Summer days in Edinburgh and Highland

After London, we decided to continue to Edinburgh, Scotland. We had no idea about the city, only a little research and asking friends of what to do which mostly recommended to go to the castle. So we took an Easy Jet flight early in the morning. The accommodation was already settled via Airbnb. So here we go!

Our Airbnb is on the Abercrombie street which is only a walking distance from the city centre. I have to say that this apartment was the most charming apartment I've stayed with Airbnb so far. Even though the owner is a man but he put together a nice combination between art and masculinity.

The living room

A living room with a garden view

Here is what we did in 2 days.

Day 1: Explore the castle and Edinburgh's streets

We started the day early to head to Edinburgh castle by foot. Edinburgh castle is a historic fortress which is a prominent landmark of the city as it is located on the Castle Rock. According to Wikipedia, archaeologists have established human occupation of the rock since at least the Iron Age (2nd century AD), although the nature of the early settlement is unclear. There has been a royal castle on the rock since at least the reign of David I in the 12th century, and the site continued at times to be a royal residence until 1633.

A view from Princess Street Garden

The best place to see the castle view is from the Princess Street Garden. You can enjoy the beautiful bloom in the garden while locals are sunbathing on the lawn. Along the garden front are a shopping street with many street brands. So we just literally walked up the hill (recommend comfy shoes, it's a cobbled stone street and mostly up hills walk in the city) The castle pass cost £17.50 which included a tour audio. The highlight would be the Crown Jewels and the stone of Destiny. Luckily, I watched Mary Queen of Scotland on the flight to London so I had some idea about the history in this castle. 

The castle entrance

Stained Glass in St.Mary church

After the castle tour, we walked down toward the Old Town which was already packed with tourists at 11am. ( Edinburgh defined their old city area as Old Town and more office building/commercial area as New Town) We couldn't believe how crowded this city would be with tourist buses and people on the street. Despite the overcrowded streets, we still found the beauty of this city in every street corners. There are secret passage way that you can take short cut from street to street. We stopped at the Deacon's House Cafe for a quick afternoon tea while we strolled along the Royal Mile street. We tried the signature scone with Craigie's jam and cream. It was really nice and pleasant after a long walk and to have conversation with our neighbour tables. 

Royal Mile street

Along the way, you will find may street performers from people in Yoda costume to any kind of entertainments. Scottish men in kilts are also my favourite thing to see here. Another street that I would recommend is Victoria street especially if you are a Harry Potter fan. This is where JK Rowling got inspiration of Diagon Alley. We took a passage way from Royal Mile and came out to this beautiful view of the upper terrace to see these colourful buildings. Walking down this Victoria street, you will find many cute shops from a magical bookstore stocked with vintage book collections, nice menswear/womenswear in traditional Scottish wools to Harry Potter shop that you can buy each Hogwarts House scarves to wands. 

One of the secret passages we found

Victoria Street

My favorite bookstore

Harry Potter shop

At the end of the street, I found this big vintage shop and decided to buy a sporran as a souvenir. Miu Miu used to have a sporran inspired bags a few seasons ago and they were all sold out. Sporran is actually a traditional part of male Scottish Highland dress, it serves as a pouch with function of  pockets on the pocketless kilt.  There are many variations of this sporran from leather, rabbit fur to cow/horse hair materials. It comes with a belt but I decided to add more feminine touch by attach a gold strap from my shoulder bag. 

In front of IVY with my new sporran

At the end of our day, we booked a table at IVY restaurant to celebrate the end of our girl's trip which was really nice. We loved the whole experience from the interior, service and food. They had this butterflies and flowers theme for afternoon tea when we were there so it reflected in all the decoration in the restaurant.

Day 2 A quick journey to Highland

OK. This is a very touristy thing we don't usually do but we decided to go with this because we didn't have much time there and to see the Highland: a historic region of Scotland. If you've heard or seen Rob Roy and all the clans stories, yes it happened in this region. So we researched for which tour operator we should go with but unfortunately the highly recommended ones are fully booked so we went with our 2nd choice. 

The tour started at 8am at the pick up point on Royal Mile street. We were quite surprised to see many tour buses leaving at the same time as ours from only one operator. The journey from Edinburgh to Highland and back took 12 hours and mostly we spent time on a bus with a tour guide/bus driver telling stories along the way. We had big stops at the highlight places. So it was an OK day to spent if you don't have much time as we think to really do this properly you'll need 3-4 days. 

Getting on the bus, ready to go!

First stop: The highland cow or Hairy Coo.

This stop is actually for toilet stop and they happened to have 3 Hairy Coo there for feeding and photograph. These are cute and funny looking animal. The long hair especially their bangs gives their abilities to overcome winter weather. You will find many souvenir with these cattle. 

Harry Coo

The next stop we stopped for brunch and toilet break. It was a cafeteria like and we got to try Scottish Broth which is clear soup with barley and vegetable. It was surprisingly nice from the look of it. Then we are off to Glencoe which is where we aimed for. 

Glencoe is known for its history of this mass massacre in 1972, estimated 30 members of McDonald clan of Glencoe were ordered to be killed by the king. However this area is also famous for it's breathtaking 360 degrees scenic view. Even though we only had 10 minutes stop there but to really see and breath the fresh crisp air was really really good experience. Not to mention the gorgeous view along the bus drive.

Then another few hours, we arrived at Loch Ness which is the large and deepest (37 km deep) freshwater loch in the Iverness, Scotland. As you might already heard about Nessie monster which is probably the main tourist attraction here. We took a ferry ride for one hour and stopped at the ruined of Urquhart castle (dated back in 16th century) but honestly there's not much to see here. 

One od Nessie confrontation at a local hotel

Urquhart Castle

Cruising Day

It was time to go back to the Lowland and the end of our trip. My verdict is you'll need a good 5 days here, 1-2 days for Edinburgh city and 3-4 days for Highland. We really fell in love with Edinburgh, every street's corner you turn is just beautiful and romantic. It's definitely one of the place I would love to go back one day. 

And now it's the end of my UK trip. Until next time 💋