The Journey Day 8 Edinburgh, Scotland

September 10th, 2016 Edinburgh, Scotland

Woke at 9am we went to a cafe for breakfast Olly Bongo's Cafe and Bistro for breakfast. I had a full English Breakfast and Kelsi had french toast. We both drank lattes. My opinion on the full breakfasts is that I like the English beans better than Irish and I also liked the Soda bread and potato cakes. I prefer Ranch style beans over baked beans so please keep that in mind, if you like sweet beans then you might prefer the Irish ones. 

English Breakfast

After Breakfast, I mailed some postcards, Kelsi got candy. At the Paradise Palms there were Tunnock's Carmel Waffers that she loved! So she was on a mission to find more of them. She didn't find any this time, but she did by the end of the day, and stocked up for the entire trip, she has to restock in London for on our return home.

Then we went to Edinburgh Castle. It was probably the most legit castle that we went to, it had kill holes. Which was the main criteria that we looked for when determining if a Castle was really real. While at the castle we tried some very delicious whiskey. We liked it so much we bought some for Caitlin and Dave as a gift. I think I should have bought more, I thought there would be more alcohol that I would want to bring home, so I only bought one bottle. 

Whiskey Tasting

The views of the city from the castle were awesome. We walked all around to get a look in all directions. At the castle they also have a museum of the military history and prisoner history. It was a lot to absorb! A real history buff might be able to spend all day at the castle alone! We made sure to look at everything, but by the end of each tour we didn't take as much time at each exhibit as we did at the beginning of the tour. It was so much to process.

From the Castle we went to the Whiskey Tour. There is a ride that quickly explains the whiskey making process. I remember the first step is the quality of the water, but then we moved on to the tasting part of the tour, so I'm not certain of the rest of the steps. Some of the steps I remember because I tried home brewing beer over the summer. I learned the lesson, don't brew beer in Arizona in the summer. In the Tasting Room we were given palettes to smell and from the scents and descriptions we were supposed to pick which region we wanted to try whiskey from. I picked the Highlands and Kelsi picked Spokane. The whiskey was pretty strong and I think perhaps I need to practice with lighter less smokey tasting whiskeys for a while longer yet.

The next part of the tour was to a huge collection of whiskey that had never been open. I looked at almost all of the bottles, and they all said Scotch! There were so many bottles and brands. Some of the whiskey will disappear from the bottles overtime, this is called the Angel's tax. Some bottles were more empty than others. Either the Angel's liked that whiskey more, or the sealing process was better in some than others.

Holyrood Palace

After the tour we went to the whiskey bar. Part of our package was tasting 4 of the 5 regions of Scotland Whiskey. So we had a flight of those. Now, I know I don't like the smokey ones! I may have ordered some more whiskey, except that there was too many choices, also we were getting hungry. So we walked down the Royla Mile and ate at The Royal McGregor. I had fish and chips. Kelsi had curry. She is getting more adventurous!

When lunch was over we went to Holyrood Palace. The place is still in use by the Queen when she visits Scotland, but there are no kill holes. This tour I picked up an audio guide, and summarized the guide for Kelsi. I think she enjoyed it because I was so good at relaying the information. People died in this room, this room is where people eat dinner, and etc. Just the fact from me!

Blue box 

Then we went to Franksteins it was a hoot! We ordered beers, Tennents, and sat on the second floor to watch people. People from the UK and Europe are just different enough that I know they are not Americans, but they aren't so different that I can't really pick out what makes them different. It is fascinating! I love watching people. After our drink we crossed the street to the restaurant Cellar Door. We kept walking by it, and it reminded me Tolkien every time we past it!

When you walk in you walk down the stairs to a cellar, only it's not really a cellar, because the building is kind of on a slope so there is a floor below that, which is also at street level and the door we went through is at the bridge level! I'm still pretty confused about the bridges and streets in Edinburgh even though we got better at navigating it!

Cider

The room does feel like a cellar so that was kind of fun. We both ate risotto dishes and Thistle Cross Ciders. Kelsi's was ginger and mine was strawberry. I took a picture of mine and sent it to Caitlin because she is my gluten free friend! 

After dinner we went to get drinks at Paradise Palms. We started with a tea pot, then Kelsi tried a gin fize, gin is pretty popular in Edinburgh, and I had another Tennents. This time at the Paradise Palms it was very busy with tons of people and awesome music. It was such a fun place it seemed to me that many of the people there were locals so it was great watching everyone! I loved it. We couldn't stay out too late because we had to get up early tomorrow for our tour of the Highlands and Loch Ness. When we got back to our room the music was just as loud as the night before, but it was a little easier to sleep. In the middle of the night, after the music stopped, one of the other guests ran out of their room to the bathroom because he was sick. Then he started sobbing! Getting sick is gross, but there was no need to cry about it the way he was. Kelsi and I could only laugh about it.

 

The Journey Day 7 Edinburgh, Scotland

September 9th, 2016 Belfast to Edinburgh, Scotland

Great Scot! I know a few!

We were up early for our flight. Our host had left us some things for breakfast. I had pancakes, I don't eat pancakes with syrup so it was easy to eat while repacking and getting ready. Kelsi ate toast. We both had some tea. We took a cab to the airport. It was a bit of a drive out of the city, but I guess that is pretty typical with airports. There was some difficulty with the card reader in the cab, but everything eventually worked out! 

At the airport, there were more issues with Kelsi's survivors, she bought too many tea towels! She had to fit all of them in her carry on which was difficult, but she eventually got the bag to zip. The there was more issues with the wifi and our electronic tickets. We could only get the Wifi in the lobby not at the first security point. So she had to take screenshots in order to make sure we could scan through the gates. All these mishaps were a bit of a bother, but I didn't mind too much.

Edinburgh, from Scott Monument

After the first point, there was a long security line. Luckily the Wifi worked in there and I took the time to buy tickets for a day trip to Lochness and the Highlands. When we finally got through security we stopped for coffee. Then we went our gate, there was already a queue. The queue was pretty long, in the states they call groups of people at a time, but there was just a single line. I'm not sure which is actually faster, but waiting in line is not better than waiting for your group to be called.

On the plane, I wrote some postcards and read. Kelsi closed her eyes, but I'm not sure if she slept too much. 

We arrived in Edinburgh just a bit after the scheduled time. The flight was short, but waiting to get off the plane took almost the same amount of time! We got our bags and took the tram to Princess Street. It was raining, but that didn't deter from the city's appeal. 

The city is so beautiful. It is built on hills and because this and the buildings, there is a bit of an illusion where two or three buildings look like one building! The hills make dragging luggage around more difficult, but I actually didn't mind too much because it gave me more time to look at everything and everyone. We had pretty great directions and didn't get lost so that made it more enjoyable. The room we were staying at is above the Paradise Palms, which is a bar. When we got in we were shown up to our room and informed that we were allowed a discount at the Palms. We took advantage of this after a quick dress change. I made the decision to wear ballet flats which didn't hold up later in the rain. So that dictated some of our later activities!

Punch Tea

At the Paradise Palms, the menu is American Soul Food and 100% meat free, many dishes are also vegan. I had a veggie burger and Kelsi had nachos. We shared a kettle of punch "tea". The Paradise Palm is so cute inside and the food is delicious. We were there pretty early so we had no way of knowing that at night Paradise becomes a very popular and crowded place. We would find out in short time.

After lunch, we walked back down to Princess street to visit the info center. Kelsi wanted to get more tea towels even if she didn't say so, but they didn't have any. We got a hop-on-hop off bus ticket, but before we took the tour we climbed Scott Monument.

Scott Monument

Scott Monument was built for Sir Walter Scott the Scottish writer of some note. He wrote novels like Ivanhoe and poetry like "Marmion". Which contains the famous quote, "Oh, what a tangled web we weave..." Edinburgh has many many famous authors and was named as the first city of literature in 2004. Every year in August, there is had a huge book Festival. It would have been great to see it! Anyway, Scott Monument is a Gothic style spire, that Charles Dickens said that was "a failure," but I quite liked it. We climbed to the top and the views were great. 

After the Monument, we took a turn on the Ferris wheel. I liked spinning our pod, but Kelsi did not! She was nice though and spun it very slowly.  

I wanted to take the hop-on hop-off tour bus after that because my shoes were soaked and I was hopping they would dry. They did a bit, but it was still raining after the tour was over. The tour was nice because we had a chance to look at sites that we wanted to explore more later. It was the last tour of the day, so it was too late to do any other site seeing that day.

After the bus tour, I waited in a doorway to keep my shoes from getting to wet until Kelsi was ready. We hurried back to our room so that I could change my shoes. We took a different street back up the hill to our rooms. We got pretty lost doing this. We didn't realize at the time that because the city is built on hills there are levels to the city. So when we went up a different street it didn't bring us back to the Royal Mile instead it brought us to a street below it. We only figured it out when we climbed some stairs. As soon as we climbed the stairs, we recognized some buildings and sites from the hop-on tour and were able to reorient our position. I eventually was able to change my shoes, but it took a lot of work.

Edinburgh

Once I had proper shoes, we walked over to Greyfriars Bobby's Bar for dinner. The is a restaurant is named after a very loyal Skye Terrier dog. After his owner died, he stayed at the grave side for 14 years. The dog could sometimes be called away to eat, but would return quickly after. What a cute story. There is also a statue of the dog in front and people will rub it's nose. The nose is shiny and worn compared to the rest of the statue. I'm not sure why they do so, but I patted it a few times. Kelsi started laughing at me when I would. There wasn't much of a wait, but perhaps that was because of the rain. I had a Tennets beer and I thought hard about trying haggis, but I was worried that I wouldn't like it. I am pretty adventurous when it comes to food, but I haven't seen many people review it favorably. Instead, I ate spotted sausage yum! Kelsi had a burger and a ginger beer.  During dinner Kelsi was a hero! A lady forgot her umbrella at her table, she's lucky that Kelsi was there!

The Elephant House

After dinner we walked up to the castle it was too late to go in so we turned around. We also saw a whiskey experience nearby that we decided we wanted to do later on. On our way back to our room, we stopped at the Elephant House for dessert and special hot chocolate drinks. It's a shop where some of the Harry Potter series was written, which thrilled the child and nerd in me. I tried not to be too much of geek about it. Inside the bathroom, the walls are covered with shout outs from fans about the series. It was so cool! 

We called it a night after that, going back to our room to find that the cute Paradise Palms from early was a machine of noise designed for keeping the delicate sleeper awake. Luckily, it ended around 1 am so it wasn't as bad as it could have been. 

The Journey Day 6 Belfast, Northern Ireland

September 8th, 2016 Belfast, Northern Ireland (Game of Thrones Tour)

We woke up at 6am (ugh!) to get to the pick up spot for the tour. We took the bus again to City Center. We popped into Cafè Nero (we still call it Nerd!) for coffee and pain au chocolat croissants! We ate there looking out the window at City Hall!

North Coast, Northern Ireland

After breakfast we went to the Top Shop, which was the meet up point, and just down the street. There was a group already standing by. It is quite a funny experience waiting at a meet up point. Mostly people stand around trying not to speak to each other. It was a little bit misty out, but not too rainy. The city was still mostly asleep so there wasn’t too much activity. I love quiet morning times like this!

As we were waiting a commercial bus pulled up to the curb and stopped there. We (the group) just stood there thinking that someone would come out, but no one did. A few people would come up the street knock on the door, and be allowed inside. At one point a brave soul wandered up to knock on the door, but was promptly sent away. I’m not sure what that bus was for, but it was very curious.

It was around this time that Kelsi noticed that one of the guys stand at the Top Shop was a guy that was in our tour group at the Gaol’s in Dublin! How weird!

North Coast, Northern Ireland

At ten to 8am our tour bus, and guide showed up! He had long hair and a beard. He checked everyone in pretty quickly, trying to get us on the road, before the traffic, I suppose. When we were on the bus, he introduced himself and the driver. His name was Brian and he was the best tour guide we had during the entire trip. Like all tour guides he told stories and facts about the locations we visit, not only Game of Thrones related, but also historical and local information. He grew up in the area and had a lot of knowledge about everything. The way he presented the information was what made it so great. He was very good at telling a story, and not only that he was really funny. Kelsi really enjoyed the tour, and the guide she said she didn’t even mind learning all the information because he was so good about telling it.

North Coast, Northern Ireland

The tour may have a game of thrones theme, but it went up the Causeway Coast seeing the beautiful landscape and castles. It stopped at the

Cushendun Caves, the Carrick-a-Rede bridge and the Giant’s Causeway. So if you are going to take a tour to see these sites anyway, then I recommend taking the tour through gameofthronestour.com. There are several tours, but the one that we did is called the Belfast Iron Islands & Stormlands adventure. There is also a Winterfell tour. The Winterfell tour can begin in Dublin or Belfast. Some of the people on our tour had gone on the Winterfell tour as well, with a different guide, and they recommended that one as well.

First Stop, above the steps Ayra's climbed

Alright, back to the log. The first stop of the day was mainly a comfort stop. We could go inside to get coffee and breakfast. We got more coffee. The stop also had a Game of Thrones theme. In the last season, after Ayra’s fight she climbs up steps out of the water right across the street from the coffee shop! I wasn’t so excited about that, because although I have read the books, I have only watched some of the show. I was worried that I would start confusing parts of the show for parts in the book and I didn’t want to do that. So I have only made it to the middle of the season 2. However, the view of the coast from the spot is beautiful!

Outside the Cave

The next stop was the Cushendun Caves, which is the caves where Melisandre gave birth to the Shadow! At the caves Brian showed us that some other tours take people to the wrong location in the caves. He even showed the clip from the show as proof. In the cave we had to walk over steps stones over a puddle and the cave was quiet slippery which was fun. A bit of local information about the caves, one arm of the cave leads to a gate which leads to a house. We didn’t go to the gate or the house, because that wasn’t where the Shadow birth happened, but it was just a bit of an addition. The Cushendun town is very cute too, but we didn’t spend too much time there.

Carrick-a-Bridge

After the caves we went to Carrick-a-bridge. Kelsi and I half ran half walked the way to the bridge. She says that running up hill is easier than walking. I don’t know if it is easier, but it is faster! Brian said we seemed very fit walkers! At the bridge we had to go the long way down, because we stopped at the short way and told that they were filming something! It may have been scenes for the next season!! Of course, it could be a filming for something else, but the evidence is more in favor for next season. The next season was being filmed in Northern Ireland while we were there, and the location had been used in the past. Even if it was, the bridge would have been blocked more if a major player in the show was there, so it probably wasn’t a very important scene.

Anyway, we got to the bridge which was pretty cool. Brian told us that as a child the bridge was small rope bridge that was put up during the salmon run to catch salmon that went through. He said it was very scary as a kid. Now that it is a main attraction it is much safer. The bottom of the bridge is very solid so your foot will not slip in, and the rope is very thick. You have to wait a little bit to cross because you can only cross in one direction, but it’s still fun. When we crossed Brian was behind us and he rocked and bounced the bridge. The best thing to do with that was to walk with the bounces, so Kelsi and I were bouncing the bridge a bit as well. We’re brave and fit walkers! The island is pretty cool too. It is not very big, but you can get a great view in all directions.

Renly and Margaret View During Tourney

When we were finished with the bridge the tour group went to the ‘extra’ parking for the bridge. This is the location where The Beauty and Sir Loras fought to honour King Renly and his Queen, Margaret. I have seen that episode! So that was cool. As proof, he showed a clip! In that area scenes with Brienne and Catelyn and Wildlings were also filmed, and we were able to see them as well. The area is unassuming so you might miss it if you were just going to visit the bridge.  

Fullerton Hotel Picture, for Parents

After that we drove to Fulletron Arms for lunch it was pre ordered earlier in the day. Kelsi and I had burgers and chips. I had a Smithwick to drink, Kelsi had a beer called Sam Bros. The food was very delicious and I took a picture of the Fulletron Arms because I think my parents should visit and stay at the hotel. The town is so cute!

Theon and Euron Baptism

From there we went to the Iron Shore…well not exactly. We dresses as pirates complete with swords! We walked to the place where Theon and Euron were baptized. There we took pictures of each other playing pirate. It was fun. After taking pictures we walked from that holy spot, to the dock where Theon left the Iron Islands. 

Playing Pirate

Iron Island Building

In the area there is an old building that dates back to the 1700s, it was easy from that to add a thatched roof and a few other features to make it look like the Middle Ages! We took more pictures in costume over there!

The next stop was at the Giant’s Causeway which is the only remains of a bridge that a Giant crossed to get to Scotland on the otherside. When he got to Scotland he saw an even bigger Giant so he ran back across the Causeway to Ireland. His wife dressed him in children’s clothes, and then hid; when the other Giant arrived he saw the Giant in children’s clothes and thought how tall is the adult! So he ran back across to Scotland. After that the Giant picked up some earth creating the Lough Neagh and threw it at the fleeing Giant destroying the bridge and creating the Isle of Man. It was that or the Causeway was created by volcanic activity which carved the rock into hexagonal shapes. The legend is a fun story, but the natural effect is impressive too.

Hexagonal Shapes!

There is a visitor center at the Giant’s Causeway, it is set up to make it look like you need to go through the visitor center to see the Causeway which costs money, but you don’t need to go in the center, you can go around. Brian showed us how to go around the center, but then he had to go back to bus because it wasn’t allowed to park in the area.

Me, at Causeway

The site is incredible! We climbed up on top of them and looked all around. They hexagonal shapes are everywhere, people climb all over them, and they seem to be holding up alright. I guess rocks do that. The view is cool too, you can see Scotland from there if the weather is clear. It was a cloudy day, but we could still see it, so it doesn’t have to be too clear. We even Scotland while visiting the Iron Shore so it seems that the weather needs to be much worse to not see it.

When we were finished we walked to the Nook which is owned by a local family and Brian recommended for dessert. Neither the Nook, nor the Giant’s Causeway was used on the Game of Thrones show, but it is a key attraction on the North Coast. I think any tour of the coast must include it!

After the Causeway stop we went to Dunluce Castle, which was a medieval Castle. It is built right on the cliff face. Brian told us that the location is not very good because of how the Island formed the heavier rock is sitting on top of weaker rock which over time cannot support the weight causing parts of the castle to fall into the sea! He told us that the last family that lived there left because part of the castle fell into the sea one night and the lady of the house insisted on moving. However, according to the internet that is only a local legend. A local legend that we may not have heard if we didn’t have a great tour guide!

Dunluce Castle

We could not go in the castle; we could only take pictures of it from a distance as it is not safe. It is part of the tour because the castle was the base for the CGI castles on the show because the castle dates the weathering on the stones makes for a good base. Our guide also may have inferred that the castle history and location may have inspired George R. R. Martin’s creation of the Iron Island’s castle, because in order to get to the castle you need to cross a rope bridge.

The final stop was the Dark Hedges, which was part of the King’s Road on the show. A part I also saw! The location is an old driveway that leads to the home of James Stuart and named for his wife Grace Lynd. The house and trees were planted about 1775. There were 150 trees plants, but now 90 some remain. The trees only live for about 150-200 so I suppose it cannot be helped. It was pretty with the remaining 90ish trees, but I bet the 150 would have been more impressive.

St. Anne's Door, for Bre!

When we arrived back we hurried to St. Anne’s Cathedral in Belfast, but it was already closed. It was a pretty building on the outside at least. We went across the street to the restaurant called Made in Belfast. Kelsi really loved the décor in the restaurant. I didn’t really notice until she pointed it out to me, but she was facing the majority of the restaurant; it did have cute artwork and lighting. The restaurant was filled with people, very busy. Kelsi ate chicken and I had a beef pie! Yum! We shared a bottle of wine. Kelsi had an apple rubah dessert. It was too tart for me!

We took the bus back to our room after dinner. Our host Yvonne, was up so we shared a bottle of wine with her. She was very friendly! We just kept talking and talking. She told us many stories about guests that she had and her life. The most memorable story was when a couple of guests left their luggage at separate bars after drinking all day in Belfast. She called around to the different places and was able to locate the luggage! Belfast is very friendly and safe it seems. It also seems like she is willing to go out with guests for drinks or dancing. She is a hoot! So if you are looking for a host in Belfast, and want someone who will share a bottle of wine with you at her house or around the town, then you should try to book with her!

We eventually managed to go to bed, we had a flight in the morning from Belfast to Edinburgh Scotland so hopefully we won’t be too tired!