We started our second day in Edinburgh with an ambitious list to accomplish. We wanted to do a walking tour, hike around Holyrood Park, and see the Princes garden. If you missed it, be sure to read about our adventures on our first day in Edinburgh.

Edinburgh Walking Tour:

First up on the list was a Sandeman walking tour of the city. This particular tour company operates in a lot of different cities, and I haven’t been disappointed yet.  They offer free tours, so the guides are always amazing since the only money they bring in for the tour is in tips. Our guide took us to St. Giles Cathedral (Kirk) where he told us a brief version of Scotland and Edinburgh’s history. We also saw the Grassmarket (where people were executed in the old days and now has a lot of pubs) and the cemetery where a lot of Harry Potter names were taken from among many other famous Edinburgh attractions.

Holyrood Park:

After the tour, we headed towards Holyrood Park for some light hiking. Along the way, we passed a lot of Scottish people formally dressed. The women were wearing big frilly hats, and the men were in kilts. We asked a random couple what was going on, and they informed us the Queen was having a garden party and invited 8,000 residents to attend. Being friendly as Scottish people typical are, they assured us they would ask if we could come too! ha! We followed the crowd to Holyrood Palace since we were headed in that direction anyway and admired everyone dressed up.

We then walked over to Holyrood Park. There are several different trails you can take overlooking Edinburgh. The first path we set out on led us to an old chapel in ruins. It was so peaceful and beautiful, and we sat there for a while soaking up the sunshine and watching the garden party in the distance.

After a while, we decided to take another trail that took us up a hill for even better views of the city. Along the way, we passed a group of older ladies that knew all of the town gossip and were also excitingly watching something. We stopped to see what they were looking at, and it was the Queen! The garden party was directly below us!

We walked a bit further up the hill and stopped to take in some more views before heading back to Edinburgh.

Princes Street Gardens:

Once we were back in the city, we went to Princes Street Gardens. This was evidently the place to hang out after work. Everyone was there lounging in the early evening rays.