The Royal Scotsman Classic Tour 1: getting there

Weekend in Edinburgh by train, take 2

Last year we celebrated our Ruby Wedding Anniversary. Among other things we planned a tour of the Scottish Highlands on the Belmond Royal Scotsman but unfortunately that fell victim to the pandemic (specifically to the impossibility of the foreign tourists, who had taken all the other places on the tour, being able to get here), so that holiday was truncated to (a very splendid) weekend in Edinburgh and a similar highland tour booked for this August instead, again with a weekend in Edinburgh to start it off.

The Royal Scotsman check-in is done at The Balmoral Hotel and last year I booked a couple of nights there in a special room in order to begin our special celebratory holiday in style, but this year we thought we'd try somewhere else so that we were not trying to emulate the wonderful time we'd had at The Balmoral last year, so I booked a couple of nights at the Hilton Edinburgh Carlton, just round the corner: it would still be a great room in a great hotel but would not just be a repeat of what we had already done. 

Like so many other trips this summer, booking the train tickets was a bit protracted as I waited for Advance tickets for the various sections of the journey to become available, but in the end all was booked and we just had to wait for the time to come. Fortunately we had our south coast holiday and our short break in London to enjoy so that we were not just pacing the room waiting for Scotland. Nevertheless, there were preparations to be made! Two of the dinners on the Royal Scotsman were to be formal and required traditional evening wear, so I had to check that my dinner suits were clean and pressed, ditto the dress shirts, and for the informal dinners on the other two evenings a jacket ("with or without a tie") was still needed, so I had to ensure that something suitable was also available for those. Then in Scotland in August it is anyone'e guess what the weather will be doing so a wide selection of daywear would be required to cope with anything from hot sun to pouring rain and cold: while we'd had cold, wet weather in England this August, it was not so in parts of Scotland. Thus our usual size of suitcase would be inadequate, especially for Alison's evening dresses. Before we went to London for the short break we had our larger cases out on the spare bed, the cases usually reserved for long European tours, and prepared most of the outfits we'd need, because we would be home for just one complete day before leaving for Edinburgh, so there would be little time to prepare and pack between the trips.

Two days before our trip began a freight train had collided with a tractor on an occupation crossing near March (which had disrupted our journey home from London), and the recovery and track repairs were still going on, but fortunately Cross Country Trains had managed to get the timetable back to normal between Stamford and Peterborough so our outward journey was not affected. Connections between our local trains and services to Edinburgh are a bit too tight for comfort and we were not in a hurry so I built in some slack with an extra hour in Peterborough: LNER had resumed their offer of free coffee and cake at the Great Northern Hotel for passengers with First Class tickets so it was easy to while away the time there with The Times Quick Cryptic crossword puzzle before going to platform 4 to await the LNER Azuma train to Edinburgh, the first time we had headed north since last year's shortened trip.

As ever, the ride with LNER in First Class was comfortable and the staff were attentive and helpful. We did not have the coffee, having had that at the Great Northern Hotel, but had fruit juice and biscuits in the morning and then sandwiches and wine for lunch when the time came, north of York. By the time we came to the best scenery, in Northumberland, the weather was not great but the mist and rain did clear for us to have a good view of Lindisfarne and of Berwick-upon-Tweed. One more cup of tea and the Scottish capital was almost upon us, a very light drizzle awaiting us (this was August 2021, after all) as we left the train.

Leaving Waverley station on the south side was simple enough (using the lift to the footbridge because of our larger-than-usual suitcases), but the closure of the stairs up to North Bridge meant a bit of a detour with even more steps up, but even so we were very soon at our hotel and were checked in. I had booked a "King Executive Room" which sounded more comfortable than most, and it was. It also included, and I did not take this in until check-in, access to the "Executive Lounge", of which more later. I had asked for a street view and we got one, but it was not the main street, North Bridge, but Market Street, where we had just walked with our luggage, with the glass roof of Waverley station beyond.

After checking in and unpacking enough for two nights (and our best clothes to reduce the creasing!) we strode off to The Balmoral: one thing I had booked the same as last year was our Afternoon Tea in the Palm Court at The Balmoral. This time we did not have the Champagne but we did drink quite a lot more tea. The meal is a fixed price and is for up to two hours - I booked 5pm, the latest time that allows the full two hours and late enough for it to count as our evening meal - and unlimited tea and/or coffee is included in the price. It is hard to imagine anyone requiring any more food than is provided, or needing another meal after it. It is simply wonderful, even without the Champagne, and highly recommended (advance booking recommended, too) if you find yourself in Edinburgh. The surroundings of the Palm Court and the attentive staff add to the experience - you may have seen them all on the TV series broadcast by Channel 5 earlier this year.

A little walk after tea and then it was time to write the start of this blog post and get ready for bed, catching up with such reading as had not been done on the train. 

After a good night's sleep in the king bed we went for the included breakfast in the hotel's dining room, a Marco Pierre White restaurant like one we'd visited for afternoon tea once in London (only more spacious) where the full buffet breakfast was on offer, the first we'd come across since the stat of the pandemic. It seemed really weird sharing serving spoons etc and we sanitised our hands before and after helping ourselves to our breakfast elements - we were very much aware of the necessity of keeping clear of infection, in spite of our vaccinations, because we had to have a negative Covid test to board the Royal Scotsman, and we had our test kit ready for use later in the day - it had to be within 24 hours of check-in for the train. It was a delicious breakfast and the staff were really helpful. Had to have haggis, of course, with the cooked course.

Last year we had been unable to visit the National Museum of Scotland but now advance booking was not only available but required and I had booked our admission long ago to ensure that the Sunday would be the museum day. We spent some time there and caught up on things we had not seen when we visited the city a few years earlier, plus the temporary gallery on the Galloway Hoard of Viking age treasure which was absolutely fascinating.

We returned briefly to our room and then set off again to the National Trust for Scotland's Georgian House which we'd seen before, many years ago, and had booked in advance to visit again this time. memories fade and exhibits are updated, so sometimes a revisit is worthwhile especially as National Trust members because we can visit as often as we wish at no cost. There was some commotion in the street outside because the official residence of the First Minister of the Scottish Government is next door and a couple of dozen people were holding some sort of anti-mask protest. I do not know whether she was at home but for her sake I hope she was able to get some peace on a Sunday afternoon in her own home. The Georgian House gives a wonderful glimpse into the world of Georgian society and the history of "new town" Edinburgh, "the Athens of the North", and was to us especially redolent of Georgian houses we have lived in at various times. Knowing that there was a gastronomic experience to come during the week, our "dinner" that evening consisted of the included refreshment offering at the Executive Lounge at the hotel. This was really rather good, the sort of thing that used to be on offer in First Class on East Coast trains a few years ago: a light hot meal with snacks and drinks (including wine), at no extra cost.

It was a relief to do the required Covid19 tests and get a negative result, but then there was still a difficulty sleeping because, two years after planning this trip and one year after we were supposed to have done it, we finally looked like we would be on our way in the morning! But we did sleep and after another good breakfast we made our way to the Royal Scotsman check-in at The Balmoral Hotel where our luggage was taken away and we met our tour manager Gerry and one or two other passengers including Les, an "ambassador" from the Scotch Malt Whisky Society who on the tour with two society members visiting distilleries while the rest of us were doing the classic Royal Scotsman tour and who would teach the rest of us all we wanted to know about whisky. In due course we were taken with the other passengers (about two dozen) to the platform at Waverley station where a piper was waiting to pipe us to the waiting train. At last, two years after first booking this trip it was about to begin!

Update: This holiday is now summarised on YouTube at https://youtu.be/W5U9cOBTd40?si=RE8gf7Sdxlc1muCm. Do take a look, and maybe subscribe to the channel?

A Very Special Weekend!

 By train to a fantastic weekend in Edinburgh

Sharing a bathroom with film stars!

This year makes a special milestone in my marriage, and a year ago my wife and I planned a very special holiday to mark it. We booked short tour of the Scottish Highlands on the Belmond Royal Scotsman, a luxury "cruise" train, to visit the one line out of Inverness which was still on our "to do" list. The tour started in Edinburgh on the day after our anniversary, so we also booked two nights at The Balmoral hotel to ensure that the day itself would be special and that we would be sure to be there for the start of the tour with no last-minute rush. There was so much to look forward to in the Royal Scotsman tour that I had given very little thought to the weekend in Edinburgh that was to precede it, but all that was to change when I came to pay the balance of the fare to Belmond - and I shall come to that shortly. First I really must tell you about the booking of the hotel for the weekend!

The Balmoral is not just any old hotel. It was originally the railway hotel for the North British Railway, later part of the LNER and then British Rail, of course (see Update in footnote). The railway hotels were sold off in the 1980s and this one was bought and refurbished to an exceptionally high standard by Rocco Forte Hotels and is now a very high-end hotel and bookings are made though Grand Luxury Hotels who appoint a Guest Experience Manager to look after guests prior to arrival. Our weekend was to be special so we wanted a room overlooking the castle, and we wanted a good room, and ... the weekend was during the Edinburgh Festival, so, taking all this together, it was not cheap! They asked if a room was sufficient or if we'd prefer a suite: I opted for a room since we did not intend to live in it, just sleep. After my Guest Experience Manager had been appointed I received an email message asking what time my flight was due to arrive and which class of Mercedes I would prefer for my transfer from the airport ... and all this at a railway hotel! I might have known that odd things would happen when the person taking the booking pronounced the city's name "Eedinburrow": it was plain that she had never been there and had no idea how things worked in the UK. I wrote back explaining that the hotel was above one of Britain's most important rail stations and that it would probably take me longer to fly there from Stamford than to go by train. (And even if I had flown, I think the tram from the airport would have been fine by me!)

Everything was booked, then, about a year in advance, but then like everything else in 2020 it all started to unravel with the advent of the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic. Most of this year's outings in the spring and summer were cancelled and refunded early, but the August ones we hoped might happen. Unfortunately although the Royal Scotsman could run with only 20 passengers, just over half of its normal load, the other 18 still booked on it were American and could not get to Scotland, so that part of the holiday was cancelled. The Balmoral hotel, however, had just reopened and our booking still stood, so as soon as I could get train tickets the holiday, at one-third of its planned length, was still on, and it did cover the date of the wedding anniversary, which was great. Now the "supporting act" became the main attraction and we started to replan the trip around The Balmoral.

Booking the train tickets turned out to be a little more interesting than usual because the outbound ones, on a Saturday, were not released until a couple of weeks before departure, so I had to invest in the return part in the hope we could get there! Otherwise it would have had to be a long drive in the car and an application for  refund for the return train trip. But it all came out all right in the end, although the reduced frequency of trains between Stamford and Peterborough meant that we started this luxury holiday on a bus to Peterborough. But Delaine's buses are very good and all worked well.

Just as with the Cross Country trains the previous weekend, the catering was minimal, so we took a packed lunch for the journey. we were supplied with coffee, biscuits, crisps and water with our First Class booking, but not the usual hot lunch that we had hoped to enjoy before the pandemic changed everyone's plans. This was by far our longest trip so far on LNER's "Azuma" Intercity Express Train and we thoroughly enjoyed the ride in spite of having to wear face-coverings and forego the usual standard of luncheon. We were required to sit in the seats reserved for us, chosen by LNER to ensure social distancing, although this had to be changed by our train manager because someone else had "stolen" our seats: she could check which ones were available and ensured we would not be disturbed again. This ride up the East Coast Main Line is one of my favourites, with a fast, comfortable train and some incomparable views, especially of the Northumberland coast but also including Durham, the Tyne at Newcastle, Berwick-upon-Tweed and some magnificent stations, too, at York and Newcastle.

We arrived at Edinburgh within a minute or two of the advertised time and made our way up to Princes Street to the hotel, at number 1 Princes Street. As we approached the front door with our cases, a concierge approached and asked if we were checking in - we must have looked like Balmoral guests ... we checked in and went to our room, the cases having been taken away to be brought up to us. We had booked one of the better rooms in the hotel but were given a free upgrade to a better one still. As I mentioned, this had been going to be Edinburgh Festival week but, of course, that was cancelled and so presumably the hotel had many spare rooms available. They knew we were there for a special anniversary because when I had called to book a table for dinner on the Sunday they had asked if it was for a special occasion, so it was very good of them to let us have an even better room. When we opened the door we were amazed by the room which was not only spacious and well-equipped but was right at the top of the building in one of the corner turrets with the most fantastic view long Princes Street as well as up the the castle. I could not have asked for a better room.

We unpacked and made our way down to the Palm Court where we had booked (everything has to be booked now) afternoon tea; just as we were leaving our room a basket of fruit was delivered by the house staff - all part of the service here! We had booked the tea as a substitute for dinner and went for a fairly late tie for tea, at 5pm. We were welcomed into the Palm Court and shown to a suitable table in the typically pleasant atmosphere of traditional palm court within the atrium of this hotel built on a square plan. Elsewhere in the hotel is a poster from inter-war days showing the Palm Court as it was then, and it is quite recognisable today. There was a choice of tea and an option to begin with a glass of Champagne,

which, naturally, we did.  We each had our own choice of tea, poured from a great height into personal teapots so that it was cool enough to drink immediately, and a plate of savouries which included a haggis tart, the first of several haggis-based dishes we would have over these two days. Two hours was allowed for afternoon tea and we used most of that, consuming two pots of tea each in spite of also having Champagne and water. Although each item in the meal seemed to be small, there was plenty to eat and we were well-filled. We did not even need to start on the basket of fruit in our room before bed-time! At the end of the meal we were given a small tin of tea and a couple of chocolates each to take away. The chocolates survived until the train home on Monday, and we started the tea at our first tea-time at home on Tuesday - having run out of our St Pancras Blend tea it was good to have something special again.

We went for a long walk after tea, to the other end of Princes Street, back around the castle and along The Royal Mile to Holyrood and then back to the hotel.

On the Sunday we had originally had nothing planned, but before we left home had managed to book a visit to the Scottish National Gallery for the late morning, all attempts to get tickets for the National Museum of Scotland having failed. These venues were both free-of-charge but needed booking for space reasons during the pandemic. We started the day with a great breakfast at the hotel - again booked in advance by completing a form left in our room at turn-down - and then made our way via a shop or two to the art gallery just along Princes Street. It is a small gallery but with a wide selection of styles and artists, including the universally-known Monarch of the Glen by Sir Edwin Landseer which was amazing to see for oneself rather than printed on a biscuit tin!

The breakfast was intended to last all day until the special dinner booked for the evening, so after our time at the art gallery we went straight on to our next activity, booked the day before, a visit to the Royal Botanic Garden. It was drizzling all the way there, about a half-hour walk, but dried up as we arrived. There was an occasional shower during our visit but nothing to spoil it. We were there to enjoy the gardens rather than study botany, and of all the botanic gardens we have visited, this is the best for that, for the layout and landscaping is superb. Do visit here is you're in Edinburgh, but try to choose better weather than we had! It is hard to do it justice in a photograph: you have to be there.

The third course, Orkney Scallop

We returned to the hotel via Harvey Nichols, for there was something we needed that we had been unable to source anywhere else, and it is not every day that we are in a city with a branch of that particular emporium. Showering after the day's weather and dressing for dinner we made our way down to another of the hotel's restaurants, named "Number One" after the hotel's street address, for the seven-course table d'hôte tasting menu that we had booked before leaving home. This would be our special meal for our anniversary.

We had done these tasting menus before: lots of small courses which can be accompanied by matching wines, but we opted on this occasion simply to start with a single glass of Champagne and then have a bottle of a light red wine which would go reasonably well with the whole meal. A glass for each course has always left us feeling that we've had too much alcohol before we have finished the meal.

Before the seven courses started we were brought "something to nibble," an amuse-bouche, and some bread and butter (both bread and butter the chef's own recipe and made to order - nothing from a factory here) as well as a glass of water, and the bread and water were topped up as the meal went on.

Three fish courses and a single large ravioli brought us eventually to the beef which was served with three vegetables and potato, but these were unrecognisable as they were presented, each of them delicious and, amazingly, filling. The beef, Highland, of course, was superb.

We opted not to have the optional cheese course and went straight to the two desserts, again, small, delicious and plenty. Espresso coffee rounded off the meal nicely and we retired to our room well-satisfied.

On the final day we were not due to leave until the 16:00 train, so we arranged to check out at 15:00 and had a final attempt, unsuccessful, to obtain admission to the National Museum and decided to go on a bus tour of the city instead, having been plied with a leaflet by Bright Bus on our first evening. It has a stop opposite the museum and runs every fifteen minutes so we went to the stop and waited for just a few moments. With our senior discount the fare was just £9 each for hop-on, hop-off travel on the tour bus all day. The rain held off and the open-top bus took us round a lot of the city with an informative commentary, and it interesting to see from a higher vantage point some of the places we had walked on the first evening. We left the bus near the castle and walked down through Princes Street Gardens, which had been closed for the previous two days, always a great place to be, and then made our way back, checked out and walked round the corner to the station for our train home.

Again we had a great ride along the Northumberland Coast and were plied with coffee, tea, biscuits and crisps from the First Class host at the end of the train (no trolley services anywhere during the pandemic) and took our own salad dinner bought from Mark & Spencer earlier in the day. Things went slightly awry at Newcastle Central when some passengers had to be refused boarding because they refused to wear face coverings, currently a legal requirement, and we left there five minutes late. This was slightly troublesome because we had a very tight connection to our train home at Peterborough. Some of the time was clawed back, however, and although we were a touch late getting into Peterborough it was easy enough to get over to platform 7 and board our train home. Unbelievably some people near us on the train south of York all claimed to be exempt from the face covering rule and although the train manager had to give them the benefit of such doubt as there was, he did check their tickets and ordered them to leave as they were not in their booked seats - indeed they were travelling First Class on standard tickets.

All in all we had had a wonderful time. Not as wonderful as we had expected when we first booked it a year ago but wonderful anyway. It was just a weekend but it was a great weekend. It had been expensive but we had what we paid for and felt we'd had excellent value. The hotel and the art gallery had only been open a matter of days after closure because of the coronavirus pandemic and yet we were served brilliantly by capable and dedicated staff, and at the hotel in particular felt like valued customers - which we probably were, given the number who must have cancelled. No foreign guests, no Festival. We were fortunate that The Balmoral was still trading. 

We shall try to take our Royal Scotsman trip next year, and we hope we can stay at The Balmoral again before we take that train.

Update:

I have now posted a brief description of our previous stay at the then North British Hotel in 1984: you can see it at Back in Time for a Break in Edinburgh! It was all very different then.

Exciting, but daunting

The next few trips by train

Well, over the last week or two I have bought train tickets for our August excursions. One of these trips I had almost decided would have to be done by road, and I really was not looking forward to that, and the other two have had to be cut short because of cancellations and other complications arising from the coronavirus pandemic. They are all long journeys and involve changes of train, and although I have been able to minimise the number of changes I am still concerned that if we miss a connection owing to late running we may not be able to board a subsequent train if it is deemed "full" by social-distancing regulations. I am also, I must admit, not overjoyed at the prospect of wearing a face-covering for a long journey, even though the journeys will be broken by mealtimes when we can temporarily remove them. It is also unclear at present what catering will be offered, if any, on the services we shall be using, so we shall take our own provisions.

Coastway train approaching Chichester

These will be our first train journeys since February and the first long ones since last autumn, so I am looking forward to them immensely even with the foregoing concerns! The first will be our usual trip to Chichester where we shall meet our friends holidaying on the south coast at Bracklesham Bay. We are omitting the originally-planned few days on the Isle of Wight which were going to precede it because of the uncertainty of how we might have been able to get there: these trips require advance planning and there was no way of working out what would be operating and what would not, and if we could not cross the Solent we could not get there - and that was one trip for which I definitely did not want to take the car, too. We can manage that with just two changes, using a Thameslink service right through from Peterborough to East Croydon - slow but simple, and the trains are spacious. We'll do that in Standard Class as there is little to be gained from First.

The next is a family gathering on the Purbeck peninsula in Dorset, and we'll be travelling via Birmingham New Street to Bournemouth by Cross Country Trains and then open-top bus to the hotel. This is the journey we had always planned to do, although I might have chosen to go one way via London and the other via Birmingham, but although much longer the Birmingham route is so much simpler and involves just the one change of train - the reduced frequencies do mean a long layover in New Street but it is at lunch time so we can eat there.

Finally there is Edinburgh. This was to have been a couple of nights before a Royal Scotsman tour of the Highlands, but that had to be cancelled by Belmond, the provider, because although they could manage financially with only half a load, all the rest of the booked passengers were American and would be unable to get to Scotland. So we are just going to spend the weekend in Edinburgh and come home: the Royal Scotsman will have to wait for another year, if, indeed, Belmond is still in business another year. It is all very difficult to plan anything at present.

In the autumn, all being well, we are due to go to Italy with Great Rail Journeys, but who knows? we could be in the midst of a second wave of coronavirus by then, with international travel curtailed. Next year? Well, that is anyone's guess. We'd like to pick up the Scottish rail tour and to return to Le Locle, Switzerland, in the late spring when the lakes and rivers are full, and to visit the Isle of Wight again. The putative trip to the USA is pushed back further and if Amtrak does not survive it may never happen.

Built on Three Hills

The view from the Castle rock to Calton Hill, two of the three
volcanic vents which shape Edinburgh (the other is Arthur's
Seat). Waverley station in foreground, Firth of Forth behind.

We were sort-of bounced into a holiday in Scotland, using up our last East Coast Rewards free First Class tickets. It has always been tempting to go as far north as possible to get the maximum value (mean? me?), but we did not fancy the Highlands in winter when booking three months ahead and it is a very long time since we visited Edinburgh, so we opted for Edinburgh which, as the capital of Scotland has a huge number of places to visit within a relatively small space. I only had enough Rewards points for three tickets, so bought my own ticket back using my Senior Railcard: the facility to choose our own seats on the train back meant that I could book seats together even though buying separately. So, three nights, four days, in the February school holiday week were duly booked at a hotel in Princes Street, one of the Mercure chain whose loyalty scheme I had joined in Paris a couple of years before but never used.

Crossing the Royal Border Bridge at Berwick on Tweed

We caught the 09:00 train to Peterborough and had half an hour to wait for our connection to Edinburgh - a wander round Waitrose always fills the time! It is always (well, usually - see the end of this story for the exception) a pleasure to board a Virgin Trains East Coast First Class coach and settle down for a ride. Before long the coffee is served and we are on our way. Our train was a few moments late, delayed behind a late-running local train from London, but this did not affect us in the slightest. What was disappointing was that the hot meal was unavailable for lunch, owing to an equipment failure in the train kitchen, but the sandwich option was very good and we were quite happy with that, especially as the catering crew leader kindly visited every passenger personally to explain and apologise. The Hop On Board ale went very well with the sandwiches and we were neither hungry nor thirsty when we arrived in Edinburgh. As always on this route, the scenery is great once we were north of York. The real spectacle starts with the view of Durham Cathedral and Castle and then just south Newcastle upon Tyne the Angel of the North, then the well-known Tyne bridges in the city itself, one of the few "iconic" (as they say these days) views in England outside London. Just after the stop at Newcastle, we passed the new castle which gave the city its name, and then the line draws closer to the east coast in Northumberland with spectacular sea views and brief glimpses of Bamburgh Castle and longer views of Holy Island. This ride is worth doing just for the scenery! There were hints of snow here and there, too, all the way.

Arrival into Edinburgh was just a few minutes late, and we were soon walking up the ramp directly off the platform onto Waverley Bridge. I had booked in advance a ticket for three royal tourist destinations in the city: the royal yacht Britannia, the Palace of Holyroodhouse and Edinburgh Castle, together with 48 hours unlimited use of the three tour bus routes in the city which, as well as being interesting in themselves, would take us to those three places. The booking office (well, hut) was on Waverly Bridge but the clerk on duty suggested we check into our hotel first and come back when we were ready for our first tour because the 48 hours begins the moment she issues the ticket. So, an hour later we were back and, armed with our bus ticket and tearable-off tickets for the three royal attractions we boarded our first tour bus.

This bus, the Edinburgh Tour, had a live commentary from a live guide called Gordon who had the usual line in feeble jokes so beloved of tour guides everywhere but also taught us a great deal about the city of Edinburgh on our long way round to Edinburgh Castle. From where we were starting, it would have been quicker to walk, but this tour got us started with some knowledge of the city, and did save us a lot of uphill walking! We had already seen most of the Royal Mile (the streets from the Palace to the Castle) within two hours of getting off the train.

The Castle was well worth a visit just for the view from it! We could see our hotel room window across Princes Street and its Gardens, and we could see most of Edinburgh ... including one tower of the Forth Bridge in the distance. The display of the Scottish crown jewels - the Honours - was fascinating in giving some insight into the history of relationships between England and Scotland and the nature of the Union. Such a pity that our shared monarch does not use the Scottish Honours as well as the Imperial crown, orb and sceptre. The Stone of Destiny (the Stone of Scone as it is often known) is now on display with the crown, orb and sceptre here and is actually far more significant to Scottish understanding of royalty than the crown is.

The Castle was closing for the night as we made our way out and down the hill to our hotel. For dinner we went out into the city and decided to eat at what had been the North British Hotel when we had stayed in it three decades previously with our infant sons but was now, oddly, the Balmoral Hotel and very upmarket. we had not booked and had to wait about half an hour for a table and took up the suggestion of having a drink in the bar. The bar was table-service (never had that before!) and very expensive - neat move, I thought. They assured us that the price of the drinks could be added to our restaurant bill and off we went. The meal was, I must say, fantastic, and worth the price, although they did manage to bring us "French fries" in place of the ordered French beans but soon corrected it: if they'd just called chips, "chips," it would not have been a mistake waiting to be made ...

And so back to a good night's sleep in our comfortable Mercure bed. This hotel had also been renamed but the old name (Mount Royal) persisted on some of the signage. Hard to know where you are these days ... We slept this night with the curtains open, falling asleep with the city's skyline in our minds and waking to an amazing orange and pink sky behind Arthur's Seat, the volcanic hill dominating the east end of the Old Town.

State Dining Room on board the Royal Yacht. Her Majesty
or her family could host large banquets wherever they went
with Britannia.

It is essential to have Cappuccino
at the tea room on Britannia in
order to get this stencilled
chocolate on top!

One ticket down, two to go, and after breakfast we caught the Majestic Tour bus off to the Ocean Terminal at Leith where we visited HMY Britannia, which I had planned as the centrepiece of these first two days. Finding the entrance was not a cinch, as the Ocean Terminal (in reality now a shopping centre) had rather few and unpredictable staircases and escalators but we got there in the end. The visit starts at the 2nd floor of the centre so that we worked our way down the ship, breaking our tour to have tea at the tea room on the royal deck, until we had seen the whole vessel. Almost everything is on display and the ship is actively being conserved: The tour, using personal audio guides, begins on the bridge and flag deck then the royal deck (complete with garage for Rolls Royce!) and then the crew's quarters and engine room.

I'd thoroughly recommend a visit to anyone who is in Edinburgh with two or three hours to spare. There are many local buses to Ocean Terminal without taking the time and expense of the tour bus if you are not interested in the tour, but this tour has a recorded multi-lingual commentary and we learnt a  to more about the history of Edinburgh on our way there - and the pre-booked, discount ticket not only saved us money but also avoided the queue at the ticket office.

We left the Royal Yacht and spent just a few moments around the shops at the Ocean Terminal before resuming the Majestic bus tour whose route took us through Leith to the Palace of Holyroodhouse. By now it was drizzling and very cold and windy but it was only a few seconds' walk to the entrance and our tickets let us straight in. Again there was an audio tour of the house and we were led through several state rooms but as this palace is still the Queen's official residence in Scotland there was also quite a lot we did not see. The tour finishes with the ruined Abbey of the Holy Rood which has a stark grandeur but by now the rain was heavier and the wind stronger and we did not stay long. We battled against the gales to the café for a snack to see us through to dinner and then began a walk back to our hotel along the Royal Mile, stopping at interesting places along the way, the first and most significant being the Museum of Edinburgh. This is a fairly small museum, free to enter and yet has some great presentations explaining the geological and human history of this great city. We did not see quite everything because it closed for the night before we had come to the very end, but we saw most things and enough - alongside our bus tours - to gain some understanding of how the city became what it is.

Back at our room we dressed for dinner. This was not putting on a dinner jacket but wrapping up as warmly as possible. Our dinner venue, which we had booked by telephone earlier in the day, was a restaurant just outside the castle gates which we had noticed on Monday afternoon when we'd had a drink the café at the same premises. It had a bargain-priced pre-theatre deal with an all-Scottish menu and so we had a starter of haggis balls and a main course of cullen skink, an amazing haddock broth, with a pint of heather ale. The view from the window was of the floodlit castle. Then back to our room for an early night after the exertions of the day - the main exertion being the walk to the restaurant: it was not far but it was at the top of the castle rock and then up two very long staircases, Probably the equivalent of climbing about fifteen floors altogether!

Our last full day I had not planned. Or, rather, I had planned but we ditched the plans: I had thought of a day trip to Glasgow because there are places there which had promised ourselves that we would visit one day, but we decided that this cold day was not the one. Another possibility had been a day trip to Aviemore to see the Cairngorms in the snow, but we decided to spend the morning doing the last of the three Edinburgh bus tours (our tickets being valid until 13:59, forty-eight hours after buying them) and then to visit another Royal Mile museum in the afternoon, the Museum of Childhood about which we had heard good things on the bus the day before. We lost track of the number of times we said, "I had one of those!" There were some things of which we said, "Our children had one of those," even. (By the way, I had the station platform and buildings in the photo ...)

We had enjoyed the meal at the Cannonball Restaurant the previous evening and so we decided to return this evening but a little later for the full menu and this time to dress properly and make an evening of it, starting with cocktails and finishing with single malt scotch whisky. It was a grand, but not cheap, evening out, and still involved the climb from our hotel on Princes Street. We were given liqueurs after the main course as a "welcome back" gift: this is a very friendly restaurant.

And so to bed.

A whisky still displayed at the
National Museum

On the last day we had no urgent plans for the morning and arrived for breakfast only just in time, then packed our things and checked out, leaving our cases in the luggage room and setting off across the valley again for the National Museum of Scotland in Chambers Street. This was until recently two museums and there is a connection between them only on one level. We spent all day in the part dedicated to the history of Scotland - with a short break for a snack lunch - and saw only about two-thirds of it. And we still have the other part to visit: another trip to Edinburgh is called for.

We returned to collect our cases from the hotel and made our way to Waverley station where we waited in the First Class lounge for our train, which was coming in from Aberdeen (the service we had used a couple of years ago when returning from Aberdeen ourselves).  When we boarded the First Class coaches were already almost full but our reserved seats were ready for us and we stowed our luggage and sat down. There were some very loud men, clearly the worse for drink, in the next seating bay behind me and they showed no sign of quietening down. This was very disappointing, for our travel in East Coast First Class had always been so relaxing but it was impossible to relax with travelling companions like these - what the Scots would call "numpties," I think. Because the train was so busy it was hard to find alternative seats, but we did find two together in the "Quiet Coach" and switched our telephones to silent mode, moved our luggage and sat down. This did rather disrupt the catering because the trolley had already passed our new seats, but the staff were absolutely marvellous and made sure that we did not lose out. The pie was as good as ever, as was the Hop On Board ale. Already dark there was nothing to be seen from the windows, but besides the eating and drinking I had my photographs to sort out and we were soon in Peterborough. We were a little late but just in time to make our connection to Stamford by the extra East Midlands evening train bound for Nottingham (had we missed it the regular Cross Country one was only twenty minutes later), and then we treated ourselves to a taxi home from the station.

So this leaves us with the need for at least two further trips to Scotland: one to visit the Highlands and one Edinburgh and Glasgow, or some other combination. Plans are already fermenting for one of these trips and perhaps we'll do it in 2017.