Port of Call: South Queensferry, Scotland
Yesterday, we anchored off the coast of South Queensferry, and tendered to the shore where we headed into Edinburgh to explore on our own with no set tours, just a ride to and from the ship.
We had a couple of things on the agenda, and most of them revolved around the author, J.K. Rowling, and her time spent writing in and around the city...
After the bus dropped us, we took off walking...
and landed first at The Elephant House...
the self-proclaimed "Birthplace of Harry Potter", though that title is very much contested as the café actually opened after (at least parts of) the first story was already written...oops...
She did, however, write in the café, and there is much documentation of that. While Harry may not have been born there, some of his adventures most likely were. It is said that the view of Edinburgh Castle from the back room of the café has to have provided at least some inspiration...
It IS a spectacular view. What do you think???
The bathrooms of the place have become somewhat of a living tribute to the author and her beloved character...
From there we checked out Victoria Street, said to be part of the inspiration for Diagon Alley...
Maybe so???
After doing a little shopping...
we headed to the statue of Greyfriars Bobby, a dog said to have stood watch over his owner's grave until his own death 14 years later...
to meet up with a free Harry Potter tour, along with about 100 of our closest friends... I asked the guide if tours were generally this big, and she said this was likely twice as big a group as the biggest tour they've ever given...
I mean, crazy...
We started off in Greyfriars Kirkyard...
and happened upon a couple of familiar names...
as well as the gates to George Heriot's School...
You know what, students at the school belong to one of four "houses". Sounds a little like Hogwarts to me!
We stopped by Spoon...
After our tour...
where we had a fantastic Spanish waiter...
Seriously, though, the pizza was delicious, and we had at least a couple of fans of the dessert...
After lunch we shopped for tartans and made our way slowly back to the bus.
First we passed the Edinburgh City Chambers where J.K. Rowling's handprints are sealed in gold...
Knowing that this was our last day in Scotland, we had a couple of takers try the country's national dish, haggis...
Now, I do have to give it to them on the presentation, but they weren't fooling us...
The girls and I had read all about it as part of our research for this trip, and well, let's just say...chopped up animal organs stuffed into and cooked in another organ, and served that way... I think that there's some spices in there, too, but you get the picture.
I'm just going to say that I am super proud of all 3 of these people...
because I wasn't even going to touch that stuff with a 10 foot pole!
L actually kind of, sort of, liked it... She said that it wasn't that bad, if you don't think about what it is!
After the haggis "experience", we tendered back to the ship, and got ready for another day of sleeping in at sea...
The kids enjoyed having some time on board to check out the sports deck and LOVED getting the chance to spend some time in the pool...
and I do realize that no one will believe me, but they actually dressed themselves like that...
I promise...
Off to bed to prepare for a long day trip into PARIS tomorrow...
We had a couple of things on the agenda, and most of them revolved around the author, J.K. Rowling, and her time spent writing in and around the city...
After the bus dropped us, we took off walking...
and landed first at The Elephant House...
the self-proclaimed "Birthplace of Harry Potter", though that title is very much contested as the café actually opened after (at least parts of) the first story was already written...oops...
She did, however, write in the café, and there is much documentation of that. While Harry may not have been born there, some of his adventures most likely were. It is said that the view of Edinburgh Castle from the back room of the café has to have provided at least some inspiration...
It IS a spectacular view. What do you think???
The bathrooms of the place have become somewhat of a living tribute to the author and her beloved character...
From there we checked out Victoria Street, said to be part of the inspiration for Diagon Alley...
Maybe so???
After doing a little shopping...
we headed to the statue of Greyfriars Bobby, a dog said to have stood watch over his owner's grave until his own death 14 years later...
to meet up with a free Harry Potter tour, along with about 100 of our closest friends... I asked the guide if tours were generally this big, and she said this was likely twice as big a group as the biggest tour they've ever given...
I mean, crazy...
We started off in Greyfriars Kirkyard...
and happened upon a couple of familiar names...
as well as the gates to George Heriot's School...
You know what, students at the school belong to one of four "houses". Sounds a little like Hogwarts to me!
We stopped by Spoon...
where the Nicholson Café was once housed, another café where J.K. Rowling did some of her earliest writing...
After our tour...
we grabbed a great lunch at the very Scottish, Pizza Express - ha, ha, ha...
where we had a fantastic Spanish waiter...
Seriously, though, the pizza was delicious, and we had at least a couple of fans of the dessert...
After lunch we shopped for tartans and made our way slowly back to the bus.
First we passed the Edinburgh City Chambers where J.K. Rowling's handprints are sealed in gold...
and then, The Balmoral, the gorgeous hotel where she finished the final book in the Harry Potter series...
After returning to South Queensferry, B was a very sweet and chivalrous grandson and tendered back to the ship with my mother while Hubby, the girls and I explored a little more...
Knowing that this was our last day in Scotland, we had a couple of takers try the country's national dish, haggis...
Now, I do have to give it to them on the presentation, but they weren't fooling us...
The girls and I had read all about it as part of our research for this trip, and well, let's just say...chopped up animal organs stuffed into and cooked in another organ, and served that way... I think that there's some spices in there, too, but you get the picture.
I'm just going to say that I am super proud of all 3 of these people...
because I wasn't even going to touch that stuff with a 10 foot pole!
L actually kind of, sort of, liked it... She said that it wasn't that bad, if you don't think about what it is!
After the haggis "experience", we tendered back to the ship, and got ready for another day of sleeping in at sea...
The kids enjoyed having some time on board to check out the sports deck and LOVED getting the chance to spend some time in the pool...
and I do realize that no one will believe me, but they actually dressed themselves like that...
I promise...
Off to bed to prepare for a long day trip into PARIS tomorrow...
More {EUROPE} 2018 Fun
