Welcome to Scotland!

Friday, June 24, 2022

From Berwick upon Tweet, our last stop in England, we crossed the border into Scotland and headed for Eyemouth, a small fishing village with a nice beach and a resident harbor seal.

We found a spot right at the harbor, about 100 meters away from the beach, 20 meters from the pub and not far from everything else, since there isn't too much, to be quite honest.

Hostile takeover by a seagull

It took around an hour to walk every single street, eat ice cream, chat with the seal and take in some views from a small hill. Nevertheless, a nice spot.

I am actually on this photo!

So far we do understand everybody, it's still English they speak here, if with a twang. I'm curious when we will have to start asking people to speak slower or "more" English, so we will be able to understand.

After a walk to the bakery (for a still warm loaf of Bavarian Rye) and breakfast, we were on our way to Edinburgh. Or rather, Newcraighall, which is two train stations outside the city, with a large P&R.

From there, my human and Carmelo took the train into the city. As per usual in a new place, they went on a Walking Tour to get their bearings.

Edinburgh's old and new parts are divided by The Water of Leith. It's pretty easy to navigate between the two parts. If you are going up, you are on the way to the old town. Going down - new town.

Edinburgh rebranded itself Athens of the North, because of this! It isn't even finished, they ran out of money!

The second largest monument to a writer in the world is dedicated to Sir Walter Scott. The largest is in Havana, for José Martí. Although there are plans for a J.K Rowling monument, which will probably surpass everything again. It was built in 1838 and stands 61m tall. There was a public contest for the design of the monument and they guy who won it died the day before it was unveiled.

A rather impressive grave yard surrounds the Greyfriars Kirk. In front of it is a little statue dedicated to Greyfriars Bobby. This dog's master died and after being buried, the dog wouldn't leave the grave, other than to go scavenge some food, until he died himself, over 14 years later. What a loyal creature!

Of course, J.K. Rowling is everywhere, since she wrote most of the Harry Potter books here. She pinched some names, Thomas Riddle and McGonnagall, for example from this graveyard.

There used to be a small shop in town which used to sell brooms and brushes. Legend goes, this is where she got the inspiration for "Olivander's" wand shop.

There are special Harry Potter walking tours. On takes 4! hours. A customer is said to have died halfway through. Probably wasn't really a fan, then.

A must do is a climb up to Arthur's Seat. On a good day you can see as far as... Who knows, it wasn't good weather! There were spells of sun, mixed with high winds and drenching rain, in intervals of about 4,3 minutes! You took your jacket off because it was too warm in the sun, just for the sun to disappear behind a grey cloud which would piss down on you some seconds later. Oh, well. It's a good thing that the next pub is never far. Just to hide from the weather, of course.

See the rain coming?

The main street in the old town is the Royal Mile, flanked by churches, grand buildings, shops and restaurants, tourist attractions, or traps, and bag pipe players.

Down in the new town the same goes for Princess Street.

Then, of course, there is a castle up on a hill. Considering her need to visit another castle as very low, she skipped that one. And anyways, it's the view of the castle, which makes it. And guess what, you don't get that from inside the castle!

A few weeks ago my human had posted in a Facebook group for traveling women to see if someone from Edinburgh would like to catch up and maybe show her around a little.

Charlotte replied and they arranged to meet up. Turns out, they know each other from working in Mexico some years back! They worked for different companies but had the same circle of colleagues and friends. How random and crazy is that!

They spend some hours walking around the city and the harbor, talking about old (and new) times and ended up in a small pub with traditional Scottish live music.

Centuries of architecture all blended together

Dean Village

Farmer's market

On our way to St. Andrews, we stopped at a little beach and decided to stay for the night. When we got there, there were three other cars with German license plates. So far we haven't seen many German cars, or Germans, for that matter.

Sea cows?

When we got to St. Andrews the next day, we were flabbergasted by the amount of people around. The city is known to be the home of golf and they were in the process of erecting grand stands for the 150th Open, which will happen there next month. It also has the oldest university of Scotland, with graduations happening as we were there. Prince William and Kate met here while studying.

There are some ruins of a cathedral and a castle, both only visible from afar, as works are done to preserve the little that is left.

Since there wasn't much else to do, we drove on to Dundee after lunch.

I read once that if you don't have anything good to say about somebody or something, just don't say anything. This I will do in the case of Dundee.

These are literally the only photos we took in the city

Although there is one stand out feature, the Discovery Museum and ship. Robert Falcon Scott and Ernest Shackelton sailed to Antarctica with this ship in 1901. It is nicely restored, sitting in a dry dock by the river. The museum really is first class with great displays and a few nicely done short movies. It took my human 2,5h to reemerge from the everlasting ice into the real world.