The best days we've had so far were the ones where we had no definite plan, so we just decided to explore. We tried to minimize the death marching (spoiler: it didn't work) because wandering around often leads to being far away from our hotel when we start getting tired. We grabbed day passes for the local bus system and used it to climb the hill between our hotel and the main drag. That left us the option to grab a ride back in the right direction from anywhere in the city.

Edinburgh is very much built around Edinburgh Castle, with the main part of the downtown district both north and east of the castle. We'd already hit a bunch of the main attractions to the north, so we set our sights east of the castle and headed off. Edinburgh has lots of spires, domes, and towers that are visible from quite a ways off, which makes it a great city to say "hey, let's go check out what that is!"

Our first turn was up a staircase toward a cemetery that had a memorial to all the Scottish American soldiers who fought to preserve the Union during the Civil War. Lincoln's profile is unmistakable, so as soon as we saw this we knew we had to take a look. Not many presidents get monuments in other countries.

The foundation Lincoln is standing on has words on each side: Suffrage, Emancipation, Education, and Union

We then crossed the street trying to get to a large tower on top of a hill. We had hoped at best to find out what the tower was and why it was there, but we didn't expect to find the most beautiful views of our trip so far.

The view to the south of Calton Hill. Edinburgh Castle is on the right, with the Salisbury crags on the left.
The view to the south of Calton Hill. Edinburgh Castle is on the right, with the Salisbury crags on the left.
The view to the north of Calton Hill. You can see our hotel from here (barely) but more importantly you can see all the way over the Firth of Forth to Fife.
The view to the north of Calton Hill. You can see our hotel from here (barely) but more importantly you can see all the way over the Firth of Forth to Fife.

These pictures don't show how windy it was or how fast those clouds were moving, but take my word for it: it was and they were. There were some intermittent showers but we did our best to just enjoy the views for a while. It was only about 9:30 AM so we'd mostly beaten the crowds.

We walked down from Calton Hill to Hollyrood House and then up the Royal Mile. We picked up a few small tartan items while we walked up to the Edinburgh Castle again, and I walked in to a kilt shop where I tried on some decent ready-made kilts. I wasn't thrilled with them and I decided not to get a kilt this trip.

Eric gets a kilt this trip

That is, I thought I had decided. Further up the Royal Mile we walked down a tiny alley and discovered what Susan has dubbed "the Ollivander's of kilt shops." She's not wrong - this place was quiet, off the beaten path, and messy.

I found this to be a good sign

The kiltmaker manning the shop treated me like I wasn't just some tourist looking for a kilt as a gag, which was really refreshing after the last place. He pulled out an old reference of clan tartans and walked me through every Stewart tartan in the book. I was surprised to learn that the Stewart Hunting tartan wasn't affiliated with the Stewarts in any real way. Apparently they just named a common tartan after themselves and it stuck. The kiltmaker then pulled out a reference kilt and walked us through what made his kilts different from other kiltmakers'. All of this before I'd made it clear whether I was serious about getting a kilt or just browsing.

I decided that this was the right place to get one if I ever wanted to own another kilt in my life, so I went ahead and got measured for one.

This is the wrong tartan and too long for me, but you get the idea.

Rather than get the Royal Stewart (which I find too flashy) I opted for Stewart Old which looks like this:

Sweeping! Dramatic! A lot less flashy!

Enough about kilts.

Susan and I walked past the castle to the less crowded southern end, where we came across Edinburgh's actual oldest bar: The White Hart Inn.

Est. 1516 and older than The World's End

We grabbed some light pub fare and a sherry-casked whisky flight. Once again, the Glen Scotia stole the show. Their Double Cask was as salty and rich as the 18 year, with an added toffee sweetness from the sherry. It's honestly not worth mentioning the other whiskys in this flight.

We tried going to a gin distillery for a change of pace, but the place was booked solid for days and wasn't accepting walk-ins. It seemed like the right time to head back to the room. We tried to catch a bus but when we realized how far away we were from stops for the right routes we decided to walk back.

Paella? In Scotland? It's more likely than you think.

On our way back we stopped at a pop-up Sunday Market and found (you guessed it) a Paella vendor. We weren't even that hungry but this looked incredible.

The line for this was long. Long enough that I could walk to our hotel to drop off our bags, back to the market, and browse the whole market before Susan finally got served. Susan got to listen in on all the Spanish visitors talk about their vacation plans in Scotland while she waited, and saw that people had brought half-gallon tupperware with them to get filled. This was the real deal.

The paella was definitely worth spoiling our normal dinner plans for. Honestly it was a nice break from my steady haggis diet.

We made it back to the hotel and crashed, and then I started studying up on the rules of the road in preparation for renting a car tomorrow.