I had to go to Scotland for work, so we decided to make a weekend out of it. I took the train up to Glasgow and really wasn’t there long enough to comment, but it is a fairly large city (population 2 million) with some beautiful Victorian architecture.
I met Greg in Edinburgh on Friday night. Edinburgh is a beautiful city (population 1 million) with a huge castle situated on top of an old volcano in the center of town and many other gothic looking midevil churches, statues and other cool looking relics. August is festival season…jazz festival, book festival, food festival, international festival, film festival and the Fringe festival. The fringe festival brought out all sorts of interesting characters including a large assortment of street performers. Sadly we missed this world headline incident (I promise it's worth a click...truth is indeed stranger than fiction!)
We stayed at the Sheraton which overall was not bad, good location, great gym & spa. We ate dinner Friday night at a restaurant across from the hotel called the Atrium. I thought it was pretty good but Greg thought it was fairly mediocre.
We got up early the next day and hiked up to the castle. It was our first official castle since arriving to the UK. It was pretty cool to imagine Mary, Queen of Scots and all the other kings living within the stone walls. This castle even had it's own doggie cemetary for the "Scotty" dogs of the servicemen of the castle.
It was pouring down rain (surprised?) which gave us a good reason to have another 3+ hour lunch this time at Edinburgh’s most famous gourmet spot, Martin Wishart. We opted for the tasting menu (skipped the cheese course…why???) and I loved it – even tried a little haggisJ. Greg felt it was a bit “fussy” for his taste. I would say it’s a must if you find yourself in Edinburgh and consider yourself at all a foodie. After heading back to the hotel for a post lunch nap we braved the rain again and wandered about the city before heading back to the hotel for a light dinner and catching Bourne Supremacy (we give it 3.5 out of 5 stars).
Sunday we headed to the gym for a workout and then relaxed at the spa. Much like the hotel in Bath, there were various steam rooms, saunas, and giant outdoor hot tub like thing. It was great. We had a 3:30 train back to London but managed to sneak in a late lunch at Mariachi’s (the only Mexican spot in town – so so) before heading off to the train station.
Overall, it was a nice weekend. I’m not sure why it surprised me, but kilts and bag pipes are quite prevalent. Tried to get Greg to buy a kilt but they didn’t seem to fit his image. The Scottish accent is really cool…hard to understand at times.
I met Greg in Edinburgh on Friday night. Edinburgh is a beautiful city (population 1 million) with a huge castle situated on top of an old volcano in the center of town and many other gothic looking midevil churches, statues and other cool looking relics. August is festival season…jazz festival, book festival, food festival, international festival, film festival and the Fringe festival. The fringe festival brought out all sorts of interesting characters including a large assortment of street performers. Sadly we missed this world headline incident (I promise it's worth a click...truth is indeed stranger than fiction!)
We stayed at the Sheraton which overall was not bad, good location, great gym & spa. We ate dinner Friday night at a restaurant across from the hotel called the Atrium. I thought it was pretty good but Greg thought it was fairly mediocre.
We got up early the next day and hiked up to the castle. It was our first official castle since arriving to the UK. It was pretty cool to imagine Mary, Queen of Scots and all the other kings living within the stone walls. This castle even had it's own doggie cemetary for the "Scotty" dogs of the servicemen of the castle.
It was pouring down rain (surprised?) which gave us a good reason to have another 3+ hour lunch this time at Edinburgh’s most famous gourmet spot, Martin Wishart. We opted for the tasting menu (skipped the cheese course…why???) and I loved it – even tried a little haggisJ. Greg felt it was a bit “fussy” for his taste. I would say it’s a must if you find yourself in Edinburgh and consider yourself at all a foodie. After heading back to the hotel for a post lunch nap we braved the rain again and wandered about the city before heading back to the hotel for a light dinner and catching Bourne Supremacy (we give it 3.5 out of 5 stars).
Sunday we headed to the gym for a workout and then relaxed at the spa. Much like the hotel in Bath, there were various steam rooms, saunas, and giant outdoor hot tub like thing. It was great. We had a 3:30 train back to London but managed to sneak in a late lunch at Mariachi’s (the only Mexican spot in town – so so) before heading off to the train station.
Overall, it was a nice weekend. I’m not sure why it surprised me, but kilts and bag pipes are quite prevalent. Tried to get Greg to buy a kilt but they didn’t seem to fit his image. The Scottish accent is really cool…hard to understand at times.
I am sure we’ll be back some time in the future as St. Andrews is in Edinburgh which is #1 on Greg’s “must do” list before we leave Europe.
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