My husband and I traveled on a long weekend to Edinburgh in January and had an amazing time (of course)! We had spectacular weather: sunny and in the mid-to-high 40s except for our last day, which dipped to 40 degrees. Perfect walking around weather and no rain! We flew direct from Newark into Edinburgh, arriving at our hotel around 9:30am.

Instead of posting my pictures all at once, I'll be adding a few at a time. This one is out of order (it was taken on Day2) but it is totally apropos, non? The stone circle is an art installation in Regent Park in Edinburgh. We stumbled upon it (no joke) walking from Holyrood over towards Leith (which we never reached b/c of a detour onto Calton Hill. You can see Holyrood Palace behind my head.

The Stones of Scotland Monument
The Stones of Scotland Monument

Waiting for me at the hotel was a lovely surprise from my dear friend, Anam-Chariad, who loves Scotch even more than me... which is saying' sumpin'.



Our hotel had a view of Edinburgh Castle:

We hit the streets and started walking. We love seeing a city on foot and always find interesting places to go. Forgive the plethora of pictures of trees, but they fascinate me. Some views of Edinburgh Castle:

At the foot of the castle (which really is on this massive rock), is St. Cuthbert's Cathedral and cemetery. Totally cool and covered with moss and lichen ... but notice the daffodils blooming in January.

For a late breakfast, we stopped at the The Standing Order on George Street in the New Town area. For those of you who love Dorothy Dunnett, I so imagined she and her husband, Alistair, as the couple on the far left enjoying lunch and a bottle of wine. The food was delicious and reminded me how much I just love a full English breakfast. So much so I've started eating a full breakfast with homemade baked beans, eggs (today I actually had goose eggs from a friend's farm!), ham, toast, and tea. It certainly sticks to the ribs!

A few street scenes. The sun actually does shine in Scotland!

The gothic style monument to Sir Walter Scott:

Wow! Thanks for sharing pics, Laura. I'm not sure I'd seen Edinburgh Castle before, even though I've heard plenty about it. The pics didn't look familiar. And, I didn't realize it was so high up on a big hunk of rock. It's fun to be able to live vicariously through you since I have no idea when (or if) I'll get to Scotland myself.

My DH and I both enjoyed your pictures, thanks so much for Sharing!!

Wonderful pictures, Laura. Thank you for sharing your trip with us.

I love that first picture of you in the center of the stones with Holyrood behind you! I can't imagine that you've come down from Cloud 9 yet and hope that you found all of your OL and Lymond sites that you searched for in Scotland (well at least the Edinburgh ones). It must really make the books come alive for you. Thanks so much for sharing.

These are some great pictures Laura!
Thank so much for sharing with us...great trip, great weather...and i'm turning green...a bit, and not an environmentally kind of way.
Thank you again. I'll be visiting this thread often enough.

Great photos! I loved seeing Edinburgh Castle up on the rocks,,, don't I recall Claire talking about a long climb to E.Castle?? Thank you for sharing,Laura!
Raelin

Ooohhhhh! Thanks for sharing your pictures and observations. I can see the Scottish character reflected in the architecture and landscape: fierce, bold and proud yet beautiful, practical and very well formed. I've just described Jamie, haven't I?

You have described Jamie! For me, being in some place where the architecture is so old was humbling. There has been a castle on that massive rock since the 12th century. The castle is built at the apex of the rock, and the old city proceeded down the one main High Street and then off towards the sides in the 'closes' mentioned in Voyager, where Jamie's shop was located. The closes are really just small walkways -- or alleyways, if you will -- that run off the High Street. Some are long, while others simply enter into little courtyards. The city of Jamie's time was all on the top of that rock. When you see Edinburgh Castle and then Stirling Castle (I'll post those pics laters) you see exactly why these castles were built on massive rocks: for defensive purposes (an invader would have to climb those rocks to attack) and also the ability to see for miles and have plenty of time to prepare a defense.

So ... these next set of pictures go from the New Town (earlier pics) up the hill on Cockburn (pronounced 'Coburn') Street up to the High Street:



The offices for The Scotsman were on Cockburn. Alistair Dunnett, Dorothy's husband, was an editor at The Scotsman: