I just began an 18-day trip to Scotland which starts and ends in Edinburgh. I’ve never traveled here so I have a busy few days planned. This is so exciting!

Day 1 – after arriving at my hotel, and taking a much needed nap, I set off for the castle and surroundings. I needed to get outside after having been inside airports and planes for nearly 24 hours. 

I’m about 2 miles from the main area but there are buses that I can use once I have the route figured out. The walk was perfect.

My goal was to see what Edinburgh is all about and find food that is not airport related. Success!

Day 2 – coffee with my cousin Paul who is here to perform his one man show called “The Last Audition” at the Fringe Festival. The show which he wrote and stars in is about an aging actor with dementia who thinks he is King Lear. I’m excited to see it…

I followed our coffee meet-up with a 3-hour tour. That phrase just reminded me of Gilligan’s Island! Now I’ll have that jingle stuck in my head. Oh well…

We met our tour guide Fiona in front of Usher Hall. Some fun facts from Fiona:

1. Back in medevial times when there was no water or toilets, everyone of course had a bucket. Since most poor families lived up several flights of stairs it was easiest to toss the contents out the window with some vigor so it would fly away from the building landing in the hay set out for animals. They would yell Gardyloo! (Watch out for the water) And give the bucket a toss. If you were walking below you plastered yourself against the building and hoped the contents would miss you.
2. Shit-faced … those bar patrons who are a little tipsy and unlucky enough to look up when Gardyloo was yelled- just in time for the bucket contents to splash on them
3. Piss poor … due to the large amount of leather being processed, urine was needed for this processing and who better to help out were the poor. They were paid a small amount for their service!
4. Witches… between 1563 and 1736 nearly 4,000 mostly women were charged with witchcraft. Anyone could accuse you and no proof needed. For a while you could request proof by using “witch pricking” which involved a tool that would prick the witch and if she bled she was not a witch. The tool (unbeknownst to most) had a retractable button of some sort meaning no puncture would appear on the body so yep, she’s a witch since there was no blood on that last prick.
5. Witches continued… about 2,500 accused were killed. The most common method was to build a small fire, stake the accused in the middle and light it on fire just hot enough to keep her alive as long as possible. Some info suggests a person could live for up to 4 hours while burning. The bodies would be hot enough where the fat on the legs would bubble. Humans are so cruel!
6. Medical school and cadavers… in the 19th century the medical school had an almost unlimited supply of cadavers from the gallows where a high number of mostly men were hung on a regular basis and given to the medical school for education. New laws (The Jury Trials Act of 1815) were put in place that prevented the large numbers from being condemned with no trial and then hanged and handed over to the school.
7. More on cadavers … Next was an arrangement where someone could call the school if, let’s say…Granny just died. The family could get a few shillings and the school could have granny. No funeral was necessary and they made money instead of losing money. The numbers were still low however, so murders were actually happening. They would then be able to sell bodies. These murderers were caught or at least identified. And finally body snatchers were digging up the freshly buried people and taking them to the school for payment. That didn’t last too long. Gotta give creativity points for all of this craziness!

What a fun day. It started at 7 am while I walked to the coffee shop to meet Paul. I arrived back at my hotel after 3 pm and once I settled in, I realized I wasn’t hungry for dinner and could use a nice break. Time for some relaxation and a good nights sleep!

#18daysinScotland2026