A Tour, a Lunch and a Palace

by Jim Bellomo | Jun 17, 2024 | Uncategorized

It’s 3:26 a.m., and I am back on my usual schedule. My hope is that Kathleen is downstairs on deck five, sound asleep, and because I am sitting on the second floor of the Explorer’s Lounge (my favorite place on a Viking Ocean ship) with my shoes off and my feet up on a couch writing this post. At home, this is when I usually wake up, but on this entire trip, this is the first time this has happened. I probably should have gone back to sleep, but I have this nagging cough, the last remaining remnant of my cold, that will not go away.

Enough about me. Let’s talk about Edinburgh. This is the fourth time that Kathleen and I have been there. It is one of our favorite cities; some of my favorite travel memories come from there. We first visited on a whirlwind tour of Scotland back in 2003. The last time we were here was in 2019 when we rented an AirBnB right on the Royal Mile for a week. I think that was my favorite visit because it was in May, and the city was fairly empty. Not as much yesterday.

Our day started with a sail-in that featured some pretty great photographic opportunities for me. The last time we had been here on a cruise ship was in 2017 when we sailed on Celebrity’s Silhouette. We did an overnight here that included us seeing the Royal Military Tattoo (the best show I have ever seen). That time, the ship anchored way off the coast, and we had to tender into the very small port of Leith. Because of the tides and depths of the channel, the tender took about 45 minutes to get from the ship to the shore. Viking uses the port of Rosyth. That is both a good thing and a bad thing. Good because we don’t have to tender. Bad because to get into the city, you do have to drive for almost an hour to get into downtown. I guess it’s six of one and a half dozen of the other.

But one of the good things about Rosyth is the sail-in. There are some islands and three incredible bridges that you sail under to get to the pier. And you have to be a fairly small ship to get under them. We arrived to find Regal Princess heading into port but stopping just short of the bridges because she could not get under them. For those who aren’t cruisers or unfamiliar with Viking and Princess, all Viking ships have less than 1000 passengers and only nine decks. Regal Princess can hold up to 4,272 and has 19 decks—quite the size difference.

But back to the sail-in. We had beautiful weather. I took lots of photos. Here they are. Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping. And PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

I just stopped to see if I could find out more about the building we passed on the island just before we got to the bridges and discovered it is/was a monastery that was built in the early 1100s (it always blows me away to read something was built more than 300 years before North America was even discovered by Europeans). Inchcolm Abbey is on an island of the same name in the Firth of Forth. You can take a tour of the Abbey and the island.

Once we were docked, it was time for our “included” shore excursion—Panoramic Edinburgh. As you may recall from my Greenwich post, when it says “panoramic,” that translates to a “luxury motor coach” ride with a narrator and an hour or so at the end to shop or explore. This one was no exception.

Our guide for the day was Scott. He made a point to let us know that the country of Scotland was NOT named after him. He was a witty, verbose kind of guy (being one of those, I know from which I speak ?) who knew his stuff. He got us around Edinburgh with some great tales and anecdotes, and I would have really liked him except for one thing. He totally dismissed something I asked him to do for my comfort and the comfort of those around me.

As we were leaving the port on our “luxury motor coach,” we were in the back of a PACKED bus. I have never seen a Viking excursion so packed. Pretty much every seat was full. When Scott started his tour, he said, “If there is anything we can do to make your tour better, just let us know.” I piped up and asked him if he could request the bus driver give us a little fresh air in the back of the bus. Because we were so packed, it was quite warm and very stuffy. Scott’s answer to me was, “The air will come on once the engine is started.” And then he was off on his narration. Not a second to check in with the driver. Not a thought about the fact that since we were moving already, the engine was obviously turned on and no air was flowing from the vents. Nope, he basically told me he didn’t care about the people at the back of the bus and that his saying, “If there is anything we can do to make your tour better, just let us know,” was just the usual thing guides say to start a tour and he really didn’t give a damn. All he had to do was take two seconds to turn to the driver and say, “Could you put on the air in the back of the bus?” But he truly didn’t care and wanted to get on with his spiel.

Yes, I agree with what you are thinking. I am being petty. But it’s the little things that make a GREAT tour. I loved what he had to say; I laughed at his jokes, and the entire time I was doing that, I was very uncomfortable because it was so warm. And yes, I could have pressed the matter by speaking up again. But once you have been told to shut up (in so many words), if I were going to ask again, I would have to get up out of my seat and walk the length of the “luxury motor coach” to have a personal discussion with him. As it stands, my usual tip for a guide who makes me laugh and knows his stuff would have been £10 per person. Scott got exactly £0.

After we were off the bus, we had a choice; we could shop or explore for an hour, get back on the bus and head back to the ship for lunch, or we could go off on our own for the rest of the day and find our own way back to the ship later in the afternoon. We had already decided before we left the ship that we would spend the afternoon in the city. There were basically two things we wanted to do. One was lunch in the famous Tollbooth Tavern on The Royal Mile. Kathleen and I have eaten lunch there at least once on all four of our visits to Edinburgh. It’s not that the food is that great…it’s good pub grub. But the idea of eating in a pub that has been open continuously since 1851 and in a building that was built in the 16th century is just too cool.

The second thing we wanted to do was tour Holyrood Palace. We have toured the Castle, I have climbed Arthur’s Seat, and we have seen just about everything else in Edinburgh that people see when they come here, but we have never been able to get into Holyrood. It is the “official home of the Royal Family in Scotland,” and every time we have been here before, some royal has been in town. When a member of the royal family or their guests are in residence, all tours are canceled. That has happened to us every single time we have been there. But this time, I had checked in advance, and tickets were available for yesterday, and we could get in. And we did. A somewhat interesting palace (I got to see Mary, Queen of Scots bedroom) but they wouldn’t let me take photos inside and that always bothers me. I usually don’t visit those places. I didn’t realize that I couldn’t until one of the docents told me there were “no pictures allowed.” I had not seen a single sign (and I always look for them) telling me that, but I shut the Nikon off. I’m so sorry you won’t get to see the King’s bed, but there are a few photos I took on the way to the Palace and of the grounds. Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping. And PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

A personal side note: My favorite “mountain” is in Edinburgh. It sits above the city. It is called Arthur’s Seat. I put the word “mountain” in quotes because the definition of mountain in the UK is not the same as in Washinton State. The highest mountain in the United Kingdom is Ben Nevis here in Scotland, which is a hair over 4,000 feet. In Washington, we call those hills. We have Mount Rainier, which is 14,000 plus feet. Arthur’s Seat is 823 feet…but still, it is a mountain in Scotland. And It’s my favorite because I climbed it…at 4:00 a.m. to take a picture of the sunrise (see the photo below). I did that on my visit in 2019. So it has a special place in my heart.

At any rate, I didn’t climb Arthur’s Seat this time, but I was really fascinated by its views and the people climbing all over it. So here are a couple of pictures if that interests you.

That was it for us. We finally got an Uber that would take us back to the ship, and we were off and back on board. I posted the Sea Day post from yesterday, and Kathleen took a short nap before dinner at the buffet. As a special bonus, while we were eating dinner, we were sailing out, and I was able to get some more photos of the things we had seen coming in, plus more that I had somehow missed. So here’s the final group of photos from yesterday. Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping. And PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

That covers yesterday. Thankfully. I say that because it seems the further north we go, the worse the internet connection gets. We were fairly speedy in London, a little slower in Edinburgh, and now we are crawling. I certainly hope this improves. If it doesn’t, just know that I will be writing this and may have to post it when we are back home or close enough to land to get better speed. For those of you who know what speed your internet is at home, ours is about 500 megabytes a second. Here’s what I am getting this morning. This means that the average photo takes about two minutes to upload…each one. So frustrating.

Today, we are going to visit Kirkwall in the Orkney Islands. We have never been there before, so it should be interesting. We did receive a note from Viking last night that our “included” excursion for tomorrow in Lerwick on the Shetland Islands (our next port after Kirkwall) has been cut from 2.5 hours to one hour. The reason they gave us is a shortage of buses on the island and the fact that there are more than two cruise ships scheduled to be there. That’s just sad.

I hope to have a full report on Kirkwall and the Orkneys tomorrow…especially if I can’t sleep again.

I’ve been fortunate enough to travel to Edinburgh a few times over the last few years, and I just loved the city. I find it one of the more beautiful cities in Europe.  —Joe Russo