Grassmarket

Edinburgh is the capital of Scotland (although Glasgow is bigger by population). It's population is 527K making it similar to Genoa by population and between Riga (641K) and Tallinn (449K), to give some comparisons.

It has been the capital of Scotland since the 15th century. As of a 1999 election the Scottish Parliament moved back to Edinburgh from London, solidifying its self rule.

Emily and Dave were blown away by the architecture of Edinburgh. It's mostly monochromatic "yellow gray" facades are very beautiful. This was exemplified by St. Mary's Cathedral, which was just down the street from us. We've seen some beautiful cathedrals in our travels, but this one was very different. It's not as intricate, per se, as Florence's or Siena's Cathedral, but it's (again) "yellow gray" bricks were beautiful. We could stop taking pictures of it under different times of day.

The cuisine was interesting. We tried the obvious favorites of Fish and chips, the "Full Scottish Breakfast," which included Haggis, and lastly some Scotch. Besides the "FSB," the workday takeaway breakfast of choice seems to be the Breakfast Roll (we also saw it called the Morning Roll). It's really nothing more than a vet narrowly defined Breakfast sandwich. The bread is always a fairly big roll (cut in half and buttered). It is filled with eggs and/or sausage and/or haggis and/or a hashbrown. I say "and/or," because you pay per item. Although one item is included, which I assume would be reserved for the egg. Interestingly, cheese was NEVER an available topping. Not one single time we saw it on the menu.Read more