A Very Scottish Morning! (This is looking onto Market Street from our room)
I woke up at 7:00 AM—so after almost 12 hours of sleep—and took this very foggy photo. Breakfast in our hotel was served from 8-10 on the weekdays and 8-11 on the weekends, so I had time to write in my journal and also to stretch out my very cranky legs!
We had breakfast every day at the hotel; you could choose from the Scottish Breakfast buffet or order off the menu. I ordered porridge (aka, oatmeal) a few times, and yes, I did have haggis from the buffet bar! And I liked it! Amilia and I both really liked the tattle scones (ie, potato scones). Also something I really liked? Sugar cubes! I miss sugar cubes! I want them back!
On our first full day in Scotland, we had afternoon tea at the Palace of Holyroodhouse scheduled for 1:00. Since we finished breakfast around 10, we went to Ginger Twist Yarn (Amilia put up with me, haha) where Emily went INSANE.
This yarn shop is truly a closet of wonders. Jess, the proprietor, dyes of much of the yarn herself!
Close ups of some of the DELICIOUS YARN.
There’s going to be an entire post on the delicious yarn, trust me. :)
After yarn shopping we went back to the hotel and prepared for the first thing we’d booked: Afternoon tea and a tour at the Palace of Holyroodhouse!
Cafe at the Palace, with Arthur’s Seat in the background. To the left of this is the entrance to the palace.
We pre-booked our tickets to the Palace of Holyroodhouse, and I HIGHLY recommend you do that, because they might sell out the day you’re there. This happened when we visited Edinburgh Castle, so if you really want to see anything, pre-book the tickets. This will also save you a bit of money as well. (A pound 50 per person, so around $3). I also highly recommend pre-booking the afternoon tea because it is superbly well done—I think it was the best one we had in Edinburgh. It served as our lunch and it was plenty of food for two people!
We chose the thistle tea, and I wish we could’ve bought it because it was truly delicious, unlike any tea I’ve ever had. So if anyone knows where it can be bought, please tell me! :) My favorite thing here was probably the chutney and cheddar. I could eat that for the rest of my life.
After tea, we had our tour of the palace. Photos aren't allowed on the first floor, so you won't see any of the public rooms, but I can tell you that there is a stag that Prince Albert shot which looks dolefully at you over a doorway, and you will also see Queen Victoria’s bedroom and the Throne Room on your tour, as well as a beautiful Bible Pope Benedict XVI gave to Queen Elizabeth II on his visit to England! There is an audio guide that you get included in your tour cost. Obviously I did not use this, but they did have one that was a video done in British Sign Language! (ASL and British SL are different so I couldn’t use this but I loved that they had it!)
outside of the palace
The doorway into the palace proper.
the courtyard
In terms of accessibility: YES, there is an elevator (a secret one!) that will take you up to the second (to Americans, first) floor of the palace to the public rooms! Just ask one of the tour guides/workers and they’ll bring you up. There is also a doorway out if you can’t or don’t want to go up to Mary Queen of Scots’ rooms (they’re reached by a very steep, narrow staircase).
The entrance to the palace itself is wide open, no steps, so you can get in, and the corridor around the courtyard (above) is very wide. To get through the stone gate, you might have to check the dimensions if you have a very wide chair. The gift shop is accessible (to a point—you might not able to get to certain areas because of how tables are crowded together), as is the cafe at the palace.
After the tours, we shopped—I did a lot of Christmas shopping on this trip—including buying a traditional Scottish sweet called tablet (think of fudge, but not chocolate, and slightly sweeter).
Tablet from Holyrood
For families, they also had an adorable little room where they had dress up clothes, some displays, and a "mockup” of the queen’s desk—including a corgi in his bed. :)
Dinner that night was at Howie’s on Victoria Street. It started well but then…..in the words of A Christmas Story, “Holy cow, it’s the fire department!”
Fortunately we had had our dinner—venison stew, which was delicious!—and after we were cleared out of the restaurant and told to disperse by the firemen, we wandered down Victoria Street in search of a cab….
We definitely had a full—and not at all boring—first day!