Walking the Royal Mile

We started this morning with breakfast in the hotel’s restaurant, selecting things from the breakfast buffet. One of the available items was haggis, an iconic dish of Scotland, so we tried it out. It didn’t taste bad but we were disappointed that it was very dry. Perhaps there’s a better version somewhere else in the city.

Then we set out to explore the Royal Mile more than we had yesterday. It’s an historic cobblestone street that runs in the oldest part of the city, between Edinburgh Castle and the Palace of Holyroodhouse, with lots of pubs, museums and tourist shops in between. The weather was good for walking: mostly cloudy, dry and temps in the low 60s. At one end, we visited the new Scottish Parliament and went inside. Since the Scottish MPs weren’t in session, we could go into the large debate chamber, which was quite beautiful using lots of light colored oak wood. We also listened to a 10-minute talk about Scottish Parliament, which was reestablished in 1999, and their building, finished in 2004. After leaving Parliament, we peered through the fence at the Palace of Holyroodhouse, which is where King Charles stays when he’s here, but we didn’t want to pay admission to go in.

The exterior of the modern Scottish Parliament building
Parliament’s debating chamber

Then we walked up the street to the other end of the Royal Mile, where we visited the inside of St. Giles Cathedral and the approach to Edinburgh Castle (which we’ll tour on Wednesday). And we found a pub on a side street for lunch. We shared some fish and chips and a chicken sandwich among the four of us because we weren’t too hungry. Then we walked to the National Museum of Scotland a few blocks away. We spent a couple of hours in this huge, free museum, looking at exhibits about Scottish history and natural history too. The museum has five floors and a terrace on the roof with a view of the city, and it would take days to see it all.

St. Giles Cathedral
Interior of the cathedral, some of which dates back to 1495
Inside the National Museum of Scotland
View of the city from the terrace rooftop of the museum
Edinburgh Castle from the museum rooftop

We returned to the hotel and took it easy for an hour or so, then went to the hotel’s executive lounge for the free drinks and snacks they offer every evening. There, we decided that we’d head toward a pub for dinner and we got a recommendation for one nearby from the concierge. The pub turned out to be quite popular, nearly full on a Monday night, and not with tourists. Caroline was brave and ordered a small pizza with haggis on it, which turned out to be good. We walked back to the hotel, happy with our sightseeing for the day.