exchange. Before this construction began, there were four closes (very narrow streets with very tall buildings on either side) at this location, and these closes were home to many people and businesses. In the process of building the Royal Exchange, they cut the existing buildings in half and used the lower levels of the house as a foundation for the new building. We got to see the remains of the old structures beneath the Royal Exchange. They talked about the history of the area and how it impacted Mary King’s Close. For example, the ‘Black Death’ aka the bubonic plague, when it ravaged across Europe, also unsurprisingly impacted the close, and one of the citizens living/operating within Mary King’s Close was a plague doctor. Really fascinating tour.

After the tour, we grabbed a quick dinner and then headed back to the room to relax! That was it for our first night in Edinburgh… I’m really enjoying this city so far!