Saturday July 18,
2026
Greg visited Edinburgh on his last weekend working in Bristol, England. (2004) So, I needed Scotland to add to my country list. Now the only country we haven’t been to together is Pakistan. (probably won’t get that one) Here are some photos from his trip:
I hadn’t planned
to book a tour of the Castle, but I couldn’t get a decent time to reserve a
ticket, so I booked a walking tour through Viator. (which only had
limited time slots left as well) I also bought the tickets for Holyroodhouse though
they needed no specific time slot. I reserved both months in advance. (on the day of
the tour of the Castle, there was a sign as we entered, that all tickets were sold out for the
day)
This was another tender port, and again we went down to the Elite meeting area and were taken right to a tender. It was a short 10-minute ride and the guy across from us (who was on his 2nd cruise) bragging about how they never take ship tours and how easy it is just to wing the ports. He said "they had these magical moments, like yesterday, she knew I liked chocolate and she saw a shop that they had passed and wanted to go back. I never would have seen that chocolate shop, so it was a happy accident. (his magic moment) He said ship tours are “no value added” to take them. He said they were visiting the Castle, and he was just going to walk up and buy the tickets." (maybe he got in before they were sold out that morning, just as they opened) Yike’s dude, just stop talking. While we are no fans of ship tours they do serve their purpose. I’d like to know how his day with no plans worked out.
After we got off the tender, we looked for Cruiselink X99. It’s a bus service that links between the port and the east end of George Street in Edinburgh. We bought our tickets and after waiting for the bus to fill up we took the 30-minute ride to the city. Cruiselink X99 - Lothian Buses
We weren’t sure if there would be time to ride the HOHO bus, so we waited to buy the tickets until we got there. We hadn’t had good luck with the live guided ones on this trip, so we took the one with recorded commentary that actually announced the stop numbers. A young lady was assisting people, and we asked if we would have time to ride it around and still make our 11:30 reservation for the Castle. (it was (9:00 when they first started) She said it only takes an hour and we’d have plenty of time and told us which way to walk when we get off at that stop. So, we bought tickets and went to the top of the bus. (it was cool up there, but the day warmed up nicely) There was a fire on Princess Street, and it was closed so, they eliminated a couple of stops.
We did make the loop in under an hour and only had a few stops until we got off for the castle, so we felt confident we’d make the tour. Ha, the new driver also needed to skip Princess Street, however he took a longer way around the detour. Add in that the traffic doubled since we started. We sat for long periods in traffic, and it became clear that we weren’t going to make it on time. The guide called and I texted him back that we were just getting off the HOHO. He said no problem. When we arrived, we noticed it was a pretty large group for a walking tour. We moved to a better location where he could talk, and we were waiting for one last group of 4 that were in a Pub and were waiting to pay the bill. Glad we weren’t the last to show up for the tour, but we don’t like being “those” people that aren’t on time.
He gave us our tickets (and told us not to lose them or everyone else will have a great tour of the castle) to enter and once inside he gave a short talk pointing out the features and where the food was and took us to a lookout and then back to the front where we were free to spend as much time as needed to see the castle. I guess it served the purpose of getting tickets to guarantee entry, but it wasn’t much of a walking tour. (we were fine with that) I don’t even remember his name.
We went to the Tea Rooms for lunch and had a couple of interesting platters. Greg got the fish platter, and I got the Meats platter. (we should have ordered the afternoon tea) Greg could live on fish, so he was happy, but mine was a lot of meat without much to put it on like crackers or bread.
After touring the castle, (we could have spent at least another hour) we walked down the Miracle Mile towards Holyroodhouse stopping at various shops and taking in the sights. Of course, we found an Amorino for some gelato. (I may have called them Amore in other posts, but it's Amorino)
We got off to tour the Palace of Holyroodhouse, which is the official residence of King Charles the 3rd when he is in Scotland. No photos allowed inside. While visiting one of the small rooms we were waiting for a guy to come out and he appeared to get dizzy and looked disoriented and he grabbed a hold of me. Glad I was there to help steady him. I told him to wait and move when he was ready and he thanked me profusely.
After the tour finished (self-guided), we walked through the gardens. Arthur’s Seat sits inside Holyrood Park, a gorgeous stretch of green space right at the edge of Old Town.
Since we got back after 7:00, we had dinner upstairs to save time and went to the late Show which was a Scottish trio called The Wild Jennys. They were fun and full of energy.
Tomorrow, we have a much-needed Sea Day!
Web Album: https://photos.app.goo.gl/aTAiabtT7qWz2zg66
