So after our fun flight with Ryan Air and waited for someone to get the key to unlock the gate doors so we could deplane and walked to get our check luggage we then following the signs to rental car area, I rented from SIXT, with my Prestige card you get Premium level which gives you a free upgrade, and according to the rental car forum many people say that the upgrades are nice, so at Edinburgh they have a category which is called "Lucky Dip Car" it's a low rate and you are offered cars between certain categories. The walk is a long one, and it's 40 degrees outside. When we arrived at the counter, the agent found our reservations saw I was Premium, and offered use a choice of three cars, Audi Q2 petrol, BMW 118d (too small) or a SEAT Arona. Since we didn’t know what the Seat Arona was, we took the Audi Q2, it’s a compact SUV which is not imported to North America at this time. It was a smart choice, it worked well for us, I grew up on manuals and have only driven a right hand car once in my life, so another adventure begins. What I found was, if you follow someone then it makes it easy to understand how things work and I was getting the hang of shifting with my left arm (I only went from 2nd to 6th once). We were staying at the Hilton Edinburgh Carlton, now one would think getting to this place would be fairly easy, I mean, our Audi has Navigation, the Nav system couldn’t find the hotel or the address but finally was able to coax the nav system to recognize the address and off we go. So the drive to the hotel wasn’t all that bad, like I said before as long as you follow someone it’s almost like driving in the US. When we got to the hotel I was extremely lucky to find a spot in front of the hotel and it was good to park there until 6AM the follow morning, now the hotel does not have onsite parking, and I knew that, was given direction to the parking lot but decided to leave the car there unpack some and walk the area, the Hilton Carlton is right next the Royal Mile, and ¼ mile to the Waverley Train Station.
Check in was a breeze, I had checked in on line, just needed to get our keys and off to the lift now getting to our room was a bit of an exercise, once off the lift then you need to go down some steps (4) and there you are at the room. I used point and cash for an King Executive room with Lounge Access, the room was huge, but the couch (sofa bed) was hard as a rock and VERY uncomfortable, but the bed was excellent and just a standard type bathroom, but was impressed to see a soaker tub in the bathroom. The floor was very uneven, as in the building has settled (long ago) type of uneven.
The area in which the Carlton is truly in the heart of Edinburgh you can walk to many of the major attraction of the area but lots of tourist shops get your cashmere sweaters, Kilts, and everything Scottish. We are to have dinner with a friend that night, but we didn’t want to eat too much, went downstairs and talked to the congeries to find a place to eat and he directed us to this class that was less than ¼ mile from the hotel called The Tron lunch for 5 pounds, everything on the lunch menu is 5 pounds and they an extensive menu we shared a pull pork Sammy, comes with chips and coleslaw, plus 2 drinks. It was perfect (sorry no photos, some how they got deleted) I highly recommend this place if you are ever in the area. After eating Rick and I took off and explored the area, it’s the first time for both of in Scotland and was taken at the architecture of the Edinburgh so not many photos at this point we are just in awe after about an hour of walking around, he head back to the hotel, get to the room, and relax some, meeting our friend Janice who in lives in saline fife, Scotland it’s about 25 miles west of Edinburgh. At 6pm we head down to hotel bar and Janice is there, we had a couple of drinks to catch up, and off we go (walk) to the restaurant (it’s about 35 degree). The walk is amazing, seeing many of the building lite up at night truly gives the city a different look and after about 30 minutes we made it to the restaurant it’s called Mussel Inn, it’s a cozy place, and you do need a reservation. So Janice made Rick eat Haggis.
Haggis Bond Bonds in a roasted red pepper puree not much of a Haggis taste to them
Rick and I order the same dish Seafood pasta (shrimp, Scallops, Mussels) in a in a shellfish bisque simply outstanding.
Janice got a half kilo of steamed Mussel in a white wine, shallot and butter sauce
https://photos.smugmug.com/Dub-Edi-N..._0651-1280.mp4
.
Dessert Edinburgh style
We walked around the area and back to the hotel, here are some photos.
When we got back to the hotel, I decided I should move the car to the car park, so off I go and wasn't really that hard to fine, it's about 1/2 miles from the hotel. I saw this gem of a car parked there
Back to the hotel, we have a big day tomorrow.