London-Edinburgh Vacay Days 4-5

 

Good Thursday evening, my friends.  This has been a very long day.  And I have been quite unproductive which probably made it feel longer.  I did get 10K steps, though, so I guess maybe I did more than I realize.  

Today I am sharing Days 4 & 5 of our London-Edinburgh trip.  According to Ancestry.com I am a whole lot English and Scottish and a little bit Irish.  I was excited to travel to Scotland and was not disappointed.  What an enchanting country!!  Proud to be Scottish.

London-Edinburgh Day 4

This was Wednesday, 04.30.2026.  We slept  like champs again in our tiny room at the Z Hotel Covent Garden.  Packed up everything to head to the train station for our journey to Edinburgh.  Once again I was thankful that PC had insisted we travel with just carry-on luggage.  Dragging a couple of big suitcases would have been cumbersome.

I wore a blue floral short-sleeved tee shirt, my denim jacket and my trench coat, these Lee jeans - extremely comfy and hiking boots.  

The countryside rolling by outside our window was green and yellow and lovely.  We learned that the yellow crop was rapeseed or canola which was growing all over England and Scotland.  Made for pretty pictures.

The train let us off at Haymarket Street which was a very short distance from our hotel, the Bonnie Hotel.  PC did such a great job getting us from point A to point B and arranging for accommodations that were very much centrally located.  

This was our favorite hotel of the trip.  The room was considerably larger than Hotel Z in London.  It had a window - but with a view of an alley, parking lot and a bunch of construction or farming equipment like wheelbarrows, shovels, tarps in which a family of rats had made a cozy home.

That armoire was actually a little kitchenette with a stove, microwave, sink, dishes and a small refrigerator.  

Once we were situated in our room, we headed out exploring.  We walked past the Edinburgh Castle which was built on volcanic rock in what is now called the 'Old Town.' Found ourselves on Victoria Street where there were lots of interesting shops and restaurants. 

See all that white against the buildings on the far right?  Behind it was scaffolding where restoration efforts are being made.  We saw this over and over in both Edinburgh and London.  These buildings are so old and require attention so they can be enjoyed long into the future.

We were able to talk a closing cafe to allow us to purchase a quick bite before they locked up for the day.  The view was lovely outside the cafe window.  Couldn't help but think of Mary Poppins and Dick Van Dyke as the chimney sweep with the chimneys on all of the buildings.

After our little snack, we walked up Victoria Street taking in all of the unique shops and pretty shop windows.

The window displays at Tweed Luggage featured such beautiful clothing.  One of the mannequins wore a tartan plaid bowtie with a button down white blouse.  I was smitten with the look and had to go inside to check prices but they exceeded my budget.  Dad gum it.  

aren't those cute?

We headed toward St. Giles Cathedral which was our meeting place for an Edinburgh-Dark Tour.  

While waiting for the tour guide and rest of the group to show up, I ducked in the church to light a candle.  I have so much to be thankful for.

The tour took us down The Royal Mile to about a dozen different historic points of interest.  Apparently the door and building below were used in the "Outlander" series which was largely filmed in Scotland.  Do you recognize this building?

The buildings in Edinburgh were built so close together that there is little space between them.  In some cases, alleyways called 'closes' lead from the main street, The Royal Mile, to smaller streets and courtyards behind buildings.  I found them charming.

The tour ended in the cemetery behind Canongate Kirk or church.

Was surprised to discover we had walked 12K steps after being on the train from London to Edinburgh for over 4 hours.  The day before we had walked over 20K steps so we were glad to sit for awhile on the train.  We treated ourselves to a bus ride back closer to our hotel.  Pretty much fell into bed!!

Edinburgh Day Five

Today was Thursday, 05.01.2026, May Day, which was actually a holiday in the UK.  We did something PC was especially excited about doing...an excursion to and boat ride around Loch Ness.  I was worried that our sunny weather would not hold as we traveled into the Scottish Highlands but it was a beautiful spring day.  Decided to wear my pale yellow sweatshirt with a white turtleneck underneath, the same Lee jeans, these Skecher max cushioning tennies and my rain jacket.  

Our tour bus was a 16-person Mercedes van, so very comfortable.  And our tour guide/driver was full of interesting trivia and bits of history.  The first stop was Loch Lubnaig.  We spent a few minutes walking along the lakeside and indulged in cocoa and Chai tea, and 2 sausage rolls.  

It was a little chilly to start the day so our warm drinks hit the spot.  The lake water was crystal clear, cold and picturesque.

The drivers/guides for each of the tours we took were very considerate about providing participants with comfort breaks every 60-90 minutes.  The pictures below were taken at our next break.

the ground was very uneven here so we were holding each other up

Alistair, our kilt-wearing and retired history professor tour guide

Next Stop Loch Ness

I think we had picked up sandwiches and chips from a little shop near the hotel in the morning for our lunch during the excursion. We had about 30 minutes to eat and explore before our Loch Ness boat ride.

another day of glorious sunshine

The lake was deep and blue.  

And guess who we saw??????

Yup, Nessie!!!

windows on the boat had decals in the shape of the Loch Ness monster, so fun

We had purchased a Nessie for our grandson Declan so took it with us on our tour.  

We had a few minutes to walk around the village of Drumnadrochit.  It was charming, with a canal and locks dividing the village.  

And there was a bookstore I would love to have visited but alas, no time.  We took pictures of bookstores and libraries all over the country!!

Our time at Loch Ness was actually less than 90-minutes so we really didn't get a chance to do much exploring.  That was the one complaint we would have had about all of the tours.  The comfort breaks were generous and important but they cut into the time we were allowed to visit the main point of interest for the excursion.  

Back on the van and heading back to Edinburgh, our next comfort stop took us to a World War II monument with snow-capped mountains in the background.  I love the contrast of the daffodils with the snow - a bit of winter with spring.  

At our last stop, we were able to meet and greet some Scottish Highland cattle.  Alistair, our guide, had purchased some apple to feed them then he gave the apple to me. Which almost resulted in my being speared by one cow's horns when I wasn't feeding it fast enough for its liking.  

We arrived back in Edinburgh about 6:30 pm.  Decided to walk up The Royal Mile in hopes of finding somewhere to eat.

We had to climb up this incredible set of stairs to get up to The Royal Mile.  Proud to say neither of us suffered a heart attack while doing so.

Popped into Burgers & Beers for dinner.  

PC caught me mid-bite in the picture below.  He loves hamburgers so was glad to have a taste of home.  

We were exhausted by the time we hopped on a bus for the short ride 'home' to our hotel  Ended the day with over 21K steps.  What a wonderful day!  

I had thought I would share more than just 2 days of our trip in this post but with all the photos, I think I better quit here.  At this rate, I might get posts for all of our 12-day trip written by Christmas!!

Your Turn

This is really the first time I have written about a trip we've taken in any detail.  I appreciate all the comments left on my first post about this London-Edinburgh vacation.  If you missed it, find it here.  

Have you visited Edinburgh?  If so, what did you think?  If not, is it on your radar for a future trip?  I just loved the city.  

Off to bed.  The grandgirls spent the night on Tuesday and I am still recovering tonight, Thursday.  Ha!!  Boy, did I sleep well Wednesday night.  I was so tired.  Being a Gabba requires a lot of energy.  

Thank you for visiting today.  Please let me know in the comments if you enjoy vacation posts.  I never thought about sharing our trips before.  Wondering if I should do more posts like this.  

Hugs and kisses,