UK 2022

We arrived in Dublin. The plane was so smooth, it was almost like sitting in the living room. We walked a long way to get to the next plane. At the Dublin airport, I had a blueberry muffin and a really terrible hot chocolate. The plane to Edinburgh was a 45 minute flight. When we arrived in Edinburgh, we departed to the tarmac to a bus that had the Edinburgh Tattoo on the sides!

While we waited for Joe's checked bag at the Edinburgh airport, I set up the mobile hotspot so that we would not be burning through our data from Verizon, which is very helpful. All of our phones could connect through wifi to this mobile hotspot.

We walked outside to find the tram that would take us to Edinburgh. We bought the tickets at the outdoor kiosk and boarded the tram. We got off at the West End stop in Edinburgh. We started seeing the giraffes that are in the city! The streets had a lot of garbage from all of the festivals going on. We later found out that there was a strike of the sanatation workers going on during the month long festivals. We walked down Kings Stables road to the Wilde Aparthotels. They took our bags since we cannot check in until 3:00 PM. They had an automated checkin system that was not recognizing my information. It turns out that I had to check in as Rogera. The breakfast that they had was overpriced.

We then started exploring Edinburgh. We left the main building of the Wilde Aparthotel and turned right down Kings Stable Road, and found an orange giraffe with Edinburgh Castle in the background. Stunning. We walked around, saw and heard a bagpiper. Tried going to Jolly Judge for lunch, but they were not open until noon. The Thistle Garden Cafe was open, but we moved on. We stopped at Deacon Brodie's Tavern, a place for a drink for the girls: a rum, cranberry, pineapple drink that they said was delicious. Watching the people and traffic is always fun. After a bit, we decided to go on a sightseeing tour bus, and rode around Edinburgh for an hour. Really impressive. Walked around the other side of the castle and saw the Walter Scott monument. REALLY tall and pointy.

All of this walking, and it being a bit after noon, we decided that we were getting hungry. Bertie's Proper Fish & Chips was right in front of us, so we went in and enjoyed a great lunch.

It was almost 3:00 PM, so we walked back to Wilde Aparthotels. The manager was the only one on, busier than a one armed paper hanger. She finally got our rooms straight and found all of our luggage that we left when we stopped earlier, as well as the bag that we sent ahead. Behind the main building was our apartment. Really nice. You have to leave the room key in the slot next to the door to keep the lights on. Weird, but it works. Turns out that all hotels in Europe have this to help save energy, since you can't leave the lights on if you are not there. All small touch panels to work the lights. We watched The Big Bang on the 43" TV. Getting hungry we wanted something simple. Walked down to the small market store that we first stopped in earlier on our walk. Found the yogurt that we had at the Wilde Aparthotels earlier, and small Ben and Jerry's chocolate fudge brownie ice cream. Gave Deb her water, then back to our place, room 005. After supper, we took a shower, then bed. We made it to a bit after 6:00 PM, so pretty good. I woke up at 9:00 PM, then slept until 4:30 AM. A great start to our stay in Edinburgh!