Tags
Edinburgh, Edinburgh Castle, Food, Gourmet Burger Kitchen, Royal Mile, Salted Caramel, Scotland, Scottish Flag, Smoked Applewood Cheese, St. Mary's Cathedral, Tesla, The Scotch Whisky Experience, Travel, West End Hotel, Whisky
This post picks up where my last left off, we’d just gotten to the hostel and were about to venture out yet again. Andrew was very invested in going on a Whisky tour offered in the city and I was rather curious as to what it would be like so while Devon went to the Edinburgh Castle, we went off to The Scotch Whisky Experience. On our way to the tour we passed a number of beautiful buildings which I of course had to stop and take pictures of. The most notable being St Mary’s Cathedral in the West End of the city. I’d have loved to go in but as we were on our way and weren’t sure of our time table we didn’t. Prior to seeing the cathedral we also found the opportune moment to take a picture of a Scottish flag!
Our walk to the Whisky tour took us to the base of the Edinburgh castle where I decided to take a few pictures since it was such a good vantage point of the castle itself! Not only did I take pictures of the castle but also of the beginning of the Royal Mile.
The whisky tour was rather fun. It started out with a “barrel” ride through a “factory” which was to show the process of making whisky. I admit I knew nothing of the process so it was highly informational and fun to see and experience it! Next after the barrel ride we went to the tasting room where we had an excellent tour guide who told us about the major players in whisky production across Scotland. We were given a scratch and sniff card of the four types that were offered and then told detailed information about each.
Andrew received the Highland (Yellow) kind while I opted for the Speyside (Blue) whisky. Both of which were the more mild of the available choices. These two in particular had hints of fruit and sweet flavors while the other two were more harsh. As it were I’m not cut out for whisky tasting I couldn’t quite pick out the fruity hints nor did I particularly enjoy the taste in general. It was very fun though and I did like looking at the collection and learning how to do the tasting itself! The collection here was reported to be the largest whisky collection in the whole of the UK I believe it was and I could see why!
These pictures were just a very small snippet of the huge collection amassed, some bottles were particularly unique such as the chess set! My other favorite was what looked to be a West Highland White and Scottish Terrier in bottle form! After the tour we met up with Devon and went exploring some more. We decided to walk down some of the Royal Mile this time after sunset and we found some more gorgeous buildings–no surprise there. From here we went on to a souvenir shop where Andrew had seen some Kilts for a decent price and it was our mission to get there before it closed otherwise he’d not have been able to get one!
The bottom two images were from the meandering walk to find the right shop, there were beautiful lights strung up on the pedestrian sectioned streets and we happened to find a Tesla dealer. If you know me you know that I’m 1)obsessed with “pretty cars” as I call them and 2) am especially obsessed with Tesla cars in particular! After securing the kilt we decided to grab dinner and call it a night. We went to the Gourmet Burger Kitchen which to me seemed quite overpriced especially since it was in pounds. I got a six ounce cheese burger with Smoked Applewood cheese and a salted caramel milkshake. Again, if you know me well, you also know that I’m quite taken with anything salted caramel so no surprise there on my flavor selection! To be quite honest, my favorite part of the burger was the cheese I wasn’t entirely impressed with the whole burger itself.
Once done we rolled to the accommodation on account of being overly stuffed. Promptly passing out after situating ourselves we woke at 7:30 and prepared to make it to the bus station by 8:45 for our day ride home. Well worth the bus ride there and back I’d recommend Edinburgh to anyone interested in beautiful architecture, history or unique experiences. I leave you with my going home selfie, hope you enjoyed reading about my Scotland excursion as much as I enjoyed experiencing it!