ABD Day 2 - Edinburgh
Day 2 of the ABD itinerary has the earliest meetup time of the trip: 7:45. I set an alarm just in case, but I was up at 6 again. Between the noise the night before and my allergy to the hotel soap, which was starting to really make me stuffy, I was feeling a bit grumpy. I decided to go down to the pool to use the sauna and steam room before getting ready for the day. (I decided to save luggage space by not packing my gym clothes, which proved to be a mistake since I was up early enough to use the gym every day of the trip). Still in my jammies, I took the elevator to the first floor, then walked down the long hallway to the special elevator that leads to the pool area. I hit the down button and ... nothing. The elevator was off even though the pool was supposed to be open at 6. I waited a few more minutes, hit the button again and ... still nothing. Eventually another woman joined me and I explained the situation. We waited for a bit and hit the button again. Nothing. The other woman (whom I later realized was part of my ABD group) went to the lobby to try and find help. I eventually gave up and went back to the room. There, DS and I got ready for the day. Then I called the front desk to set a wake up call for DH to make sure he would not miss our meetup time and DS and I went to breakfast.
Now that we were officially on our ABD, the buffet at the Caledonian was included in our room rate. After some confusion about where to sit, we were shown to a table and given coffee and juice. Then we selected from the many options on the buffet. They had a nice selection of pastries, fruits, yogurts and cereals, as well as some hot items including scrambled eggs, baked beans and potato scones (which are thin and floppy and not what you would think a scone is). I made myself a nice plate of eggs, pastry, potato scone and fruit and DS chose a gluten free muffin and some melon balls. His breakfast seemed awfully sad to me, but he seemed happy.
At 7:40, we went out to meet our group. Almost everyone else, including DH, was already assembled. I suggested that DH go grab something from the buffet. When he came back, he had no food in his hand. I inquired and learned that he had apparently been seated, drank a cup of coffee and eaten a plate of eggs all in 5 minutes time. He rejoined the group just as Claire was giving out whisper devices to everyone. Seeing the single earbud on each whisper device, DH and I immediately realized that we needed to get actual headphones for DS. I volunteered DH for the job of running upstairs to our room to grab them. While he was gone, our group started to head out the door. DS and I stopped in the front lobby to wait and Michael stopped to wait with us. He assured us that we were only headed around the corner and could easily catch up with the rest of the group.
We did just that less than half a block from the hotel. Then, we walked the short distance to New Town to meet our step-on guide, Jenny. Jenny gave us a short tour of the area while we waited for our bus. (And Michael pointed out local squirrels to DS, who was delighted to photograph them. Unfortunately, we did have some problems with his camera and many of his vacation photos did not save to the memory card, so we only wound up with one squirrel photo).
When our bus arrived, we piled on and headed to our first stop of the day, the Royal Yacht Britannia (and not Britannica, as I had been calling it in my head for the weeks leading up to the trip). The Royal Yacht is docked in the port of Leith, near the Firth of Forth and I had been excited for my first visit to the Firth of Forth ever since I learned its alliterative name. On the way to the Britannia, Jenny provided narration.
When we arrived, we were led up a red carpet, stopped for family photos and then headed up the gangway. This is something that apparently only ABD gets to do. Other visitors must enter through the mall and walk through a tunnel that deposits them on one of the upper decks of the ship.
For those who don't know, the Royal Yacht Britannia was Queen Elizabeth's yacht for many years. Our tour began in a sitting room that had been set up for tea, complete with little plastic finger sandwiches. If there is one thing I can impart about this room, it is that you should not pretend to eat the finger sandwiches. This is apparently highly frowned upon. They need to be precisely arranged in a very specific manner that no mere tourist can achieve.
After my sandwich-related scolding, we set off on our tour. Now you may be thinking that there is no way to make the Queen's boat interesting to a 5 year old, and, if so, you are correct. Within minutes, my son was complaining that he wanted to return to the finger-sandwich room to sit next to a stuffed dog he had found there. I quite truthfully told him I had no idea how to get back to that room, so we pressed on. At some point, our tour guide, Kenny, asked us if we were enjoying the tour. Seeing our faces, I think he must have realized the truth, but he graciously said, "Oh, you must be tired." "Yes, very tired. Our room is right near the elevator and ... Phineas! Get back here. I don't know where the finger sandwich room is, but it's definitely not that way."
(I wish to acknowledge not only Kenny, but also one of the other guides who took it upon himself to walk with me as I was attempting to corral my son and describe some of the rooms as I breezed past them. Because of the private tour he provided just for me, I now know that the rooms we passed were bedrooms and that the Queen and Prince Phillip had separate bedrooms on the Yacht, each containing a twin bed).
After our tour of the Yacht, we went up to the tea room for scones and tea. We were joined at our table by a grandfather who was travelling with his wife and 4 grandchildren. DS immediately decided that he had no interest in scones and let us know in no uncertain terms that he was ready to leave. I resolved to ignore him and try to enjoy the views. Fortunately, it was not long before Claire came by with a little stuffed Corgi, which immediately put my dog-loving child in a better mood.
(Corg's first visit to the Firth of Forth)
After tea, it was on to Holyrood Palace, which sits at the bottom of the Royal Mile, not far from the Royal Yacht not Britannica. Jenny gave us a short tour of the palace and then there was time to explore on our own. Between the palace, the ruined abbey next to it and the family play area, there was lots to see here and not enough time to see it. I compounded the issue by mis-remembering our meetup time and depriving us of 30 minutes of touring time. Fortunately, that did give us a chance to pop out to see the Scottish Parliament building and then visit the gift shop to buy DS a larger Corgi, which he named Boris. As Jenny informed us, that is not an English name, and, as I informed DS, neither is it a girl's name. I was just starting to inform DS that someone named Boris could not be the small Corgi's mother, as DS claimed. Then I started to think I was being too close-minded about gender and that maybe Boris could be a girl's name. That led me to explain how some families have 2 mommies or 2 daddies, or just 1 parent or . . . "Two mommies? I wish I had two mommies," DS said, just as DH approached us. "Well that really makes me feel great," DH huffed.
According to the online itinerary, the tour of Holyrood Palace is supposed to be followed by a walking tour of the Royal Mile. For whatever reason (time, I expect), that was replaced with an unpleasantly bumpy bus ride up the Royal Mile with Jenny narrating things that you really need to be on foot to enjoy. Compounding matters, I was still not feeling 100% thanks to that cursed hotel soap and so I started to get car sick. After what seemed like an interminable amount of time, we were dropped near the statute of Greyfriars Bobby for a short tour of Greyfriars Cemetery. The highlight for DS was getting to deliver a stick to the famous Bobby (who, in his life, was a small dog).
The cemetery was very neat, but our time there was much too short and focused solely on Harry Potter. Now, I really love Harry Potter, but it seems an odd choice to me to focus the tour on just that when it's not billed as such in the itinerary. That view was reinforced when Jenny showed us Tom Riddle's grave, paused dramatically, and said, "Of course, Tom Riddle is better known as . . . ." Birds tweeted, the wind blew, bees buzzed, the days shortened and the leaves slowly turned a golden color as summer faded into fall. Still no one in our group chimed in with the answer. And then at last Jenny said, "Lord Voldemort! Tom Riddle is Lord Voldemort. Of course, in the book, he had a middle name and you mixed the letters around and it somehow spelled Lord Voldemort. Anyway, moving on."
After the tour of Greyfriars, we were dropped in a central area of Old Town for lunch on our own. It was a beautiful day, so we dined al fresco at one of the pubs, which we selected because it had a vegetarian sausage sandwich on the menu. DS, DH and I split 2 sandwiches, some fries, onion rings and some tap water, which DS followed with a bowl of ice cream. I felt weird not getting a beer at a pub, but I knew I would regret drinking booze considering my already woozy state.
After an enjoyable lunch, I grabbed a coffee from a local cafe and we wandered around the area for while before meeting our group for what was supposed to be a walk up to the castle. I was dismayed when we were once again herded into the bus. This decision was made because of the high winds that day, but I would have much preferred being given the option to walk -- high winds and all.
ABD visits Edinburgh Castle at the end of the day with the idea that you will arrive as other groups are leaving. Other groups were leaving as we arrived, but there were also hordes of people entering the castle. In short, it was still packed. The time at the castle begins with a group tour and then you are given time on your own. DS quickly decided that he wanted nothing more to do with the whisper device and loudly declared that he was tired of being in a group and only wanted to be with Mommy and Daddy. We returned our whisper devices to Claire and obliged him. DH was a bit disappointed by this, but I did not mind one way or another. Truth-be-told, I did not find Jenny to be a particularly compelling tour guide.
There is lots to see at Edinburgh Castle, but -- by the time we got there -- we were too exhausted to truly enjoy it. After wandering around for a bit, we decided to head back to the hotel. I was expecting that we would walk, since we had told Claire we were done with the group for the day. But we happened to run into Michael on the way out and he told us that we could catch the bus if we ran. I think he must have then told Claire to hold the bus for us, because I cannot imagine how we made it otherwise seeing as we arrived nearly 10 minutes after the group meeting time. I felt a little guilty for making the group wait, but the ride was much appreciated.
Dinner that evening was on our own. We decided to grab takeout from Wagamama and eat in Princes Street Gardens. After eating pad thai and meatless chicken curry, we played on the playground for a few minutes until it started to sprinkle. Then it was back to our room for bed.
I will be honest that I ended day 2 feeling that I had made a mistake booking a group tour. I think that ABD packs too much into this day and the trip suffers for it. My suggestion would be to cut the Yacht, start the day at the castle before it gets too crowded, provide the promised walking tour of the Royal Mile and end at Holyrood Palace. With the current schedule, you do not get enough time at each site to truly see it.
Would Day 3 of the tour change my mind? Stay tuned to find out.