Getting to Scotland required two flights, one from Columbus to Boston, and one from Boston to Edinburgh. I’d never flown internationally, so I wasn’t sure how sleeping on the plane was going to work, or how flying on a “big” plane would work. (The largest plane I’ve ever been on are the normal three seats on each side of the aisle sort of plane.) Before this trip, the farthest east I’d ever been was Boston!
Dinner in Boston
The flight had a bit of turbulence, which my stomach didn’t like, but we landed, got through customs/immigration, got out bags, and then headed to the taxi stand (which is not like in American airports—we had to walk to a taxi stand after getting out of the airport. They don’t have the “bays” that we have where you walk to different ones for taxis or Ubers or shuttles or whatever.) We arrived at our hotel, the Scotsman, around 10:00 that morning.
The Scotsman is right in the middle of the Royal Mile, directly across from Waverly Station, and it is a great place to use as your city base.
The Scotsman lobby.
Our room wouldn’t be ready until the afternoon, but the hotel stored our luggage and we headed to a Mimi’s Bakehouse that was near the hotel on Market Street.
And I personally couldn’t wait anymore, so after Mimi’s we grabbed a cab and headed to Golden Hare Books in the Stockbridge section of the city.
Here is a VERY important thing to know: Edinburgh cabs are a lot like Uber, in that you call a cab on the app and it comes. We used City Cabs the entire time we were there and they worked really well. Sometimes the wi-fi was spotty so we had to call the actual number (which is on the cab app icon which is very handy!). Most cab rides were under 10 pounds—also, have some cash on hand, because if the wi-fi isn’t working at the place you get out, they can’t use your card to pay! It was very helpful to have cash in those cases. You also do not tip taxi drivers (or waiters). Sometimes I gave them a little more, especially at the airport because the poor cabbie lifted my insanely heavy suitcase!
(You can hail taxis—if the light is on it's available just like anywhere else, but it’s much easier to download the app and order one.)
Wi-fi in Edinburgh could be spotty—I turned on roaming and that made it much better. So when you get there, turn on roaming! I also used Verizon’s Travel Pass and had no problem making FaceTime calls back to the States or texting, or accessing email.
Anyway, back to shopping!
Golden Hare Books is a delightful bookshop! I’m so glad we stopped here first. I picked up a book for my nieces called The Piper and the Penguin, a biography on Flora MacDonald (who is probably best known for helping Bonnie Prince Charlie escape Scotland after the Rising), a journal, tote bag, and a new Natalie Hayes book that I’ve not seen in the States yet. And also, chocolate because….duh.
Stockbridge is so cute.
Our room was ready when we got back from Stockbridge, yay! We’d booked a Feature Suite with a City view but I had no idea our room as going to be this nice:
Ivor, one of the hotel employees, showing Amilia the room.
The beds were so comfortable—I immediately took a Phenergan-induced nap, haha, and then we had a light lunch in the hotel restaurant—I thought I’d made reservations for tea but apparently I had not!
My “lunch”, haha. What the body wants it wants!
The lemon-ginger tea was amazing. (I’ll have a lot to say about tea on this trip along with links!)
After this I took yet another very long nap while Amilia went to explore and eventually get her dinner. My stomach wasn’t really feeling dinner so I skipped that, and we were both in bed around 8 PM.
Thus ended the first day!