Heading North

Edinburgh is a fairytale, someone wrote under one of my posts when I started sharing the first photos during the trip.

And they were absolutely right.

But let’s start at the beginning.

Scotland had been sitting on our travel wish list for a long time. Close enough that we kept talking about it, yet somehow always far enough away to become a maybe someday destination.

Then one autumn day, Anja said, in that tone I know very well by now, that EasyJet had opened a direct route to Edinburgh.

At that moment, the decision was pretty much made.

The next day, the flights were already booked.

We would figure out later how many days we would spend in each place, how we would reach the Highlands, and whether traveling across Scotland without a car was even possible.

The important thing was that we had the flights booked.

The Right Time for Scotland

Because we travel independently as a family, we usually plan bigger trips well in advance. Mostly because of accommodations. If you wait too long, the reasonable prices on Booking disappear fast.

Every minute spent standing in an unnecessary line during a trip is wasted time. And most of the time, it can be avoided with good planning. We’ve proven that to ourselves more than once.

When we booked the flights to Scotland in the fall, we already had Portugal planned for the autumn school holidays, Barcelona for New Year’s, and Rome for the winter break. Scotland therefore had to wait until the May holidays.

And as it later turned out, we could hardly have picked a better time.

Still, putting together the logistics for the whole trip took quite a bit of planning. Edinburgh, Inverness, Drumnadrochit, Fort William, and Glasgow. All by train and bus, without a car.

On paper, it all seemed fairly simple.

We hoped it would work just as smoothly in real life.

Before We Even Took Off

Since Brexit, the United Kingdom is no longer part of the European Union, which means you now need an ETA approval to enter the country.

It’s an electronic travel authorization that you apply for online and link to your passport number. It costs around £20 and is required for every traveler, regardless of age.

A passport is now essential for the UK anyway. An ID card alone will not get you very far.

The next important thing was accommodations. We booked all four stops of our trip through Booking.com. Even though April is still considered the beginning of the season, many places in the Highlands were already heavily booked four months in advance, so in the end, we took what was still available.

Because we knew we would be traveling entirely by public transport, I started looking into trains and buses fairly early. Tickets are much cheaper if you buy them in advance, and more importantly, you can secure your seats.

We also bought a Family & Friends Railcard, which gives you an additional discount and makes ticket prices much more manageable.

Before the trip, Anja also withdrew some British pounds in cash, because you never know when a card terminal might stop working.

And then there are the British adapters. If you already have them at home, great. If not, you can buy them almost everywhere, and many accommodations have them available as well. You just have to ask.

Across the North Sea

One thing that pleasantly surprised me about EasyJet was that you can check in almost a month in advance, including for the return flight.

Just like with Ryanair when we flew to Rome, there was a constant push to buy seats, although it felt a little less aggressive this time.

Still, convinced that minor children must be seated next to at least one parent, I simply ignored all the prompts.

For both flights, we ended up with seats in the same row anyway, in a 3 + 1 arrangement.

Perfect. Another small travel expense saved.

Since you are flying outside the European Union, departures at Ljubljana Airport go through Gate B. In April, the new EES digital border system had also just started operating, so passengers were advised to arrive a bit earlier than usual.

In reality, there were no major crowds. The flight to Belgrade had just departed, and there were no other non-EU flights around that time.

Then came the traditional family photo in front of the plane, something we always do before boarding.

Photo number 33.

The departure time was ideal. A little after eleven in the morning. Early enough that almost the entire afternoon in Scotland was still waiting for us.

The plane was full, mostly with returning Scots, with the occasional Slovenian family here and there.

Somewhere above the Netherlands, you slowly leave continental Europe behind.

Below you catch your first glimpse of the North Sea and the vast wind farms that, from above, almost look unreal. Every now and then, you can even spot an offshore oil platform.

I don’t know why, but that was the moment I first felt like we were truly heading far north.

Less than two and a half hours later, we were already landing at Edinburgh Airport. It is not overly large, which makes it easy to navigate.

There was a bit of a line at border control, but nothing overly complicated.

Now we just had to find our way into the city.

First Impressions

Once you step out of the airport, you simply follow the signs for the tram, and within a few minutes you are already buying tickets from the machine. Everything feels straightforward and easy to understand.

The ride into central Edinburgh takes about half an hour, passing through open grassy landscapes with barely any trees and the occasional hill in the distance. At times, it feels more like traveling through the countryside than approaching one of the most famous cities in the United Kingdom.

Your first real encounter with the city comes when the tram passes a massive stadium. At first, I was convinced it was a football stadium, but later I found out it was Murrayfield, the largest rugby stadium in Scotland.

Rugby here is obviously much more than just another sport.

In the suburbs, the endless rows of terraced houses immediately catch your eye. One after another. One street after another.

Well, I guess they are not called terraced houses for nothing.

After a gentle climb, the tram made one final right turn, and we had arrived.

The moment you step outside, you feel the wind that seems to define this city.

And there, at Haymarket Station in the middle of Edinburgh, our Scottish adventure truly began.

The first thing we did was find our accommodation. Where else but inside another terraced house.

Edinburgh

So where had we actually arrived?

Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, has a population of around half a million people, while nearly one fifth of all Scots live in the greater metropolitan area. Scotland is not an independent country but part of the United Kingdom. Even so, it has its own parliament, legal system, culture, and above all, a very strong sense of national identity.

And Edinburgh reflects that almost everywhere you look.

Much of the city has still preserved its old character of stone houses, narrow streets, and Gothic churches. There are no skyscrapers here, which means Edinburgh Castle still completely dominates the skyline.

And what a castle it is.

If there is such a thing as the definition of a real castle, this is probably it. Standing high above the city on top of an ancient volcanic rock, it almost feels unreal.

Thanks to our Nara, we have been faithfully following Harry Potter ever since London, then through Paris and Porto, all the way here to the city of J. K. Rowling, where she drew inspiration for many character names, streets, and the atmosphere of the world that millions of people know today.

There is one more thing worth mentioning.

It is rare to meet so many relaxed and friendly people so quickly after arriving in a new city. Everywhere we went, people were smiling and kind.

And another stereotype disappeared almost immediately. Their English was far easier to understand than we had expected, so communicating everywhere turned out to be surprisingly easy.

Haymarket

In Rome, where we stayed just ten minutes from the Colosseum, we did not last very long inside the apartment after arriving.

The same thing happened here.

Only this time it felt different. Mostly because, unlike Rome, we did not really know what to expect from the city. And somehow, that made the anticipation even stronger.

Well, if I am being honest, hunger also pushed us out of the apartment pretty quickly.

The neighborhood where we stayed is called Haymarket. Once a marketplace for hay and horses, today it is a mix of hotels, pubs, shops, restaurants, and the city’s characteristic stone houses.

At the same time, it is also one of Edinburgh’s main transport hubs. That was exactly why I chose our accommodation there. Just a few days later, we would already be heading farther north, so having the railway station practically outside the front door felt like a good idea.

But at that moment, all of that still seemed far away.

Right then, Edinburgh was waiting for us.

The Tallest Building in the City

We began our afternoon walk passing all those terraced houses that, little by little, were starting to grow on me.

Once you finally reach the end of the street, a massive Gothic cathedral suddenly opens up around the corner. St Mary’s Cathedral, with its three towers, immediately dominates the view.

In a city that resists skyscrapers so stubbornly, it remains the tallest building in Edinburgh even today, standing at just under 300 feet tall. The height itself is not particularly extraordinary, but after all those repeating two-story houses, it feels enormous.

At sunset, the silhouette of those towers must look incredible.

But we still had to keep moving.

We wanted to catch the sunset somewhere else.

Countryside in the Middle of the City

Dean Village was one of those places that truly made that afternoon special. You do not really expect that, in the middle of all that stone and just a few minutes from the city center, you suddenly arrive in an area with a quiet river, very few tourists, and greenery everywhere around you.

You walk across narrow bridges while the path constantly dips down and rises again, and between the houses, it almost feels as if you have wandered into a small countryside village somewhere far from the city.

Back in the day, the river was lined with mills that supplied Edinburgh with flour and food for centuries. Today, the noise of the mills and the bustle of workers have been replaced by little more than a handful of tourists who happen to wander through.

Besides the scenery itself, I especially liked those round stone towers attached to some of the houses. That is definitely not something you see back home.

That was the moment it became clear where J. K. Rowling found the inspiration for Hogwarts.

A Castle on a Volcano

The path slowly leads uphill, past streets where the view suddenly opens once again toward the tallest building in the city, this time with those three towers standing out even more dramatically.

From there, it is only a short walk past the Johnnie Walker store to Princes Street, probably the most famous street in Edinburgh, filled with shops, hotels, and people.

Once you cross it, another one of the city’s many Gothic churches rises in front of you. But this one stands out, because behind it waits something far more spectacular.

You walk past the dark stone walls of the church, and then suddenly, you see it.

Edinburgh Castle.

Bathed in the light of the setting sun, towering high above the city on a volcanic rock nearly 350 million years old.

Instinctively, you stop.

And simply stare.

Below the castle lies a vast park without a single building, although it had already closed by the time we arrived. So instead, we walked along its edge while the view of the castle kept opening up above us the entire way.

The real highlight comes at the very end, when you manage to capture the setting sun, the castle, and the old buildings of the Royal Mile all in a single frame.

Throughout the entire walk, we were followed by that unmistakable Edinburgh wind. The moment the sun disappeared, the temperature suddenly dropped with it.

By then, the fatigue of the whole day was slowly catching up with us as well, so we simply hopped on the tram and returned to our terraced house.

Tomorrow, a viewpoint from the top of the building directly across from the castle awaits us, along with our first real Harry Potter hunt through Edinburgh.