Scotland, Edinburgh and the Wee Palace

On our last morning in York we walked across the street from our apartment to a very popular cafe for a quick breakfast before heading to the train station.

The Pig & Pastry is ALWAYS crowded with York locals for good reason. We arrived just as the doors opened for the day and within ten minutes the place was packed. We had secured a table so we were pretty smug as we watched people jostling for position for the last couple of empty chairs.
We ordered a couple of their famously messy breakfast sandwiches which have eggs, bacon, tomato relish and fresh greens served on a brioche bun and OH MY GOD, they were SO good!!! Simple in design and perfect in execution! The ultimate breakfast sandwich.

After a wonderful breakfast we headed over to the train depot high on protein and since we had about an hour and fifteen minutes to kill we plunked down in a Starbucks and nursed a couple of Americanos while we waited for our train to arrive.

Our belief is when catching some form of transportation that is critical to your travel plans, be it a plane, train, bus or boat, it is much better to arrive early. It's smarter to use the extra time to figure out the train platform you'll depart from, than to lounge around for an extra twenty or thirty minute at home or in your rental and miss your scheduled transport because of some unforeseen hiccups that may arise. Better safe than sorry!

It was bitterly cold on the York train platform...Brrrrrrrrr!

We boarded our train at the York station and headed north towards Scotland and Edinburgh. Since we were traveling north it allowed us to book a train where we didn't have to make any transfers so we could just sit back and watch the scenery roll by which was splendid.

The countryside started to change as we neared the Scottish border and headed out towards the coast. It became a little more rugged and the farms were not as uniform and flat.

Right before we rolled into Edinburgh the Canon Camera locked up and wouldn't focus and I couldn't get the lens to retract. Instead of enjoying the last five minutes of our three and a half hour journey watching as we entered Edinburgh, we had our heads down  pulling and tugging at the lens and trying to get the camera to behave. The camera lens never did retract and we had to end up dumping it into the backpack with the lens completely exposed and hurriedly gathered our luggage and then we unceremoniously flopped down onto the Edinburgh platform having missed the train's entire entrance into the city. It kind of disoriented us and to make matters worse as we worked our way through Edinburgh's HUGE Waverly train station, we realized that the temperature had dropped significantly and that it was pouring a mixture of snow and rain down on the glass rooftops that cover the depot.

Being that it was cold and miserable out and since we were still a little shell shocked from the camera incident and not quite having our bearings about us we decided to take a taxi instead of lugging our luggage 3/4 of a mile through the deluge. But here's the thing...after finally waving down an Edinburgh Taxi we sort of waited there next to it expecting the driver to get out and let us know where he wanted the luggage stowed, but nothing happened. It was dumping sleety rain on us and we just kind of leaned down and looked in the window and the taxi driver just stared at us from inside the foggy confines of the cab. Undeterred we yanked open the back door of the taxi to find that they are not like any taxi we've dealt with before. There are two fold down seats facing backwards towards a forward sitting bench seat with an open space between, and the floor covered with hard rubber matting. To top it off the doors are fairly small and the interior ceiling is really low. The cab driver spoke through a hole in a plexiglass shield with a heavy heavy Scottish accent and said that he was not allowed to get out to assist customers, so I kind of stooped and crawled on my hands and knees into the back of the taxi with my big backpack on dragging a fifty pound bag dripping with water behind me and then had Jerani handed me the other bags and then we somehow got the two of into the clown car with all of our soaked belongings and miraculously got the Taxi's door closed and off we went.

A glamorous entrance to one of the great capitals of Europe if there ever was one!

The Wee Palace is on the top floor of this 17th century building. It's through the red door and then four flights up to the top. You can see the the apartment's flower boxes outside the very top windows of the building on the left.

The sky was just starting to clear off a little as we made our way through the ancient maze of streets heading into Edinburgh's old town and after about an eight minute ride the Taxi driver pulled up in front of our apartment building across from the Grassmarket Square.

The Grassmarket outside the door to the Wee Palace

Our first impressions of Edinburgh's old town was "this place is REALLY cool!" It seems old in a way that London hadn't, even though they are both steeped in history. Amazingly well preserved soot covered Neo-Classical, Georgian and Gothic buildings crowd over a labyrinth of cobbled streets. 

Narrow alleyways and public stairways help connect the steep topography that makes up Edinburgh and hidden courtyards are tucked away in the most unimaginable places. 

 

It's a city right out of a Charles Dickens novel and yet it seems real in a way that York can't pull off. It seems lived in even as throngs of tourists step in and out of the multitude of Pubs, Cafes, Scottish goods shops and Taxis and Buses vie for room with pedestrians and bicycles on the narrow streets. And then to top it all off there is a honking gigantic Castle sitting on top of a giant Craig for all the world to see!

We fell in Love with the city from the get go.

We thanked the taxi driver and paid the easy to take fare of 4.85 pounds and then with much scrambling and unhinging of limbs made our way out of the miniature vehicle and crossed the street to the "Wee Palace", our vacation apartment for the next nine days.

Now we have to tell you, we have stayed in quite a few interesting vacation rentals during our travels but the Wee Palace is truly special. 

 

From the historic building to the interior decorating to the attention to detail, this place checks all the boxes. The furnishings were beautiful, the appliances top of the line and it has a view to die for. 

View of Edinburgh Castle from the living room of the Wee Palace

We settled in, unpacked and unwound after our journey and opened a couple of Scottish Ales and sat back and chilled. We were truly excited to be in Scotland and this apartment had us feeling pretty darn smug as we gazed out the window at all the tourists below who had traveled across the city to take in the same view we were enjoying from the comfort of our couch. Ah the privileged life!