Scotland | Short stopover in Edinburgh

When you only have a few hours to visit a city, you have to choose your strategy carefully. Trying to see everything at full speed? Focus on one neighborhood? Visit a significant museum thoroughly?

Towards the end of a Hurtigruten cruise to the Northern Isles of the UK, our ship, the Maud, stops in Edinburgh for a few hours. I choose to take a guided tour in the historic district of the Scottish capital, the Royal Mile. If what I see interests me, I can always plan a more substantial visit.

The first part of the tour is a bus ride from Rosyth Harbor in the northwest of the town, with near-continuous narration from local guide Ed.

First observation, Edinburgh people are very proud of the three bridges which cross the River Forth, built successively in the 19th century.^e,XX^e and XXI^e centuries. The oldest is the second largest cantilever railway bridge in the world by length (regarding its clear span). We won’t tell the nice local guide, but the longest is the Quebec Bridge.

Ed tells us about the rivalry between Edinburgh, a pretty little capital, and Glasgow, a much more populous city. Once again, we think a little about Quebec.

The eternal debates on the political future of Scotland can also evoke something in the minds of Quebecers. In a referendum held in September 2014, 55.3% of Scots decided to remain within the United Kingdom.

Our bus also passes next to the new Scottish Parliament, a cool postmodern building with improbable angles completed in 2004. However, its architecture was not unanimous.

Explore the old town

Finally, we set foot in the old town of Edinburgh, built astride a ridge of volcanic origin. At the very top, a large castle sits on a rocky outcrop. We head there leisurely along the Royal Mile, a street which successively takes the names of Canongate and High Street. The guide recommends that we look left and right to spot the tiny alleys, closed, which tumble down the steep crest of the Royal Mile. They hide between the souvenir, cashmere and whiskey shops which follow one another.

Our guide takes us to the heart of the old town to visit St Giles Cathedral, Edinburgh’s main church, founded in 1124. The current building dates back to the 15th century.^e century. “Our neighbors to the South liked to play with matches and burned them twice,” says our guide.

The interior of the church is interesting, but not enough to hold me for the 40 minutes planned for the visit. I sneak away to retrace my steps and explore some of the closed that we only glimpsed along the way. Excellent decision. I find myself in a medieval world of stairs and narrow passages that lead here and there to nice restaurants.

I rejoin my group to continue the visit in peace, particularly at Greyfriars cemetery. Old Scottish cemeteries certainly have a special atmosphere. Part of it is closed to the public because the local ghosts there are said to be particularly mischievous…

Just outside, a statue commemorates Bobby, a police dog who spent the last 14 years of his life next to his master’s grave, tirelessly waiting for his return. The Scots are sentimental, it seems.

After admiring this important monument, we head down to Victoria Street and Grassmarket Street, which offer a nice variety of pubs and restaurants for thirsty and hungry tourists.

We go back up towards High Street and the castle esplanade by taking a narrow stone staircase. The visit is now over, we will not have time to take a look at the New Town, created in the 18th century.^e century to relieve congestion in the old town.

But the guide takes advantage of the return journey to tell us about Edinburgh’s worst serial killers, William Burke and William Hare, who, in 1828, killed 16 people who were staying with them as lodgers to sell their corpses to a professor of anatomy not too careful. It’s an interesting anecdote, but all this only covers a fraction of everything Edinburgh has to offer. Yes, we will have to come back!

The costs of this trip were paid in part by the cruise company Hurtigruten, which had no say in the content of the report.