Month: July 2023

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.

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.

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.

Although red-eye flights are tough in general, ours to Edinburgh was better than most. That’s because Gary had used his United frequent flier miles to get us premium economy seats, and we also got lucky. Our flight was due to leave Dulles at 10:35 p.m. About an hour beforehand, we were messaged that our plane was going to be delayed 10 minutes due to some type of technical problem. Then we learned we would be moved to another gate, presumably for a new plane. At the new gate, we heard an announcement that a São Paulo-bound flight was delayed until the next morning and our flight would be using that jet instead. That was the lucky part: it wasn’t our flight that would be delayed until the next day.

We got on the plane and found ourselves in nearly luxurious conditions in premium economy: just 2 seats in our part of the row, one on the window and the next on the aisle. And footrests, free headphones, a blanket and pillow, plus a little packet we could keep that contained an eye mask, socks, hand lotion, ear plugs, toothbrush…many things to make the night more comfortable. Dinner with real silverware was brought soon after we took off, with our rows being served first. Free movies and TV shows in the seat backs kept us entertained when we weren’t sleeping. A hot breakfast was served 90 minutes from the end of the 6.5 hour flight. I even managed to sleep a little. It was a darn good red-eye.

We arrived on time at Edinburgh and quickly went through immigration. But then we and all the others passengers on our flight had to wait an hour at baggage claim for our luggage. Don’t know what the problem was there. After finally picking up our bags about noon, we went outside into the overcast, windy, 60-degree Sunday and got an Uber ride to our hotel, the downtown Hilton Edinburgh Carlton. Two very nice rooms were waiting for us there.

We dropped off the bags and went out to walk up the Royal Mile a bit with lots of other tourists, and to find a place to eat lunch. That place was the Deacon Brodie House Cafe, where we had quiches, “toastie” sandwiches, and tomato soup. I enjoyed a ginger beer while the others had coffee. We spent the afternoon after lunch napping and then in the bar and executive lounge of the Hilton for evening drinks and snacks. That’s all we could manage after the flight.

I’m visiting my brother in Chesapeake Beach and it’s steamy hot here. Days in the mid to high 80s and high humidity. The first few moments you step outside, adjectives run through your head like “warm blanket”, “tropical” and “steam bath” but then if you spend more time outside the thoughts change to “sweaty” and “darn hot” and “I really want to go back to air conditioning.” I don’t know if I could live here. But yet it’s really nice to spend time with family.

I arrived Tuesday afternoon at Dulles and spent a couple hours in beltway traffic during rush hour in my rental car. I was happy to finally arrive at my brother Gary’s house and enjoy the dinner that was cooked by my nephew Matt. Yesterday, my niece Emma visited us with her cute 2-year-old son Graham. Today niece Caroline and I did some birding in the morning’s steamy heat along a boardwalk behind the town of Chesapeake Beach. We saw quite a few birds in the marsh, including nesting ospreys and a secretive green heron. Around Gary’s house, I saw and heard downy and pileated woodpeckers, cardinals, Carolina chickadees, white-breasted nuthatches and red-eyed vireos. This evening we all enjoyed a nice dinner with Emma and her husband Matt and their son Graham in an Italian restaurant in nearby Prince Frederick.

This coming Saturday night, Gary, Caroline, Matt and I will catch a red-eye flight from Dulles to Edinburgh, Scotland, and we’re preparing now for the trip. Not too much to write about until we’re overseas, so there probably won’t be another blog post until then. But I’ll share a few shots from my brother’s house for now.