Day 0–June 15/16–Travel to Edinburgh for Kristin’s NEHGS Scotland Research Tour
Kristin signed up for an NEHGS Scotland Research Tour in June and we decided to make a long trip and combine it with the UseR! 2017 statistics conference in Brussels a week later. This meant that I had to figure out how to keep busy for a week in Edinburgh and she had to figure out how to keep busy for a week in Brussels, both difficult and arduous tasks. We planned to do the week in between in the Glasgow area doing research on Kristin’s ancestors from there
Our flight from JFK to Edinburgh was uneventful but interesting; our seatmate in the window seat was a guitarist for a band called Dan Baird and Homemade Sin. We had an interesting conversation about the music industry and how it has changed over they years.
After dropping bags off at the Haymarket Hub hotel (no rooms for check-in at 8:30 am), we walked to the city center and picked up a hop-on hop-off bus to see the city. The walk through the Princes Street Gardens was quiet and a great respite from the surrounding Saturday traffic.
I was stunned at the number of tour buses. The tour was really pretty amazing, even though we were tired. I will be busy while Kristin is doing research.
We were exhausted, so we stopped for lunch at Belle Italia, an Italian chain–I know, it is just wrong to eat Italian when traveling in Scotland. It was a lucky find. They had a spaghetti with lentil sauce that was excellent and unlike anything we've had before. My lasagna was also quite unusual...two layers in a cast iron skillet. We will go back if there is time.
After going back to the hotel for a nap (I didn't sleep in the flight, so I was several hours past doing an all-nighter) we went out to find something simple for dinner. The pub connected to the hotel was was unpleasantly noisy, so we went to the one across the street, which didn't serve food until 9:00. We next tried a pizza place...which turned out to require reservations. We ended up with sandwiches from a convenience store; a tuna with corn, salmon and cream cheese and a ham lettuce and tomato.
It turns out that the combination of adapters that I brought will not work in a UK plug, so I've got to get another adapter at some point.
For purposes of genealogy research trips to the Scottish National Archive, the Haymarket area is much cheaper than the area around the archive and is only a 10 minute tram ride. Dining options are limited.