After breakfast at the hotel (where they were a little snooty to be honest), Mei and the kids and I went to Edinburgh Castle while Stephen had a speech to give at The Balmoral hotel. We could've spent much more time here! The outer entrance to the castle was set up with bleachers, which we found out was for the Military Tattoo in August. Apparently this is a major event! As we explored the castle, we found that it was a good idea to ask questions of the red jacketed people stationed around because they had some great stories. One guy told us about a 70 year old man who came to him asking about the prison (which we were also looking for), turned out the old guy had been imprisoned in the castle in WW2, had escaped, got drunk, couldn't climb back in, napped outside the castle, and knocked on the gate to be let in the next day! Told with his expressive face and fantastic accent, the story was captivating! We walked around the battlements (with lots of canons), explored the prison display, a few military museums, and looked out over Edinburgh and into the former gardens.
After our morning at the castle, we headed to The Balmoral to meet Stephen. Instead of going out for lunch we ended up grabbing a light meal of the food provided for the speech attendees! Thanks to Stephen's local contact, we were able to arrange a visit to JK Rowling's suite at the hotel. It's got a purple door with an owl knocker, her books are in the shelves and an old manual typewriter on the desk. This was a very special treat!
In the afternoon, we got tickets for the hop-on hop-off bus to get a view of more of the city. We stopped at the Palace of Holyroodhouse, which is the Queen's official residence in Edinburgh. We lucked out in that she was planning a visit the next week, and we wouldn't have been able to visit. The rooms are of course spectacular, but the palace also has a very old abbey in ruins which was really cool. After our palace visit, we got back on the bus to see the rest of the city, but missed a stop we should've got off on and had to make a mad dash for the hotel for check out! From the hotel, we took a short walk to the tram that would take us to the airport for our third rental car of the trip. This time, a short drive took us to Dunblane, where we stayed at a beautiful old hotel on a hill that used to be a Victorian Spa.
After a long day, we had dinner at the hotel restaurant, which boasts a celebrity chef (Nick Nairn) and farm-to-table local fare. Stephen and I had old fashioneds with a whiskey, Talisker, that tasted like charcoal! It was delicious!
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