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- Dag 78
- lördag 3 juni 2023 10:43
- ☀️ 15 °C
- Höjd över havet: 84 m
SkottlandEdinburgh Waverley Railway Station55°57’0” N 3°11’19” W
Exploring Edinburgh

We started the day with a walk through the beautiful gardens below the Edinburgh castle, called St Andrews Gardens. We then took a walk up to the Edinburgh Castle before walking along the Royal Mile, which is the main road heading up to the castle. It is called the Royal Mile because on one end of the street there is the Edinburgh Castle and the other end is the Palace so the royals used to travel up and down the street each day (when the Scottish monarchs lived in Edinburgh). Fun Fact: The Royal Mile is not actually a mile long - it was a "Scottish mile" which was different to an "English mile" (the Scottish mile was longer) and when the UK formed it was confusing having two different measurements for "miles" so the "mile" was standardised but they didn't change the name of the street.
We joined Stu and Zoe for a Sandemans Free Walking Tour which started mid-morning, and to our surprise the founder Chris Sandeman just happened to be in Edinburgh doing a review of the tours!
After that little surprise, we joined our tour leader, Mhairi, and began our walking tour along the Royal Mile. We stopped at a number of various locations and learnt some very interesting things about early Scottish life and how Edinburgh has developed over the years. We stopped in some of the very picturesque courtyards just off the Mile and even got a song from our guide! We then made our way to the south of the castle which was the main shopping quarter for local retailers and then progressed onto the cemetery where JK Rowling got her inspiration for a number of Harry Potter characters (including Tom Riddle/Lord Voldemort).
We had a fantastic couple of hours exploring Edinburgh’s old town and learnt a number of fun facts, including that:
- Mercat Cross (a podium found on the Royal Mile) was a public type of podium for proclamations. News from London always was announced here 3 days after it occured (because that was how long it took to get on a horse and ride to Edinburgh to share the news). Funnily enough, because the Scots love traditions, they still follow this tradition and the Queen's death last year was still announced on the podium... 3 days late. The podium was also used for public punishments which reflected the crime which they had committed. For example, people who were found of theft had their hands nailed to the podium and people charged with treason had their tounge nailed to the podium.
- The statue of the philospher, David Hume, along the Royal Mile is now seen as a symbol of luck with a "lucky" gold toe which people rub and touch for good luck. Funnily enough, this started because university students rubbed his toe before taking an exam they thought they would fail (when they were drunk) and miraculously they passed the exam. Ironically, Hume was a realist which means he did not believe in luck and believed that two unrelated events could not have any connection with each other.
- The Balmoral Hotel clock (which sits above the main train station) is 5min fast to ensure people get their train on time as Edinburgh used to offer refunds for missed trains and the Hotel came up with this idea so they would stop giving out so many refunds (which apparently worked very well!)
- You can drink alcohol in the streets of Edinburgh all year round.
- The "Mound" road linking the new and old towns is made out of the waste from the lake which previously surrounded Edinburgh Castle (which was famously very disguisting and contained dead bodies from public executions). The lake was drained during Edinburgh's Enlightement period to clean up the city and for the creation of the Old Town.
-Edinburgh is the city of literature (many famous writers have written in Edinburgh or been inspired here - for example, yhe story of Deacon Brodie inspired the story of Dr Jekkl and Mr Hyde).
- During Edinburgh's time where chamber pots were used and people threw the contents into the streets, the phrase "Gardez Loo" was used to warn people walking on the streets that they were about to empty their chamber pots (so the people in the street should yell back or run!) It is really unclear where this phrase came from (it's not French). It was probably a misheard French phrase but it is the reason the British call the toilet, a 'loo'!
- Nothing in the city is allowed to be built higher than the castle.
We finished the tour in the cemetry, at the statute of Greyfriars Bobby (a beloved dog who was owned by a groundsman and who would never leave his site and then eventually his grave). His grave says "Let His Loyalty and Devotion Be A Lesson To Us All".
After the very interesting walking tour which went for around 2 houes, we said goodbye to Zoe and Stu and grabbed a pork roll for lunch - very yummy! We quickly ducked into the writers museum which we had seen on the walking tour before making our way back to the hostel to pick up our luggage to then make our way to the airport for our flight back to London.
We caught the airport bus and proceeded to check in our bags and then realised we had somehow been upgraded to business class! We thought that we would make the most of this and were able to access the British Airways lounge! We then proceeded to consume as much food and drinks as we possibly could in the next 1.5hrs before we needed to board our flight (of course!) We also then enjoyed the business class perks on the flight (such as dinner) before landing at Heathrow and making our way back to Harefield.Läs mer
ResenärWhat a great time. And the interesting information U learnt along the way. And business class... Oooooo lala ... Well I bet you both took advantage of all that was on offer. Why not... U earnt it. Keep enjoying. Love U both. Xx