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The flat we are renting in Edinburgh is in New Town on Scotland Street. I was thrilled to discover after we arrived that Alexander McCall Smith has written a series of books called 44 Scotland Street. You may know McCall Smith as the author of the delightful book series about the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, which takes place in Botswana. Although McCall Smith was born and raised in Africa, he is a Scot and lives in Edinburgh. He wrote the 44 Scotland Street books originally as a daily serial for The Scotsman, an Edinburgh newspaper. They were so popular, he turned them into a series of novels. The characters are very quirky and engaging, and I’m loving reading about the neighborhood we’re walking through daily. What a bonus for a tour of the UK that is based on British literature! By the way, #44 does not really exist.

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We love how the architect incorporated the old building into the new.

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A view of New Town descending down to Leith, Edinburgh’s port, the Firth of Forth, and the Kingdom of Fife beyond the Firth. (Note: A firth is an estuary. This is the estuary where the Forth River meets the North Sea.)

Again, the National Monument, the Greek-style columns on the right, looks two-dimensional even in real life. We walked right up to the foot of the monument, and it still looked like it was cut out of cardboard. Maybe it’s the light….

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Do these photos look like a model train set to you? They were taken from Calton Hill, a brilliant vantage point for views not only of Old Town on one side, but also of New Town and the Firth of Forth on the other side. We were amazed at how unreal the scenery looked from the hill, but it looks even more so in the photos.

Holyrood Palace and its environs (above), nestled in the valley, look like they’re pasted onto a cardboard cutout of Arthur’s Seat and the Salisbury Crags beyond.

And where did those hills come from? One minute you’re deep in the heart of Edinburgh with nothing but old buildings and chimney stacks on the horizon, and then you climb this hill and suddenly Arthur’s Seat pops up behind the city reminding you that Scotland is not all stone and mortar.

Below: What looks like Edinburgh-in-miniature is actually life-size buildings in Old Town Edinburgh.
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Everything I’d ever heard about Edinburgh led me to believe it would be fantastic – the crown jewel of the United Kingdom, I had heard – but nobody had sufficiently explained to me why or how that was.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, I suppose, and what the beholder sees is totally subjective. One person may like the architecture, another the museums, and someone else may love the restaurants, but for me the truly amazing thing about Edinburgh is the scenery. It’s not just beautiful, it is truly unique and defies description. That amazing volcanic ridge they call the Royal Mile that runs downhill from Edinburgh’s castle to Holyrood Palace is like nothing I’ve ever seen in all my travels.

I had read so much about the Royal Mile – it is the heart of Old Town Edinburgh, after all – but somehow I never grasped that it rose above the rest of the city like the backbone of a prehistoric reptile with churches, museums, shops, restaurants, and all sorts of miscellaneous ancient stone buildings clinging to its sides, looking as if they’re about to slide off into the Princes Street Gardens.

Edinburgh Castle, the pinnacle of the Royal Mile, is on the western end of the ridge. I knew it was on a hill; I’d seen photos. But I had no idea how high that hill was. We saw the castle from the lowlands of New Town our first night. Yes, it was on a hill overlooking the city, but I couldn’t see anything below it in the dark; I had no perspective. Even in the light of the next day I didn’t have true perspective until I stood right below it and thought, We don’t really have to climb that mountain to see the castle, do we? Surely there was some funicular or at the very least bus service that transported tourists to the top. No one told me I would have to scale a mountain. Who knew?

Climb the mountain we did. Not nearly as bad as it looked from the bottom, thank goodness. The views from the highest point of the castle are truly spectacular – well worth the climb. And from up there I could see, as clear as day, what all the fuss is about.

(click or double click on photo to zoom & pan)

The people of Inverness love their sun sheds in their gardens. (We even saw bumper stickers that say “I love my shed”.) This one, on the property of the cottage we stayed in, is on a turntable so you can change its position to catch the sun at all times.

Thank you, Chrysanne and Jack, for having a French press in this adorable little cottage. And thank you, Marcus, for suggesting I buy evaporated milk to substitute for half-and-half. Now, I’m all for doing as the locals do (I did try haggis, after all), but they just can’t make decent coffee. And adding milk only dilutes it further and makes it gray and unappetizing. I am loving my Java Sumatra this morning!