Earlier this month, Mrs R and I took a mini-break in Edinburgh. We got a few hours of sunshine on the day that we arrived and I managed to get a couple of nice photos of the castle. After that it basically rained non stop until we left, which, as I understand it, is the authentic Scottish experience. We still had a really great time though.

James and Mrs R posing in front of Edinburgh Castle on a sunny afternoon.

One of the few sunny photos that we managed to capture.

Things We Did

The Castle

We visited Edinburgh castle which was quite neat but it was raining heavily during our visit. The interior of the castle was really interesting. There is a regal banquet hall that felt like something straight out of game of thrones. Apparently Oliver Cromwell turned it into a cramped barracks. He installed 3 storeys of wooden floors in there which definitely would have spoiled it. It was then restored in the 1800s. From what I know about Cromwell, most stuff he did was questionable or flat out offensive so it didn't surprise me.

A building that looks a bit like a poo made out of metal - or maybe a spiral ribbon if you look closely

The views from atop the castle weren't super interesting due to the heavy rain and lack of visibility. However, On a good day, I'm told the view is spectacular.

I managed to photograph the building that looks suspiciously like a big poo. This building is locally known as "the jobbie" which is scottish slang for poo. Apparently, it's a shopping mall.

Our guide in the camera obscura said he was once berated by the building's architect when describing it as "the jobbie". Apparently it is supposed to be a ribbon. I suppose I sort of see it.

Camera Obscura

Edinburgh Camera obscura is really cool. In the 1800s a female optician and professor built this thing as a giant spying tool. It uses huge glass focussing lenses to focus light onto a white projection table. You can move the aperture around with a long wooden pole. It was effectively an early CCTV system. Our tour guide explained that she basically did this "for shigs" in high society Edinburgh.

The camera needs lots of light to work and we visited edinburgh on a particularly rainy day. Therefore, the picture wasn't that clear. Luckily, they simulated a sunny day using a digital projector and there were some stunning views. This was my second experience with a Camera Obscura. My first was at Aberystwyth Constitution Hill when I was at university.

An external shot of the camera obscura on a rainy day. It's a round tower with a hole at the top to let light in.

The Real Mary King's Close

This was a really interesting and informative attraction. When they built Edinburgh City Chambers, they decided to build it over the top of 4-5 streets that go downhill behind it. This meant using the existing streets and buildings for support. They chopped the roofs off some buildings and putting rubble and stuff on others to create a flat foundation. The original street is still there under ground and you can take guided tours around it. You can see some of the original architecture and even some of the possessions of 18th and 19th century Edinburgh people. It was very cool and very interesting.

cross sectional diagram of some buildings on a hill and buildings down a road that slopes down the hill
second diagram but this time there is a new building on top of the slope and the buildings that were there before have been chopped down or had junk piled on top of them to support the new building on top of them.

Really simplified diagrams of before (left) and after (right) the hall was built.

Our tour guide, Becca, was really fun and engaging. She was in character as a "Foul Clenger" from the plague times. These were people who went into the houses of dead plague victims and burned all of their belongings. We learned a lot about the black death epidemics in Edinburgh. Most interestingly, the plague doctor's uniform (that iconic look with the raven mask) protected them from the disease almost by coincidence. They were trying to protect themselves from "foul odors" and "miasmas" and coincidentally stopped the bubonic-plague carrying fleas from biting them.

National Museum of Scotland

The magnificent interior of the museum with huge glass windows and decorative iron supports

The National Museum of Scotland is a huge striking building in central Edinburgh. It's about 5 minutes walk from the castle and a perfect distraction in the rain.

We ventured around the museum for a few hours. They had lots of different exhibits focussing on natural history, modern science and engineering and anthropology. They had lots of fun interactive exhibits to play with like giant musical instruments and practical experiments.

It was a bit jarring seeing devices that I used to own, like the Nokia 3310 in the museum of technologies past. That's progress I guess!

Dining

We ate in two really lovely restaurants.

On the first night we went to Bertie's Proper Fish + Chips where I tried a proper scotch egg. There were a lot of Americans around trying the traditional British dish which was kind of neat. They did have battered mars bars on their menu but after my scotch egg and haddock and chips I was too full to try it.

A monster plate of fish and chips with a wedge of lemon and tartar sauce

On our 2nd night we were due to go and eat at an Italian restaurant but we were both super tired. Instead, so we stayed in our hotel apartment and heated up some store-bought ravioli. Not exactly the Italian experience we were hoping for but it filled a gap.

James and Mrs R sat in Nok's Kitchen in Edinburgh with a bottle of water in front of them on the table.

On our last night we went to Nok's Kitchen, an independently run Thai restaurant just next to the castle. On our travels we are rarely let down by an indie Thai restaurant and this was no exception to that finding. Nok's was really great and the staff were super friendly too.

The restaurant was quite small and it was completely full up the whole time we were there.

Final Thoughts

I really enjoyed our mini-break to Edinburgh. Despite the inclement weather we had a really great time. I found the people in Edinburgh, particularly those we interacted with in restaurants and tourist attractions to be super welcoming and genuinely passionate about what they do. This was refreshing compared to where we live in England where most staff in these industries are bored teenagers doing the bare minimum to get through their shift (and hey for minimum wage and without the tipping culture of the US, who can really blame them?) Edinburgh's residents seem to have a real pride in what they do. There is a national identity there that just isn't a thing in England and I found that really refreshing.

We will definitely try and get back to Edinburgh when it's not persistently raining some time in the summer. Not that anyone can make such guarantees in the UK/Scotland. If you are planning to visit Scotland in March, please do pack a good rain coat and some waterproof trousers. We saw a huge number of tourists wearing t-shirts under those disposable rain ponchos you get from theme parks. We assume that they probably paid through the nose for them at an Edinburgh tourist shop!