Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - My nephew’s visit to Edinburgh (or, OMG to be 18 again.)

This is a mini-trip report, once removed.

My 18-year old nephew was presented with a 3-week trip to Europe as a high school graduation present. He’s there now, accompanied by his pal (also 18.) Both boys are very mature and self-confident, so while I think it’s testimony to their parents’ courage to let them loose for three weeks, if there are two teens that I’d be comfortable sending, it’s these guys.

Which of course didn’t stop me from browbeating them into making Edinburgh their first stop. Their plane tickets are to and from London and they plan to include Amsterdam (they arrived there today) and Paris as well as London itself.

While they both have enough saved (my nephew works as a valet car-parker and gets great tips from Amazonians and Microsofties to park their Bimmers) to pay for modest hotels or fancy hostels, I incentivized their visit to Scotland by imposing on an old friend of mine (most are) for free lodgings. She lives by herself (hubby died a couple of years ago, about the same time my wife did) in a f-ing glorious townhouse in Edinburgh’s New Town, with lots of spare room and within walking distance of pretty much everything. (The street where she lives: https://goo.gl/maps/i53BekCeevC2 .) As usual, I was nervous about asking for favo(u)rs from her, but true to form she told me I was full of sh!te and that of course she’d host them. So here’s a rundown on how they spent their 3 days in Scotia’s ancient capital.

Thursday, 13th: They arrived from Kings X at 3 in the afternoon. She picked them up at Waverley Station and immediately drove them past the architectural carbuncle that is the seat of the Scottish Parliament (designed by a dead Spaniard whose widow channeled his postmortem instructions – really) and around Queen’s Park (aka Holyrood Park.) The aim of this circumnavigation of the park (an astonishingly beautiful place) was the Sheep Heid, an absolutely ancient pub (1380, or so they claim) in the village of Duddingston (one of several villages engulfed by Edinburgh over the centuries) - https://eatingedinburgh.files.wordpr...sheep-heid.jpg and https://media.timeout.com/images/101746775/image.jpg . There she bought them their first legal beers (the drinking age is 18.) They then had a turn on the skittles alley – prehistoric bowling, basically – where my nephew got a strike then had to reset the pins by hand - http://ww3.hdnux.com/photos/47/76/05.../1024x1024.jpg

She then took them to her house where they dropped bags (they’d arrived at Heathrow the previous afternoon off an overnight flight from Seattle so they were dragging) but she took no pity on them and forced them to accompany her on foot for a climb up the Calton Hill so they could get a lay of the land - http://billward.co/wp-content/galler...n_dscf8201.jpg . She then made sure their phones (with GPS) showed them how to get back to her house, and left them to make their way home via a walk through the New Town. They stopped for a meal at another great pub, the Kenilworth in Rose Street - http://francona.com/travels/scotland...rghpub-046.jpg - before crashing in her spare room.

Friday, 14th: She got them up early and pointed them back to Queen’s Park where they marched up to Arthur’s Seat - https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...rgh_Castle.JPG – which they followed with a bus tour of the city that included, I presume, the usual – Royal Mile, Palace of Holyroodhouse, New Town, probably the University or the Meadows, down to Mrs. Q’s wee boat in Leith, etc. Not sure of the route but most likely the basics. They crashed early that night.

Saturday, 15th: She had been encouraging them to get outta town, so she arranged a day’s bus tour to Falkirk, Stirling and the Trossachs. It included the Kelpies - http://billward.co/wp-content/galler...lpies_5882.jpg - hey, you’ve seen the Sheep Heid, how about some horse heids? – and the Falkirk Wheel, a star wars boat lift that connects two Victorian-era canals - http://www.boatingbusiness.com/__dat...and-beyond.jpg - that matches its visual impressiveness with equally depressing financial performance. Oh well, thanks, Europe, now go take a hike. The tour stopped at Bannockburn - https://www.myhighlands.de/wp-conten...urn-Statue.jpg - and Stirling Castle (they didn’t want to pay for Edinburgh castle, which is just as scenic from the bottom of the hill as it is inside) - https://farm6.static.flickr.com/5011...5642c4e1_b.jpg . It then went on to Loch Katrine in the Trossachs; I don’t know if they took a boat tour on the loch, but it’s a very pretty place, a bit of not-quite Highland scenery - https://images.fineartamerica.com/im...n-mckinlay.jpg .

They finished the day (and their tour of Edinburgh as they flew to Amsterdam earlier today) with haggis, neeps and tatties at the Café Royal, one of Edinburgh’s most splendid boozers (the Café’s oyster bar, which they didn’t visit, was used in <i>Chariots of Fire</i>.) http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6033/...5f9fd0ab_b.jpg

My nephew is doing a gap year before starting university in 2018. I suggested to my friend that she ever-so-gently lobby the boys about possibly doing some studies in Europe, but my nephew was ahead of her; he asked about universities in Edinburgh before they got home from the station the first day. So she was going to take them past the Edinburgh University “old college” - http://www.law.ed.ac.uk/__data/asset..._quad_023a.jpg - and George Square (where her husband and I spent many a day “studying” between pints and darts tournaments) on the way to the airport this morning.

O to be 18 and in Edinburgh in July. I owe her.