Scotland Road Trip: Edinburgh (Day 1)
Edinburgh is a great place to visit and boasts of some of the finest sandstone buildings in Europe.
UPDATED: 2/5/2023
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We arrived at Edinburgh Airport around 11:30am after an overnight flight from Washington-Dulles. After picking up a rental car from Hertz, we terrifyingly adjusted to driving on the left side as we left the airport for downtown Edinburgh, about 25 minutes away. The roads leaving the airport were strewn with signs reminding tired, weary travelers that they should drive on the left side, and I can only imagine how prone to accidents areas like that must be. Dustin ended up being the sole driver for the entire trip. As you can already tell – we survived!
We checked in early to our accommodating AirBNB on York Place, in the New Town portion of the city after a bit of confusion in finding the back alley entrance that resulted in multiple circlings around Saint Andrews Square, a wrong-way turn, and a brief stint as a car-as-tram driving on the tracks.
Often described as some of the finest stone buildings in all of Europe, the stone that makes up the bulk of Edinburgh’s Old and New Town buildings was quarried right here in Edinburgh.
The main part of the city of Edinburgh is comprised of the West End, Old Town, and New Town, descriptive in their origins. The entirety of our time was spent in New Town and Old Town. New Town, where we stayed, is on the more northern side of town and was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1999. New Town was an early planned city expansion, originally suggested by King James VII and II (he was the VII in Scotland, the II in England), and built when the Old Town was at capacity. To prevent the wealthier citizens from leaving the city altogether, they decided to expand and create a new grid-designed part to the city. The first main portion of New Town was completed by 1820.
Satiated, we decided it was time to do some walking and exploring! We walked about 1.5 miles across town to the Royal Botanic Garden . The route gave us a chance to explore some of the city, get a sense of the stone prevalent in much of the architecture, and wander through King George V Park where parents, children, and dogs played and enjoyed the summer weather.
After meandering our way back through the city, we stopped briefly at the Sainsbury’s grocery store near Saint Andrews Square for some basics, got a glimpse of the impressive Sir Walter Scott Monument , which is easily the largest monument in the world to any writer, and saw our first quintessentially British red phone booth.
The Visitors Center of the Royal Botanic Garden contains educational exhibits, and of course, a gift shop.
Inside the many greenhouses are plants not suited to the climate of Edinburgh.
Happy orange puff ball flowers!
Plants grow over stone walls in the Arctic Garden section of the Royal Botanic Garden.
Branches and leaves from the Araucarua araucana, aka Monkey Puzzle Tree, probably one of the most interesting/strangest looking trees I’ve seen.
If I were a hummingbird these flowers would look delicious!
Take a peaceful stroll through the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. What a great way to detox from the annoyances of air travel. And check out that hedge!
I think my (Dustin’s) favorite area was the Alpine Garden. These plants thrive in some of the harshest ecosystems on the planet.
Grown on rocks and rocky soil arctic plants are adapted to grow where others plants cannot.
There are many flowers at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh that are super cool! Of course they don’t bloom year round so plan your visit accordingly.
Topped with foam from a nearby waterfall this pond looks like a pleasant place to live… if you are a frog.
The Royal Botanic Garden has a maze of paths, and distinct garden areas. We explored nearly every path within the park and continue to have an interest in visiting botanical gardens on our travels - they’re such a good window into the uniqueness of each area’s climate, geology, and plant life. A few of the most notable aspects of this garden were the alpine garden, the gigantic hedge, and a unique copse of trees that look straight out of a Dr. Seuss book.
The alpine garden helped us to understand how resilient plants are to survive and thrive in cold, rocky terrains. This helped lay the groundwork for what we would see out in the wild during our many hikes. The hedge, which is over 110 years old, stands at about 26 feet high (slightly taller than an average two-story house) and over 500 feet long (about 1/10th of a mile). Made up of 158 beech trees, the only way to truly get a sense of its size is to stand near it.
Edinburgh is a pleasant city to walk through with interesting things to see around every turn. This is just a gate to someone’s house.
For dinner, utterly exhausted after no sleep in almost a day, we went the easy, reliable route and returned to The Conan Doyle. This go-around, we both opted for fish and chips, Dustin trying the version with scampi. Because what is dinner in a pub without a beer, I tried their local Holyrood IPA, which was delicious, and Dustin wrapped up his meal with a Belgian Chocolate brownie for dessert.
This is the approximate route we walked on our first day in Edinburgh and doesn’t account for the extra mile or more we covered while in the Royal Botanic Garden itself.
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Check out our other posts about Scotland:
Ready for more Edinburgh?
Our second day in the city is jam-packed with some of our favorites from our time there.