Our last full day in Scotland was a bit of a lazy one – our tour began at 10AM along the Royal Mile and went up to the castle, so we had a late-ish breakfast before heading to our rooms, preparing to leave, and heading off back into the old city. We walked up, found our tour guide in the square by the church we passed on our first tour of Edinburgh, and got going. Finding the right tour guide was a bit of an issue – there are a great deal of tours taking off from that square, but we figured it out after asking around and got signed in and with our group. There were probably twenty of us or so, and our tour guide, Jack, warned us almost immediately that this tour was, in his words, “entirely uphill”. He was right, of course, from that moment until the very last tour stop… we were walking to the top of the castle.
We left from the square and walked up the street towards Edinburgh Castle. I’ll be honest – there’s a great deal of history here and I’m going forget most of it – but it was cool to hear this was the “most attacked” castle in all of the United Kingdom. I believe they said it had been besieged 26 times over the years! There are some great stories of how that happened, who took the castle and how (including an ex-guard to used to sneak down to see his girlfriend leading a group of locals back in to take the castle once upon a time!). We learned about all of that, including the true stories of William Wallace and Robert the Bruce – which are… let’s say ‘less sexy’ that the Hollywood versions we’re more-familiar with in the United States. It was a great and informative tour!
We started off at the entry to the case. Originally, we were told, there was no front entry like what’s seen today – but when the Queen of England visited she refused to enter the castleĀ – so the Scots built a ‘front gate’. This would actually be a theme of sorts for the day – some British royalty not liking something about the castle – and the Scottish people doing a bare-minimum job of ‘fixing’ the issue – like the canons placed on the wall. They’re ship cannons – but since the Queen didn’t know that the Scots just placed them on the castle when asked since “real castles have cannons”.
How many of those stories are true, versus how many were just taking cheap shots at the British? I’ll let you decide. I think it could go either way!
Walking up to the castle – the metal scaffolds you see around the castle on either side are temporary bleachers for concerts and a military parade
On the way up to the castle
The cafe, and our tour guide, Jack
You can kind of see the cannons in the background here… the face… the ‘new’ half of town of Edinburgh.
We kept on walking up, and up, and up. The castle, of course, isn’t just one building – but lots of buildings – still though this is an active ‘base’ with some barracks and a leader who lives on site and runs the military outpost. I even got a picture of his private, but full-time residence within the castle walls.
Keep on walking up!
The private residence for the military leader of the Castle
Still going up the hill! turn left!
Near the top of the Castle, now with a liquor store!
Finally, at the top of the castle, we learned more about the history of Scotland and their Crown Jewels – a trio of crown, scepter, and sword. They are stored in the castle (we didn’t bother to try to stay and see them, we were running short on time and it didn’t have a great deal of draw for us that morning). They were bricked away at one point to avoid destruction both from enemies within and without Scotland, but were ‘rediscovered’ later and put on display permanently in Edinburgh Castle.
The below pictures are from the square at the top of the Castle, where our tour ended. Jack wrapped up with some stories of Mary, Queen of Scots (a lot of which we heard on Monday and I already shared here or linked to). He then set us free to do as we pleased – and so we stopped by the Edinburgh Castle Liquor store on the way down the hill… and got some Edinburgh Castle whiskey. I haven’t tried it yet – but if it makes it home I’ll let you know how it is in the wrap-up.
The “National Animal” for England is the Lion, the National Animal for Scotland is a Unicorn – both guard Edinburgh Castle.
We headed out, and back down into town to get out of the driving, chilling wind (it was cold in Edinburgh today, you can see all the coats and long pants!)
And at least as far as the blog goes… that was kind of the end of today’s travel stories. My niece has a friend that lives in Scotland, and so they went to go meet them once they came in on the train – and I took the time to catch up on previous blog posts (I’m trying to stay close to real-time this trip, it’s… not working). I did venture out for lunch and walk around a bit, but ended up back at the hotel and ate a late in-room dining (steak frites again) after being turned away from three restaurants that couldn’t seat me for one for lunch. I wasn’t sad – the steak was great and it was good to have time to blog. I also did get a few photos – including the Scott Monument I mentioned on Monday.
I also stopped by the Royal Bank of Scotland – I’ve worked with them professionally for years – so it was fun to walk briefly on their property to get a picture of the cool fence, and architecture!
I packed, got ready to leave, and planned for our full day of flying the next day. We’d leave Edinburgh in the early morning, fly to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (USA), and then continue on down to Orlando, Florida (USA) for the next leg of our trip. And that leads me to….
Day 10 – Leaving Edinburgh, an American Airlines Fiasco of a Day
The title for this one might be a little tongue-in-cheek, but bear with me as I regale you with the tale of our day. It started out well enough with one more breakfast at the Balmoral. It was delicious, of course – the staff friendly. They even stopped us to say things like “Ah this is your last day isn’t it? We’ll miss you!” – which was a good touch. I doubt they will, I’m sure they have lots of guests of course, but it was a great way to make us feel welcome and feel special. Seriously – if you can stay at the Balmoral in Edinburgh… do so. It’s a fantastic experience from a hotel, maybe the best I’ve ever had – and I’ve stayed in a LOT of hotels.
Oh! And we saw the J.K. Rowling suite!
We got to the airport on time, and immediately we began having issues. First – we weren’t able to check in online. This isn’t abnormal given how the trip was booked. It’s a long story, but our party is split across two reservations for cabin reasons, and American Airlines had actually cancelled our flight the day before. I called the travel agency that booked our flights yesterday night about that (while enjoying my steak frites) and they got us rebooked. I think American either just redid the flight number and screwed up their system… or potentially smashed two planes that were half-full into one full plane. I’m not really sure. Add that to the fact that our reservation showed Denver to London, Edinburgh to Philly, Philly to Orlando – with no explanation of how we got from London to Edinburgh (we had a *different* flight reservation number), and I get why the airline had some questions.
And that’s fine. We went to the American Airlines check-in counter… and by the time we got through and had all five passes we went from being the middle of the check-in line to the very last people waiting for boarding passes. First mine wouldn’t print, then they could check in the first leg (Edinburgh to Philly) but not the second. My niece and I are on one reservation, and neither of us got booked on our second flight. Somehow, however, the other reservation worked for the rest of my sister’s family so they were booked all the way through. Again, not such a big deal – inconvenient but it just meant we’d have to check in *again* in Philly for our Orlando flight. Luckily these days with some of the airport improvements over the years this isn’t too bad a process… but it’s annoying.
We got to the plane, and even though our tickets were booked months ago and our travel agency had re-confirmed them the day before, and the fact that we were printed boarding passes with seats together… the airline decided at the gate that seats needed to be changed. Who did they move, rows away and sitting by themselves? My six year old nephew. They were going to have a six year old (who they clearly know is six. Remember… this is an international flight with passports required before boarding) sit by themselves away from his family. I almost wish we’d let it happen – I don’t think anybody would have enjoyed that flight. Luckily my brother-in-law was able to move thing around through the graciousness of other passengers, but the gate agents said it wasn’t their fault and to ask the flight attendants – and of course the flight attendants blamed the gate agents. Given that the changes were made post check-in, it was the gate agents. Someone complained louder, or whatever they did, and this was the result. It was extremely disappointing to see American Airlines create a problem that we were then required to fix by making it inconvenient for everyone. OH! Did I mention the entire way through Edinburgh Airport we never did see our flight listed – only the cancelled one? Yeah, we had to ask around to find out what gate our plane was flying out from – nobody ever updated the boards. Once again – Thanks American Airlines for all the help.
But okay, that’s not the end of the world. We got to Philly, and our next flight was delayed – which was good. We could go check in. We got in line at the service counter in Philly to get checked in… only to find out the gate agent in Edinburgh had ‘done it all wrong’ according to the customer service people in Philly. Somehow she’d modified our flight plans. Luckily our seats were still booked, so they re-chained everything, and after another unnecessary 30 minute delay and effort on our parts to straighten out something American Airlines did wrong… we were all checked in for Orlando.
I forgot to take a picture right away – but chicken n’ waffles at the Philadelphia airport- with basil butter!
We made the flight just fine, took our seats, and landed in Orlando. It was hot, we were tired. It was midnight essentially our time – but all we had to do was get our luggage and get a rental car. We waited patiently by the baggage claim carousel… and our bags never came. Flight after flight came and went – no bag. Forty minutes later than we should have seen our luggage, we asked for some help on locating our bags… at which point we were told there was some confusion in Philadelphia – and some bags from our flight ended up on a later flight, and some bags for the later flight arrived early. Just be patient, they told us, and our bags would arrive in another 45 minutes.
I guess I’ll give them credit when they’re right – our bags sure did arrive with the later aircraft – almost two hours after our flight landed. Thanks once again, for a final time, American Airlines. I hope to never, ever, fly with you again. I’ve never had so many screw-ups in one day from one airline. I am shocked we made it, I’m shocked our overall experience was so ‘pleasant’ from a person/people perspective – because wow. Just wow. I’m not sure how more inept that day could have been without the potential to risk lives – okay maybe that’s overly-dramatic… but if this is the level of care you put into our luggage and people processes… I’m very afraid for the level of care you put into everything else.
The car rental was smooth, we’re driving around in a Jeep Wagoneer! (I had talked my way out of one… I’m sort of reversing that decision this week – they’re fun to drive!) We made it to the hotel, checked in, and dropped hard into bed to sleep. It was a long, long day. Tomorrow we head to Universal Studios, Florida, and the Wizarding World of Harry Potter!
