Edinburgh is a beautiful old city – the oldest continuously inhabited city in the British Isles. Like most of Europe, it’s very walkable. We had a wonderful time exploring the history, food and whisky.

As we do in most cities, we started off on the ‘hop on hop off’ bus, which we find to be a great way to get the lay of the land and take a moment to collect ourselves after an overnight flight, usually with very little sleep. This bus was particularly wonderful because it had a live narrator.

We were pleasantly surprised to learn that we happened to be in town during the Fringe Festival, a time for local artists to show off their skills, so we saw countless street performers playing music, doing comedy or dramatic sketches, juggling, and just any kind of performance.

We also did a few tours – the best was of Edinburgh Castle, which has been on “castle rock” since 1103 AD. We learned the dramatic story of Mary Queen of Scots – who became queen at 6 days old, was promised for marriage at 6 years old and sent to France where her future husband lived, married at 16 and widowed at 18. She returned to Scotland during tense times and married again a few years later; that husband is believed to have stabbed her private secretary 57 times in Holyrood Palace, and Mary could never stand to live there again (although to this day it is where King Charles stays when he goes to Edinburgh). Following an uprising, she was imprisoned at age 25 and then fled to England to live with her cousin, Queen Elizabeth, but Elizabeth was jealous of her and had her beheaded at the age of 44. A short and rough life, for sure.

We greatly enjoyed the food and drinks in Edinburgh. Andy had a great time trying local foods like a BAP, haggis, a pasty, haddock, and brown sauce (tastes like vinegar-based BBQ sauce). We also tried the local drinks – beer and whisky. The whisky is plentiful and quite good. We learned about how whisky is made and did a tasting at the Scotch Whisky Experience, and also had some good whisky at the Johnny Walker rooftop bar (which had a great view of the castle).

There were three basic areas where we spent time while in Edinburgh, all worth a visit! First is the Royal Mile – a milelong street that runs from Edinburgh Castle to Holyrood Palace (the one where Queen Mary’s husband stabbed her secretary); this street is full of shops and pubs and is where most of the street performers could be found. The second place we enjoyed was Haymarket – a small area that reminded us of an Italian piazza – again, more pubs and lots of great people watching. Third, we wandered along the street that is said to have inspired Diagon Alley in Harry Potter and saw the bar where J.K. Rowling is said to have penned most of the first book.

On to St. Andrews and Stirling!