A Weekend in Edinburgh: Day 2

Our first full day in Scotland, Libby, Amy, Caitlin, and I rose early and went to breakfast in the main common room. There was toast, fruit cocktail, yogurt, and whole fruit to eat, and coffee, hot tea, and Squash to drink. Squash is a concentrated orange drink (closer to Tang than orange juice) that you mix with water. When Libby bought a bottle of Squash when we first arrived in the UK we did not know about the watering down part and tried to drink the orange liquid plain from the bottle. It tastes like a liquid, super sugar orange flavored syrup, and not at all pleasant to drink.

There were many toast toppings to choose from including Marmite, chocolate hazelnut spread, apricot jam, blackcurrant jam, butter, and lemon curd. I decided to be adventurous and split my toast into fourths, each with a different topping. The four squares were spread with either blackcurrant jam, apricot jam, chocolate hazelnut spread, or lemon curd. The blackcurrant and lemon curd were new toppings to me. Blackcurrant is pretty close to blackberry jam in taste and appearance. It is a deep purple with small seeds that add a hint of crunch. The lemon curd tasted like I had scrapped out the filling of a lemon bar and spread it onto my toasted bread. It was a pale yellow and slightly gelatinous in texture. Personally, the name "lemon curd" is not very appealing because it brings to mind sour, curdled milk. I do not drink milk at all because it smells nasty when fresh, so soured milk is disgusting to an extreme.

Sanctuary of St. John's Episcopal Church
Photo by Amy

After eating we crossed the street to St. John's Episcopal Church, using our umbrellas to shield our bodies from the drizzle. Since it was Sunday we wanted to attend church to see how the service differed from ones we had been to in the United States. We plan to go attend a church service during all of our overnight trips. This particular service was a 9:30 am Choral Matins. Matins is a term normally by Protestant denominations to describe a morning prayer service.

The sanctuary was decorated with colored paper fish hanging from clear string. Each had writing or drawings by children on it. This was such a contrast to the rest of the church which was ornately detailed in the traditional style of churches. Since this was a Choral Matins, there was a lot of singing, both by the choir and by the attendees. The choir members of this church wore robes similar to those worn by the singers at Salisbury Cathedral. The robes were white with red under-robes peaking out from the sleeves, hem and neckline. They also wore a small ruffled collar encircling their necks.

There was also the recitation of the Apostle's Creed and I was proud that I remembered all of the words. At my Presbyterian church in the United States, we do not say the Apostle's Creed at every service like they seem to do here where churches are more traditional.

Near the end of the service collection was taken using small bags, instead of offering plates. The entire time there I noticed how nice it smelt. It was not floral but instead it was like the mixture of cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger from making gingerbread cookie. I am not sure if it was the lingering scent of incense, if the church even used it, or if it was the perfume of the elderly woman sitting in the pew behind me.

At the service's end we were invited to refreshments and asked to return the following week, but we explained that we were just visiting for the weekend. The man was quite insistent that we stayed for the 10:30 service but we managed to politely extricate ourselves to start our day of sightseeing.

Inside the National Museum of Scotland

Climbing the Mound, past the rail station, we made our way into Old Town, the more historic district of Edinburgh. First stop, the National Museum of Scotland for some cultural education. Learning about early humans in Scotland, animals of the world, and flatware design throughout the centuries made us all hungry and ready for lunch.

All of my companions are avid Harry Potter fans, so they were super excited to eat at the Elephant House Cafe. For those who don't know, the Elephant House is where J.K. Rowling penned the first words of a book that would grow to become an international sensation. She returned to the cafe many times in the course of writing the first book.

The small cafe is always crowded. The tables in the small eating area are pressed close together. The room is filled with elephant knickknacks and artwork. Our table was in the back corner next to a bookcase containing dozens of book, all about elephants, some factual, some novels, and some children's cartoons. The inside of the bathroom has become a shrine to The Boy Who Lived, with fans from all over the world writing quotes and good wishes on the walls.

At the cafe I had a very good baguette with a combination of some of my favorite toppings, mozzarella cheese, pesto, and olives. The bread in the UK always seems to taste better than the kind you get back home. We also ordered a pot of tea to share and I felt like I was truly embracing British culture, even though we were in Scotland at the time.

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The Scotch Whisky Tour began at 1 pm in a brick building neat the entrance to Edinburgh Castle. The first part was a short ride in carts shaped like large wooden barrels. Our ghostly tour guide (a projected image), lead us through the whisky making process from barely harvest to fermentation to aging in wooden barrels. From the ride we moved on to the whisky tasting.

All of our tour group arranged ourselves around a large, U-shaped glass table. Our guide, a real person this time, explained the four main types of Scottish whisky to us and we watched a short video on each kind. Each were supposed to have different undertones depending on the area in which the barely was grown and then made into alcohol. The lowlands were supposed to have undertones of citrus, highlands of spices, Speyside of bananas, and Islay of fire smoke. Since I do not drink, I chose lowlands to try because it is supposed to be the mildest in flavor.

The alcohol was served in glasses shaped specially so that you can stick your nose into the glass to smell the drinks aroma. I swirled the golden liquid and inhaled its scent with instructed. The smell was not unpleasant like garbage, nor was in pleasant like cooking food. To me it just smelt like rubbing alcohol, and not at all appealing. I very carefully tilted the glass back determined to get only the smallest taste. When the liquid slid across my tongue I could feel my face scrunching in a grimace. I tried desperately not to gag and start coughing as it burned a path down my throat. It did not want to look like an inexperienced child (though that is pretty much what I am in the area of drinking alcohol) in front of our fellow tour mates, all of whom were in their late twenties or older. My companions and I were the only ones in the group who were asked to show IDs to prove our ages. Libby was kind enough to finish my whisky for me so I did not have to drink more than a sip.

Oldest Bottles in the Whisky Collection
Photo by Amy

We moved on to the glass walled whisky collection room were hundreds of unopened whiskey bottles are on display. Even though none have ever been opened, some of the bottles were not completely full because their golden contents have evaporated over time. Eventually every single one will be empty. The two oldest bottles in the collection date from 1897 and 1904.

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We entered Camera Obscura: The World of Illusions, after meeting up with Libby's friend Cat. We spent nearly two hours exploring the narrow building several floors. There were optical illusions, a mirror maze and a giant rotating tube that make you fell like the floor is tilting even though it is actually still. My favorite part was the top floor where you could go out onto the roof and have an amazing view of Edinburgh. We were surrounded by domes, spires and other interesting architectural features. In the distance you could even see the ocean. For some reason I never thought about the fact the Edinburgh is situated on the coast, probably since coastal towns in the UK are much different from the costal towns on the East Coast of the United States. 

We finished the night at a Scottish pub called the Amber Rose. I ordered Chicken and Mushroom Pie which came with peas, chips (french fries) and gravy. The gravy was absolutely delicious. I was a little wary of it at first because I do not like the Southern gravy that is common at home. Instead of being thick and grey, this gravy was thin and brown. It was probably made out of chicken and/or mushrooms.  I poured it onto my pie and dipped my chips in it. I ate everything on my plate at that meal.