¶ Exploring Edinburgh in 36 Hours
Welcome to the UK Travel Planning Podcast . Your host is the founder of the UK Travel Planning website , tracey Collins . In this podcast , tracey shares destination guides , travel tips and itinerary ideas , as well as interviews with a variety of guests who share their knowledge and experience of UK travel to help you plan your perfect UK vacation .
Join us as we explore the UK from cosmopolitan cities to quaint villages , from historic castles to beautiful islands , and from the picturesque countryside to seaside towns .
Welcome to UK Travel Planning Podcast . This is episode 63 . This week . I'm really excited to be talking to Cheryl Ridpath Conway about her trip to Edinburgh Now . Cheryl appeared in episode 13 about her family trip to London and which is one of our actually most downloaded episodes .
So if you haven't listened to that episode , I do recommend that you download that and take a listen . But I'd like to welcome Cheryl back onto the podcast again . Welcome , cheryl Hi . It's so nice to see you again . It's lovely again to be able to chat with you and catch up with your latest trip over to the UK .
So first of all , would you like to start by introducing yourself , telling us who you went on the trip with , when you went and also just how long you went for , because it was quite short .
It wasn't very short . Okay , so I'm Cheryl . I am a stay-at-home mom from California . We have three teenagers . The oldest is going to NYU in a couple of weeks , the middle one is a rising junior , and then my I have a 13-year-old and my middle one is looking at colleges , primarily in the UK .
So her number one choice is University of Edinburgh , which is why we went just for a quick time .
They were my older two were with the school on a trip in Europe to London , paris and Beirut , so I picked them up in Beirut and then we sked out all the way over to Edinburgh , packed it all in and then we met my husband and other daughter in Dublin , spent two weeks in Ireland , oh , perfect , and that's why I thought this would be an excellent podcast
episode Actually chat to you about how you because you had 36 hours , is that correct ?
36 hours in Edinburgh , yeah , so so which is which is amazing that because you packed a lot in and I know you pack a lot into your , into your trips- my kids are like Mike the whole time .
I'm like come on people , we're burning daylight wheels up in five .
And you were there in June as well , so you got plenty of daylight .
Yeah , july .
July seven . Okay , so I was then yes .
Yes , because I was picking your brain about Dean's Village .
Yes , absolutely so . Okay , so it was yourself and your middle , middle daughter , middle and oldest , middle and oldest daughter who , in Edinburgh and the primary reason was looking at the university , which is solidified as number one .
Oh , that's so exciting .
So exciting .
If she can get in , yeah well , yeah , hopefully she will .
I'll put fingers crossed , that'd be great . And then you'll have to visit Edinburgh loads and loads of times and the rest of the UK loads and loads of times , which is exciting . Yeah , Okay , so that was the kind of background to why you weren't Edinburgh for because you went off to Ireland obviously after that for a couple of weeks , didn't you ?
So you did that two weeks trip round round Ireland . So , yeah , this was kind of like an add on so you could go and explore Edinburgh for your daughter . So that's great . So how did you decide what you're going to fit into those 36 hours to make the most of Edinburgh ?
Well , I posed the question on your Facebook group , like if you only had a day , and overwhelmingly everyone said the castle , the castle , the castle . So I knew I needed to fit that in .
So I looked at the times of the University of Edinburgh school tours , the campus tour , and then booked that first because that was our priority , and then I tried to get into the first time slot of the day for the castle but it was already booked .
So I got into like an 11 o'clock , which altered what I did there , because normally , similar to the Tower of London , where you be lining it to the crown jewels and then kind of explore I , since we're at 11 o'clock , I was already pretty crowded . We just decided to skip the crown jewels .
We had just seen them in London and I didn't want to wait in the two hour long queue . So , but that's always my first advice If there's something you really want to see booked the first time slot of the day , get there early for that pre queue and then beeline it .
Yeah , now , that's good advice and obviously , when you've got 36 hours as well , you have to prioritize what you want to do and see , as you say , even when you were there , kind of taking that , making that decision . And we're not going to see the crown jewels because we haven't got the time to wait for them . So what did you include in your itinerary ?
So obviously we're in the Edinburgh Castle .
Right . So it like , as you know , edinburgh is very small . So we were able to check a lot of stuff off the first night .
We were initially going to go to Arthur's seat but , we are plain , was delayed and it was raining and so it was like seven o'clock at night and we're like , let's just say that for next time , with God willing , she goes to school here . So we just checked a bunch of things off , like Gray Friar Bobby or Gray Friar Courtyard .
We were looking for the Writers Museum and we kept googling it and we are like this it says it's here , this is the address , where is it ? And then we realized you had to go through a little close and for your listeners that don't know , a close is like a tiny little alley in Edinburgh .
And then we walked through there and then there was the Writers Museum . So we were able to , like , check off a bunch of stuff . And we're big I think you remember this , but we're big Harry Potter fans . So we went to Gray Friar Kirkland .
So let me , I don't I'm assuming that people know what I'm talking about , but Gray Friar Bobby is obviously , as you know , that statue outside of Gray Friar Kirkland and he was a dog that in the 1840s or 50s he lost his owner and he sat and he watched his grave for 14 years .
So he was kind of adopted by the city of Edinburgh and then after he passed away they memorialized him with the statue and then behind him is the Kirkyard , the graveyard where the owner is , and there's also a lot of names you would recognize , like Potter , mcgonagall , tom Riddle .
So JK Rowling used to go through there and look for inspiration for when she was writing Harry Potter . So we went and saw like all those graves and it was great because it was kind of raining but not really . So the royal mile was empty , the graveyard was empty . So we got in the middle of summer these really like great pictures and so that was good .
But we had done the Harry Potter tour in London and then we went to Edinburgh and everything made more sense in Edinburgh . Like they were like , oh , this is in London . They're like this is the inspiration for Diagon Alley and I'm like , hmm , I don't really see it , but there , when you're on like Kindlemaker Row or whatever , you're like , oh , I see this .
You know you really can see the inspiration in Edinburgh magical .
She was living there when she started writing books as well , cause the elephant has caffeine . Elephant has , unfortunately , yeah , but there was a fire a couple of years ago . Doug and I were there in , I think , 2020 . And the fire , I think , was later on that year .
But what I didn't do , it was go to the bathrooms , which is where everybody said you should have gone , but unfortunately it's still not open . I'm not sure if there's going to be a date . I don't know . I keep trying to follow that to see if that opens up , cause that's where there was a table there where she sat and wrote the books .
Yeah , it was still closed when we went there . We got pictures on the outside but yeah , okay , so that was just . That was our first night . Like got some .
My kids I should also mention my kids have celiac disease , so when we travel , everything is around safe , gluten free restaurants and I know you've included stuff like on the afternoon teas about gluten free . So we had a list of restaurants that were not dedicated but safe , and we wound up not going to any of them because we went to all dedicated places .
But the first night we just went to a place called Fruits and got french fries . We stayed in a place called Residence Inn by Marriott , which is very , very central . It's like less than 10 minute walk to the university , less than 15 to the castle , so very central . And so the fry place was not closed , not far from there .
Okay .
But yeah , little tangent to food , but yeah , for celiac people there's a place called GF Cafe which was phenomenal , like fantastic . We got paninis that were amazing , like these chicken pesto paninis my daughter had like a walnut honey cake . A little out of the way , not in that main center , but definitely worth the trip .
The hours are not long , like nine to three-ish , but highly , highly , highly recommended for anyone going .
Okay , that's good to know and I'll link to that in the show notes as well . What time did you arrive ? What time did you leave ?
kind of the next day , it was like six seven PM at night on a Thursday , and then we left at seven AM on Saturday morning , so we basically just had Friday there . We had Thursday night to pop around . Rod Stewart was giving a concert when we were there . Oh so busy . Well , it would have been , I think , if it wasn't raining
¶ Exploring Edinburgh
. Yeah , but have you seen that structure on the castle ? Yes , they kind of build this really ugly structure coming off the castle , which is a sin because it takes away , I think , from the beauty . But the cool thing is just walking around the city we could hear Rod Stewart . Like Claire Zabel , I'm like I feel like I'm at a Rod Stewart concert right now .
So it's cool . Yeah , the build up for the Edinburgh Tattoo . So to start that in May , I think it is . We've been there May and of course then you've got all the noise of the bang and putting all the structure up , yeah , so that's there for the Edinburgh Tattoo . So we'll be there in December , january , so it won't be there .
But yeah , I know it's unfortunate , isn't it , when it's a bit ugly in front of the castle .
Right , yeah , because that castle we've been a lot of castles Like . We just went two weeks in Ireland . My kids at the end of Ireland were like I feel like Castle are our new church , because at the end of Italy they were so sick of churches . At the end of Ireland they're so sick of castles .
Yeah , but I do think the coolest one I've ever seen is Edinburgh , because it's like King Arthur-ish , like coming out of the ground . You know how it's like kind of built on that . What do you call it ? Balkanic vlog ? Yeah , balkan , thank you , yeah , it's that was so cool .
Oh it is , it is lovely and so fantastic . Walk up to it as well . When you walk up the Royal Mile , yep , that's a lovely walk and obviously you've got all those little closes off the Royal Mile as well . We've got great little , great names . I did a historic Royal Mile walk into in last time I was there well , 2020 .
I was there this year but unfortunately I got sick so I didn't do very much . But yeah , which was really interesting , kind of learning all about the history of those and the names of the closes and and yeah , that was , it was it's worth doing if you're there longer . So next time when you go , you definitely recommend to learn a bit more about the history .
I would like to do that .
Yeah , yeah , that way .
I was looking at our schedule and we had this one tiny gap because we had eaten , where I had like two hours free . I'm like , oh my God , how did I do this ? Two hours free , my schedule . So I'm like on my phone booking stuff and I wound up booking like a witch trials . Oh , yes , tour , really interesting content .
Yeah , delivery was a little weird , I have to say , because she was dressed like a witch and it was very clear she had a script , yeah , but she wasn't like a great actress when . I don't mean to be mean , but like so she would deliver this . Like , oh , I forgot to have something on me called Drin at home . I'm like , oh , okay , but really great content .
Yeah .
So like just clicked along the Royal Mile and was like , oh , the heart of midlothian , this boom , mary Queen has got this . Yeah , great content . So I actually highly recommend the tour . This is just be prepared . That's like a little hokey , yeah , yeah . Yeah , a little cheesy , but it's . It's called Edinburgh witches and history walking tour and I think it's .
I welcome tours , okay , but really great content .
Yeah , you get to learn something when you . Yeah , because it's the fact that history is fascinating . When you walk up there , you're like it's amazing , yes , what you find out . You're like , oh , it's all a bit gruesome . The weather wasn't great when you were . It was a bit was a bit rainy , as you say , but that night .
Yeah , oh yeah , just next day was gorgeous , oh , perfect , and that's typical UK weather . I do say that Everybody's like . You know . When we went to this year was the weather was lovely . When we're there , unfortunately , we're sick , but the last time we went in 2020 . Oh , I don't know . We've been so .
I think we were three times in the last three years , but in 2020 , I remember because we went . Oh no , it would be like it would be last year because it was May . So 2022, . We arrived on the Sunday . I got sunburned . It was that hot . The next day I'm covered head to foot with jump out scarf Raincoat .
I was freezing and it was pouring down rain entire day . The day before , beautiful sunshine . That's typical .
Yeah , that's what they say in Ireland you'll get all four seasons in one hour . And it was true . I was like , oh my , it was schizophrenic the weather , but it was cool .
Yeah , it's absolutely so . Did you , did , you did get to Dean village , because I know we're chatting about that .
Yes , so the Friday , which was their one full day there , we got . We started our day at 730am , yeah , and then we went .
We went straight to the Venil steps Do you know the Venil viewpoint , the Venil steps , which is the those stairs , and then at the top there's the best view of the castle in Edinburgh , yeah , and we just took like a bunch of selfies and then headed over to Dean village , which is absolutely beautiful .
But I think I hyped it up too much in my mind , like I had it . I don't know why .
I thought it was more of a destination place and it was just more like a place that if you went to you back , oh my , so pretty here , and because it really is so pretty , yeah , but I don't know that you would need to make it a priority , like I was doing , but I still think you should get there . You know what I mean .
You don't have to get up at 730 in the morning to go , like I did , but you should definitely walk by . And the people were so nice . Yes , we went to a little cafe there and just talk to people walking their dogs , like just really nice people .
Oh , that's good . Yes , we went . To honest , it was the first time that I'd visited . When I went to Dean village , because we always do all the main highlights and and I was like yeah it's very pretty . We went about five o'clock . Quite a lot of people there .
It's very popular now , people taking selfies and lots of pictures , but I did take some rather pretty pictures which I was really pleased with , which I will put in the show , and some of yours , obviously , some of your pictures . So then , after that , where did you head to ?
Then we went down to a place called Sugar Daddies , which is a gluten free cafe for breakfast , but we had a week till they open at 10 . So kind of hung out . They don't have any seating .
So we just got some like muffins and sat on a bench , eat them and then Be lined it to the castle , because we had 11 o'clock Entry time and the castle was sold out for the day . So it was really good that we didn't try and wing it when we got there .
So we went to the castle and , like I said , we skipped the crown jewels , but there's a lot of really other cool stuff there . Just the view from the castle is so pretty .
Yes , it's music yeah that tiny little chapel .
I can't remember which Royal it was , but you know what which one I'm talking about . There's this tiny little chapel and you walk in . It can fit like six people , but it's really cute . I do you .
I've got pictures of it , yeah , and I can't remember the name of it .
I can't remember either . And then there we went to see like the birthplace of King James , where Mary Queen of Scots had him in this Tiny little room .
Like I said , though , once you've Seen I hate to like minimize the history and the beauty of these things , but when you've seen one castle , when you've seen a hundred castles , you've kind you know they lose their Allure . I think a little bit .
Yeah , no , I agree , but there was , yeah , but it was just cool and , like I said , I just love the way that the castle is kind of built , coming out of the earth . I just , I just thought I had like a very Mitty roll , king Arthur . Yeah it's a lot feel to it , it's Excalibur . So after the castle , what did you head ?
So after then we went to the University of Edinburgh tour and so my one daughter went back to the hotel and I just went with my middle daughter and , yeah , really great , informative tour . It was one hour long .
It happened to be graduation I guess they do multiple rounds of graduation , so it was kind of cool to see the students in their their outfits , but just really solidified that she wants to go there . We also visited Trinity College in Dublin and the University of Galway and We've obviously done a bunch in the US and she saw American University of Paris .
But this was like it was the town , it was the University , just everything about it . It's just really cool . Oh , that's so exciting , but it's like 16th in the world , I think it's it's Princeton and Yale Bookend it in terms of the world list . So it's very hard to get into and so that was our main purpose in the trip . So then we did that .
Then we went to that cafe that it's called the GF cafe that I told you about , and Then after that we went to back to the University area and there's a
¶ Highlights of a Trip to Edinburgh
gluten-free food truck kind of thing . It's all crepe . It's called I don't even know how to pronounce it tough and Quinn , but it's got savory crepes if you wanted like a steak one or something like that , but we just got the lemon and a nutella . But anyone who has Celiak was gluten-free . There's a really great crepe truck dedicated .
Then we had this weird little break , which which I never have a little break . I don't know why I did this . So then , like I said , I scheduled this witch torque , which was great . It started at St Giles and then just went along the Royal Mile . So , like I said , I was only like an hour along .
Each stock was just a couple minutes and full of really great content . Really interesting , really great content . Little odd delivery , but I think that's just subjective of who . Which guy do you get ? Because yeah , yeah .
They probably have ten guides there , and it's just depending on their ability but um , yeah , but whoever wrote that script did an excellent job because it's it's really great content and we were just like my kids get overwhelmed with information sometimes because I send them on a lot of tours or we do tours , but so it was like but my main goal was talking about
the witches , and then Mary Queen of Scots and the which . This one it's like half-hanging Maggie is it ? Have you heard that story ? This bay hung this woman for witchcraft she was and then Took her body down and like her friends wanted to bury it . So they took the body away and then she like started breathing again .
They hadn't had broken her neck yeah , kind of morbid turn but so she was alive and she lived and they couldn't try her again for it . Oh , I guess you can't be tried again twice for the same thing . So she lived like another 50 years and was like half half hung Maggie or some , I forget her name , but something like that .
Oh , it's fine , that's interesting . Yeah so it was all these little little yeah , things that you remember , which I , yeah , yeah . I always think if I can retain 10% of what I hear , then I'm a lot better off than I was .
Oh yeah , absolutely oh .
Okay . And then after that we shopped along like Candlemaker Row and then we did eight to nine . We did real Mary King's clothes , yeah , yeah , which was very interesting . Yeah , okay , again with the haunted . I think if Edinburgh is the most haunted place , then this particular spot is like the most haunted in Edinburgh , right , yeah , yeah .
And then there's this bedroom , which is this bedroom that a psychic in the 1990s went to go in and couldn't enter because it was so anguish filled . Yeah , and it turns out it was a little girl named Annie who had gotten separated from her doll . So the psychic brought a doll and now the spirit is like content .
So all these people bring dolls for the girl , and there's like a hundred , two hundred dolls in this little room .
Oh , wow , I'll have to add that to my itinerary , for in December , I forget , or January probably January we will be in Edinburgh . I'll get a little bit scared . I'll get a little bit scared .
I know it wasn't bad , though it was more also the plague stuff . It was a lot of the plague focused because it decimated Edinburgh , the last round of the black plague . So then I get like is it still in the air ? You know , like that I get more worried about than a spirit .
Yeah , no , for sure . So that was kind of a full day then , was it ?
That was our full day and then we left at like seven . Then it's done . We do photo shoots everywhere we go and as we're walking out of this one , someone near shot my daughter was like hey , mom , look , and it was people dressed like , you know , vikings or whatever . And I was like , oh my God , let's do it . And they're like no .
And I'm like why did you show it to me then ? And they refused to do it , this photo shoot . Then we saw this guy I'll send you his picture who had like the blue face , like Braveheart and he was dressed fully as the and he had props like swords and stuff . I'm like , hey , can I take a picture with you ?
And we're like sword fighting and my kids are like , oh my God . And he's like I know you , father . So you got your pictures . I got my pictures , yeah , and he was like right outside the Royal Mile , like by that entrance I mean outside the castle on the . Royal Mile near which as well .
Okay , so that's cool . So you got your pictures . Now you like to have your pictures taken , which is lovely . Wherever you go , your family shot , yeah , still , one of my favorite pictures ever is the one of you guys in London at oh , the Beatles walk . Oh , the Abbey Road , abbey Road . That's it my head . Yeah , abbey Road .
That's such a cool picture that you guys are taking , so it's in the show notes for episode 13 . Anybody wants to see that . My kids are good sports . They really are . They really are . It was really good . So how did you get ? Because obviously you you flew in and flew out of Edinburgh , so how did you get from the airport into the city ?
Okay , so you picked that up outside the station , because we get asked that all the time .
Yeah , we didn't pre-book anything , and so we just grabbed a cab right there and then walked everywhere in the city Perfect .
Okay , brilliant . So I'm going to ask you the one tip that I ask anybody that I've chat to on the podcast , and this is the one for you , cheryl . So what would be your one tip for anybody planning a trip to Edinburgh for the first time ?
I would say prioritize what you want to do and then pre-book , pre-book , pre-book , Because I don't know if it's post-COVID or what , but you cannot go somewhere and just wing it . The castle was sold out for the day when we were in Amsterdam . Rijksmuseum and Van Gogh were sold out .
Everywhere we have gone in the last couple of years , all the popular places are sold out .
That's a great tip , to be honest , because you just can't wing it . You can't wing it these days , really , for popular places . You just can't go and get to London and think you're going to get to Westminster I'll be on the same day or Tower of London , or it's just you're going to be disappointed .
Yeah .
So we say that all the time If there's something that you really want to do , you want to say you need to book it as soon as you know you're going in and you've got a big idea of what your timetable is going to be , what your days , then prioritize and get those things . We can plan everything else around it if you need to . Yep .
And I asked my kids because I saw this question what was your favorite thing or the highlight of the trip ? Oh yeah , because for me it's always the architecture , especially in a place like Edinburgh where it's so unique .
So I asked my kids what their favorite thing was and they both said the Venom steps , which I thought was an interesting thing because it's A it's free and B it's not that crazy . But they're really into Instagram and stuff . So they just took like a hundred pictures of each other with their poses ?
I can imagine , yeah , so that would be perfect place to get that shot for Instagram account .
Yeah , if you have teenage girls , you might want to check that out . Take them there , absolutely .
Okay , well , cheryl , thank you so much for coming on the podcast again and talking about your trip to Edinburgh . I'm hoping that you're going to get there for longer next time . Yeah , but you certainly packed a lot into your 36 hours though .
Yeah , I really wanted to do the Harry Potter train .
Yeah , yeah , jack-o-bite .
Yeah .
Good fun that is . It's lovely , and get up to Fort William and Glencoe and yeah , it's one of my favorite places in the entire world , without a doubt , and I've traveled a lot and it's still still get the call back there all the time . It's funny you have that , don't you ? But it's really exciting .
So hopefully you'll get back to Scotland for a longer trip sometime soon and then we can talk about that on the podcast as well .
Yes , I know , and if you expand to Dublin or Ireland ? So I've got a lot of notes on .
We have got an episode about Ireland , so I'm happy to talk about visiting Ireland . The
¶ Visiting Ireland and UKTravelPlanning.com Episode
public of Ireland Definitely Obviously not in the UK , but a lot of people will visit London and then or Edinburgh and then pop over to Dublin and do a trip . So , yeah , we can always have a chat about doing that , but for this episode just want to say a huge thank you for that . Thank you , it's so good to see you . Thanks , cheryl .
You can find the show notes all of everything I've talked about in this episode with Cheryl in the show notes for this episode , which is at UKTravelPlanningcom board , slash episode 63 . We have some other episode information about Edinburgh on the website and also in episode I think it was 58 or 59 of the podcast .
You can find more and more about Edinburgh where we share our tips . But for this week that's just a way to say happy UKTravelPlanning .