Latest / UK Travel Planning / Trip Report - 36 Hour Edinburgh Itinerary with Cheryl Ridpath Conway

Transcript

Trip Report - 36 Hour Edinburgh Itinerary with Cheryl Ridpath Conway · UK Travel Planning

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the UK Travel Planning Podcast.
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Your host is the founder of the UK Travel Planning website, tracey Collins.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: 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.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: 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.
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: Welcome to UK Travel Planning Podcast.
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: This is episode 63.
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: This week.
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: I'm really excited to be talking to Cheryl Ridpath Conway about her trip to Edinburgh Now.
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: Cheryl appeared in episode 13 about her family trip to London and which is one of our actually most downloaded episodes.
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: So if you haven't listened to that episode, I do recommend that you download that and take a listen.
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: But I'd like to welcome Cheryl back onto the podcast again.
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: Welcome, cheryl Hi.
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: It's so nice to see you again.
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: It's lovely again to be able to chat with you and catch up with your latest trip over to the UK.
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: 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.
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: It wasn't very short.
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: Okay, so I'm Cheryl.
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: I am a stay-at-home mom from California.
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: We have three teenagers.
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: 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.
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: So her number one choice is University of Edinburgh, which is why we went just for a quick time.
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: 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?
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: 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.
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: I'm like come on people, we're burning daylight wheels up in five.
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: And you were there in June as well, so you got plenty of daylight.
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: Yeah, july.
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: July seven.
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: Okay, so I was then yes.
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: Yes, because I was picking your brain about Dean's Village.
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: Yes, absolutely so.
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: 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.
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: Oh, that's so exciting.
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: So exciting.
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: If she can get in, yeah well, yeah, hopefully she will.
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: I'll put fingers crossed, that'd be great.
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: 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.
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: 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?
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: So you did that two weeks trip round round Ireland.
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, this was kind of like an add on so you could go and explore Edinburgh for your daughter.
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: So that's great.
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: So how did you decide what you're going to fit into those 36 hours to make the most of Edinburgh?
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: 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.
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: So I knew I needed to fit that in.
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: 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.
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: 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.
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: We just decided to skip the crown jewels.
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: We had just seen them in London and I didn't want to wait in the two hour long queue.
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: 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.
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: 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.
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: And we're not going to see the crown jewels because we haven't got the time to wait for them.
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: So what did you include in your itinerary?
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: So obviously we're in the Edinburgh Castle.
• 4:56
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 4:56
  Speaker 3: So it like, as you know, edinburgh is very small.
• 4:59
  Speaker 3: So we were able to check a lot of stuff off the first night.
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: 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.
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: So we just checked a bunch of things off, like Gray Friar Bobby or Gray Friar Courtyard.
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: 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?
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: 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.
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: And then we walked through there and then there was the Writers Museum.
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: So we were able to, like, check off a bunch of stuff.
• 5:45
  Speaker 3: And we're big I think you remember this, but we're big Harry Potter fans.
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: So we went to Gray Friar Kirkland.
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: 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.
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: 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.
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: So JK Rowling used to go through there and look for inspiration for when she was writing Harry Potter.
• 6:33
  Speaker 3: So we went and saw like all those graves and it was great because it was kind of raining but not really.
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: So the royal mile was empty, the graveyard was empty.
• 6:44
  Speaker 3: So we got in the middle of summer these really like great pictures and so that was good.
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: But we had done the Harry Potter tour in London and then we went to Edinburgh and everything made more sense in Edinburgh.
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: Like they were like, oh, this is in London.
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: 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.
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: You know you really can see the inspiration in Edinburgh magical.
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: She was living there when she started writing books as well, cause the elephant has caffeine.
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: Elephant has, unfortunately, yeah, but there was a fire a couple of years ago.
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: Doug and I were there in, I think, 2020.
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: And the fire, I think, was later on that year.
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: 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.
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: I'm not sure if there's going to be a date.
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: 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.
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it was still closed when we went there.
• 7:45
  Speaker 3: We got pictures on the outside but yeah, okay, so that was just.
• 7:49
  Speaker 3: That was our first night.
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: Like got some.
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: 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.
• 8:03
  Speaker 3: 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.
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: But the first night we just went to a place called Fruits and got french fries.
• 8:16
  Speaker 3: We stayed in a place called Residence Inn by Marriott, which is very, very central.
• 8:23
  Speaker 3: It's like less than 10 minute walk to the university, less than 15 to the castle, so very central.
• 8:29
  Speaker 3: And so the fry place was not closed, not far from there.
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: But yeah, little tangent to food, but yeah, for celiac people there's a place called GF Cafe which was phenomenal, like fantastic.
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: We got paninis that were amazing, like these chicken pesto paninis my daughter had like a walnut honey cake.
• 8:50
  Speaker 3: A little out of the way, not in that main center, but definitely worth the trip.
• 8:56
  Speaker 3: The hours are not long, like nine to three-ish, but highly, highly, highly recommended for anyone going.
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: Okay, that's good to know and I'll link to that in the show notes as well.
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: What time did you arrive?
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: What time did you leave?
• 9:11
  Speaker 3: 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.
• 9:24
  Speaker 3: We had Thursday night to pop around.
• 9:26
  Speaker 3: Rod Stewart was giving a concert when we were there.
• 9:29
  Speaker 3: Oh so busy.
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: Well, it would have been, I think, if it wasn't raining.
• 9:35
  Speaker 3: Yeah, but have you seen that structure on the castle?
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: 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.
• 9:47
  Speaker 3: But the cool thing is just walking around the city we could hear Rod Stewart.
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: Like Claire Zabel, I'm like I feel like I'm at a Rod Stewart concert right now.
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: So it's cool.
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the build up for the Edinburgh Tattoo.
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: So to start that in May, I think it is.
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: 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.
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: So we'll be there in December, january, so it won't be there.
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: But yeah, I know it's unfortunate, isn't it, when it's a bit ugly in front of the castle.
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: Right, yeah, because that castle we've been a lot of castles Like.
• 10:22
  Speaker 3: We just went two weeks in Ireland.
• 10:23
  Speaker 3: 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.
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: At the end of Ireland they're so sick of castles.
• 10:33
  Speaker 3: 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.
• 10:42
  Speaker 3: You know how it's like kind of built on that.
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: What do you call it?
• 10:46
  Speaker 3: Balkanic vlog?
• 10:47
  Speaker 3: Yeah, balkan, thank you, yeah, it's that was so cool.
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: Oh it is, it is lovely and so fantastic.
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: Walk up to it as well.
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: 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.
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: We've got great little, great names.
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: I did a historic Royal Mile walk into in last time I was there well, 2020.
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: I was there this year but unfortunately I got sick so I didn't do very much.
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: 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.
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: So next time when you go, you definitely recommend to learn a bit more about the history.
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: I would like to do that.
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, that way.
• 11:32
  Speaker 3: I was looking at our schedule and we had this one tiny gap because we had eaten, where I had like two hours free.
• 11:39
  Speaker 3: I'm like, oh my God, how did I do this?
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: Two hours free, my schedule.
• 11:42
  Speaker 3: So I'm like on my phone booking stuff and I wound up booking like a witch trials.
• 11:46
  Speaker 3: Oh, yes, tour, really interesting content.
• 11:51
  Speaker 3: 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.
• 12:01
  Speaker 3: I don't mean to be mean, but like so she would deliver this.
• 12:04
  Speaker 3: Like, oh, I forgot to have something on me called Drin at home.
• 12:07
  Speaker 3: I'm like, oh, okay, but really great content.
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 12:11
  Speaker 3: So like just clicked along the Royal Mile and was like, oh, the heart of midlothian, this boom, mary Queen has got this.
• 12:18
  Speaker 3: Yeah, great content.
• 12:20
  Speaker 3: So I actually highly recommend the tour.
• 12:22
  Speaker 3: This is just be prepared.
• 12:24
  Speaker 3: That's like a little hokey, yeah, yeah.
• 12:27
  Speaker 3: Yeah, a little cheesy, but it's.
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: It's called Edinburgh witches and history walking tour and I think it's.
• 12:33
  Speaker 3: I welcome tours, okay, but really great content.
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you get to learn something when you.
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, because it's the fact that history is fascinating.
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: When you walk up there, you're like it's amazing, yes, what you find out.
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: You're like, oh, it's all a bit gruesome.
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: The weather wasn't great when you were.
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: It was a bit was a bit rainy, as you say, but that night.
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah, oh yeah, just next day was gorgeous, oh, perfect, and that's typical UK weather.
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: I do say that Everybody's like.
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: When we went to this year was the weather was lovely.
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: When we're there, unfortunately, we're sick, but the last time we went in 2020.
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: Oh, I don't know.
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: We've been so.
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: I think we were three times in the last three years, but in 2020, I remember because we went.
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: Oh no, it would be like it would be last year because it was May.
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: So 2022,.
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: We arrived on the Sunday.
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: I got sunburned.
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: It was that hot.
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: The next day I'm covered head to foot with jump out scarf Raincoat.
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: I was freezing and it was pouring down rain entire day.
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: The day before, beautiful sunshine.
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: That's typical.
• 13:30
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's what they say in Ireland you'll get all four seasons in one hour.
• 13:34
  Speaker 3: And it was true.
• 13:35
  Speaker 3: I was like, oh my, it was schizophrenic the weather, but it was cool.
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's absolutely so.
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: Did you, did, you did get to Dean village, because I know we're chatting about that.
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: Yes, so the Friday, which was their one full day there, we got.
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: We started our day at 730am, yeah, and then we went.
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: 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.
• 14:11
  Speaker 3: But I think I hyped it up too much in my mind, like I had it.
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: I don't know why.
• 14:16
  Speaker 3: 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.
• 14:31
  Speaker 3: You know what I mean.
• 14:32
  Speaker 3: You don't have to get up at 730 in the morning to go, like I did, but you should definitely walk by.
• 14:36
  Speaker 3: And the people were so nice.
• 14:38
  Speaker 3: Yes, we went to a little cafe there and just talk to people walking their dogs, like just really nice people.
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: Oh, that's good.
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: Yes, we went.
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: To honest, it was the first time that I'd visited.
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: When I went to Dean village, because we always do all the main highlights and and I was like yeah it's very pretty.
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: We went about five o'clock.
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: Quite a lot of people there.
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: 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.
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: So then, after that, where did you head to?
• 15:09
  Speaker 3: 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.
• 15:15
  Speaker 3: So kind of hung out.
• 15:17
  Speaker 3: They don't have any seating.
• 15:19
  Speaker 3: 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.
• 15:32
  Speaker 3: So it was really good that we didn't try and wing it when we got there.
• 15:36
  Speaker 3: 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.
• 15:43
  Speaker 3: Just the view from the castle is so pretty.
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: Yes, it's music yeah that tiny little chapel.
• 15:50
  Speaker 3: I can't remember which Royal it was, but you know what which one I'm talking about.
• 15:55
  Speaker 3: There's this tiny little chapel and you walk in.
• 15:58
  Speaker 3: It can fit like six people, but it's really cute.
• 16:01
  Speaker 3: I do you.
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: I've got pictures of it, yeah, and I can't remember the name of it.
• 16:05
  Speaker 3: I can't remember either.
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: 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.
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: 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.
• 16:27
  Speaker 3: I think a little bit.
• 16:28
  Speaker 3: 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.
• 16:38
  Speaker 3: I just, I just thought I had like a very Mitty roll, king Arthur.
• 16:44
  Speaker 3: Yeah it's a lot feel to it, it's Excalibur.
• 16:47
  Speaker 3: So after the castle, what did you head?
• 16:50
  Speaker 3: 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.
• 17:03
  Speaker 3: It was one hour long.
• 17:04
  Speaker 3: 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.
• 17:19
  Speaker 3: 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.
• 17:27
  Speaker 3: But this was like it was the town, it was the University, just everything about it.
• 17:32
  Speaker 3: It's just really cool.
• 17:34
  Speaker 3: 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.
• 17:43
  Speaker 3: So it's very hard to get into and so that was our main purpose in the trip.
• 17:47
  Speaker 3: So then we did that.
• 17:49
  Speaker 3: 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 gluten-free food truck kind of thing.
• 18:01
  Speaker 3: It's all crepe.
• 18:02
  Speaker 3: 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.
• 18:13
  Speaker 3: But anyone who has Celiak was gluten-free.
• 18:16
  Speaker 3: There's a really great crepe truck dedicated.
• 18:18
  Speaker 3: Then we had this weird little break, which which I never have a little break.
• 18:25
  Speaker 3: I don't know why I did this.
• 18:26
  Speaker 3: So then, like I said, I scheduled this witch torque, which was great.
• 18:29
  Speaker 3: It started at St Giles and then just went along the Royal Mile.
• 18:33
  Speaker 3: So, like I said, I was only like an hour along.
• 18:36
  Speaker 3: Each stock was just a couple minutes and full of really great content.
• 18:41
  Speaker 3: Really interesting, really great content.
• 18:43
  Speaker 3: Little odd delivery, but I think that's just subjective of who.
• 18:47
  Speaker 3: Which guy do you get?
• 18:48
  Speaker 3: Because yeah, yeah.
• 18:49
  Speaker 3: 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.
• 19:17
  Speaker 3: This one it's like half-hanging Maggie is it?
• 19:20
  Speaker 3: Have you heard that story?
• 19:21
  Speaker 3: This bay hung this woman for witchcraft she was and then Took her body down and like her friends wanted to bury it.
• 19:31
  Speaker 3: So they took the body away and then she like started breathing again.
• 19:35
  Speaker 3: 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.
• 19:42
  Speaker 3: Oh, I guess you can't be tried again twice for the same thing.
• 19:45
  Speaker 3: So she lived like another 50 years and was like half half hung Maggie or some, I forget her name, but something like that.
• 19:52
  Speaker 3: Oh, it's fine, that's interesting.
• 19:54
  Speaker 3: Yeah so it was all these little little yeah, things that you remember, which I, yeah, yeah.
• 20:01
  Speaker 3: I always think if I can retain 10% of what I hear, then I'm a lot better off than I was.
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, absolutely oh.
• 20:09
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 20:10
  Speaker 3: And then after that we shopped along like Candlemaker Row and then we did eight to nine.
• 20:16
  Speaker 3: We did real Mary King's clothes, yeah, yeah, which was very interesting.
• 20:22
  Speaker 3: Yeah, okay, again with the haunted.
• 20:26
  Speaker 3: I think if Edinburgh is the most haunted place, then this particular spot is like the most haunted in Edinburgh, right, yeah, yeah.
• 20:33
  Speaker 3: 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.
• 20:43
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and it turns out it was a little girl named Annie who had gotten separated from her doll.
• 20:48
  Speaker 3: So the psychic brought a doll and now the spirit is like content.
• 20:51
  Speaker 3: So all these people bring dolls for the girl, and there's like a hundred, two hundred dolls in this little room.
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: 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.
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: I'll get a little bit scared.
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: I'll get a little bit scared.
• 21:13
  Speaker 3: I know it wasn't bad, though it was more also the plague stuff.
• 21:18
  Speaker 3: It was a lot of the plague focused because it decimated Edinburgh, the last round of the black plague.
• 21:26
  Speaker 3: So then I get like is it still in the air?
• 21:30
  Speaker 3: You know, like that I get more worried about than a spirit.
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, no, for sure.
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: So that was kind of a full day then, was it?
• 21:38
  Speaker 3: That was our full day and then we left at like seven.
• 21:40
  Speaker 3: Then it's done.
• 21:40
  Speaker 3: 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.
• 21:52
  Speaker 3: And I was like, oh my God, let's do it.
• 21:54
  Speaker 3: And they're like no.
• 21:55
  Speaker 3: And I'm like why did you show it to me then?
• 21:57
  Speaker 3: And they refused to do it, this photo shoot.
• 21:59
  Speaker 3: 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.
• 22:09
  Speaker 3: I'm like, hey, can I take a picture with you?
• 22:10
  Speaker 3: And we're like sword fighting and my kids are like, oh my God.
• 22:14
  Speaker 3: And he's like I know you, father.
• 22:16
  Speaker 3: So you got your pictures.
• 22:20
  Speaker 3: 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.
• 22:28
  Speaker 3: Royal Mile near which as well.
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: Okay, so that's cool.
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: So you got your pictures.
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: Now you like to have your pictures taken, which is lovely.
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: 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.
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: Oh, the Abbey Road, abbey Road.
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: That's it my head.
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah, abbey Road.
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: That's such a cool picture that you guys are taking, so it's in the show notes for episode 13.
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: Anybody wants to see that.
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: My kids are good sports.
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: They really are.
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: They really are.
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: It was really good.
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: So how did you get?
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: Because obviously you you flew in and flew out of Edinburgh, so how did you get from the airport into the city?
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: Okay, so you picked that up outside the station, because we get asked that all the time.
• 23:14
  Speaker 3: Yeah, we didn't pre-book anything, and so we just grabbed a cab right there and then walked everywhere in the city Perfect.
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: Okay, brilliant.
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: 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.
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: So what would be your one tip for anybody planning a trip to Edinburgh for the first time?
• 23:37
  Speaker 3: 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.
• 23:50
  Speaker 3: The castle was sold out for the day when we were in Amsterdam.
• 23:54
  Speaker 3: Rijksmuseum and Van Gogh were sold out.
• 23:56
  Speaker 3: Everywhere we have gone in the last couple of years, all the popular places are sold out.
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: That's a great tip, to be honest, because you just can't wing it.
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: You can't wing it these days, really, for popular places.
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: 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.
• 24:15
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: 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.
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: We can plan everything else around it if you need to.
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: Yep.
• 24:32
  Speaker 3: And I asked my kids because I saw this question what was your favorite thing or the highlight of the trip?
• 24:37
  Speaker 3: Oh yeah, because for me it's always the architecture, especially in a place like Edinburgh where it's so unique.
• 24:44
  Speaker 3: 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.
• 24:56
  Speaker 3: But they're really into Instagram and stuff.
• 24:58
  Speaker 3: So they just took like a hundred pictures of each other with their poses?
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: I can imagine, yeah, so that would be perfect place to get that shot for Instagram account.
• 25:08
  Speaker 3: Yeah, if you have teenage girls, you might want to check that out.
• 25:11
  Speaker 3: Take them there, absolutely.
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: Okay, well, cheryl, thank you so much for coming on the podcast again and talking about your trip to Edinburgh.
• 25:19
  Speaker 2: I'm hoping that you're going to get there for longer next time.
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but you certainly packed a lot into your 36 hours though.
• 25:25
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I really wanted to do the Harry Potter train.
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, jack-o-bite.
• 25:30
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: Good fun that is.
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: 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.
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: It's funny you have that, don't you?
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: But it's really exciting.
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: 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.
• 25:56
  Speaker 3: Yes, I know, and if you expand to Dublin or Ireland?
• 26:00
  Speaker 3: So I've got a lot of notes on.
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: We have got an episode about Ireland, so I'm happy to talk about visiting Ireland.
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: The 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.
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: 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.
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: Thank you, it's so good to see you.
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: Thanks, cheryl.
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: 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.
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: 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.
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: You can find more and more about Edinburgh where we share our tips.
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: But for this week that's just a way to say happy UKTravelPlanning.