Day 1 - Edinburgh — Wayfaring Abroad

After arriving in London the night before, we had an early morning wake up in order to get back to Heathrow and make our flight to Edinburgh. In total we spent less than 12 hours in London and the majority of it was at the airport.

Luckily, we made it to the airport without trouble. Before going to bed the night before I was little worried about being able to wake up on time and not miss the flight but the second my alarm went off, I was up and in the shower.

We stayed at a hotel just outside Heathrow and along a free bus route that supplies passengers to nearby hotels. The plan was to make a bus at 5:40 and get to security by 6, leaving us enough time for any mishaps that could occur. We made the bus without incident and stood amongst the throng of airport workers and travelers. At the airport we printed our boarding passes from a kiosk, just to be sure the digital ones we’d downloaded the night before wouldn’t have any issues. Then we went through security. I was certain that I would have to remove my camera, lens and electronics but luckily they only needed the computer.

We weren’t given a gate for our flight until boarding time, which meant were rushed over to the gate and happened to make it before the majority of the other passengers. Our plan was at a different gate, which meant that we were put on buses and driven to the plane. This made the boarding slow but also easy since only about 30 people boarded at a time.

The flight was a short one, just a tad over an hour, which meant we would have most of the day to explore. We grabbed the tram and rode the full route to York Place where we walked the short distance to grab our rental car.

Today was my first experience driving in a foreign country and first time driving on the other side of the road. I struggled a bit mentally with making sure when I turned that I turned onto the correct side of the road and not into oncoming traffic. After a couple blocks I seemed to have gotten the hang of it, at least enough that I wasn’t in imminent danger but that didn’t change my feels about driving a stick and shifting with my left hand instead of my right. That never quite felt right.

We found a place to park and set off to see a bit of Edinburgh. Our first stop was Edinburgh Castle. By the time we got there it was already midday and the sun was hanging precariously low in the sky. The sun seemed screened off by clouds, which were reflecting the light throughout the sky. This effect made the castle seem magical and alleviated some of the hassle of seeing the hundreds or tourists who had the same idea today. We entered there castle and slowly made our way around the perimeter, stopping off at each open doorway that we saw.

At one point while gazing out down the Royal Mile a man proposed to his lady friend while a small crowd converged around them. After the proposal was done the mass of people clapped and cheered them on before awkwardly going back to their sightseeing.

The view of the Royal Mile from Edinburgh Castle.

At this point it was like a sudden sink hole opened up and our energy levels disappeared drastically. We both were feeling the effects of jet lag and having to be up at 5 am. We slowly made our way through the rest of the castle before leaving and heading down the Royal Mile with the intent of grabbing lunch as soon as we found something appetizing.

We decided to head back to city centre to find something when we couldn’t wait any longer and went into the next place we came across. Luckily, the smoke salmon sandwich and fish and chips hit the spot. I wouldn’t say that we were at 100% after lunch but certainly were no longer struggling to walk around.

From lunch we headed down and entered the Christmas Market. We gazed at the multiple stalls, gawked at the pretzels, peanut butter chocolate balls, donuts and scarves. We decided that we would have to come back and walk the length of it when we had more energy.

The sun was setting now and the cold was beginning to break through our jackets. The weather app said it was only 45 degrees out but it felt much colder than that. We walked along Princes Street, looking back up at Edinburgh Castle and seeing the sun pass beneath.

After the long walk back we were feeling quite exhausted and felt lucky to spend a night in, enjoying an incredible home cooked meal with scotch and tequila and ready for a new day. One less impacted by jet lag and filled with more of the beauty of Edinburgh.