Edinburgh: Day 1

Today we traveled from Glasgow to Edinburgh. I'm glad to be back after five years and happy to be staying at the charming Priestville Guest House again.

 (Claire, does this room look familiar?!) 

After getting checked in at our B&B it was time for lunch. Where did we go, you ask? The Elephant House of course! If you know what a big Harry Potter fan I am, then it is pretty obvious that the first place I would take Russ to in Edinburgh would be the birthplace of the Potter novels.

 

I would be obsessed with them no matter what (see above), but they also have great coffee, tasty food, and a wonderfully cozy atmosphere. Russ was impressed. He even said it was one of his favorite places that we had visited so far!

Following lunch we walked around the corner to the National Museum of Scotland. I had forgotten how beautiful their Grand Gallery is!

  

 

I had also forgotten how large their on-view collection is and quickly realized that the two hours I has set out in our itinerary was not going to be enough. We decided to alter our schedule and spent about 2.5-3 wandering around the museum. We saw a few floors of Scottish history (there are seven!) and saw the special exhibition on the Ming dynasty. I was bummed that the Ancient Egypt gallery was closed for renovation though. After we absorbed as much as we were able, we headed to Cadenhead's whiskey shop for a tasting and decided to save the National Gallery for another day. After what felt like an extremely long walk to our tired feet we finally reached the shop only to realize that it was closed on Sundays. So instead we did even more walking up and down the Royal Mile checking out all the touristy shops. We grabbed dinner at David Bann, a vegetarian restaurant off the Mile and then headed back to our B&B to rest our feet!

P.S. The new season of Downton Abbey began tonight in the UK! So excited. Too bad I'll have to wait till January to see the rest of the season!