I misspelled Gaelic last post. It only has one “l.”

To continue Day 2, we took a taxi from the Edinburgh airport to our hotel, the Holiday Inn Express Picardy Place. Trisha didn’t want the hassle of lugging bags and trying to find the right bus or tram, so she splurged on a cab. And splurge she did. Our very congenial Scottish taxi driver was more than happy to show us many of the Edinburgh landmarks, and I’m sure he took us out of the way to do so. He was entertaining, not only with his Scottish accent, but his narration of what we were seeing. I was slightly overwhelmed, but I was also running on fumes, having not slept much and crossed a million time zones. (I exaggerate, it’s actually only six. It just felt like a million.)

We were all too happy to get to our tiny but clean and comfortable hotel room, even if it did mean lugging suitcases up a flight of stairs to enter the hotel and then some stairs to go to the elevator. The shower that night felt amazing, and we were more than ready to be in a real bed, even though it was a twin. (or single, as the Scottish call it.)

I had a hard time sleeping even with the exhaustion. Maybe I was too exhausted. Anyway, we got up bright and early, enjoyed the full breakfast provided by the hotel, and found a city bus to get to the Edinburgh Zoo. Trisha was the bus and tram ticket purchaser, and trip planner extraordinaire, and I was very appreciative.

How do I describe the zoo? It did not disappoint. Owned and run by the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, it was built in 1913 on Corstorphine Hill and features over 2500 animals on 82 acres. It has the second most tourist traffic in Edinburgh, second to Edinburgh Castle. As the former wife of a zookeeper (my late husband), and a former zoo educator myself, I had to visit.

To enter the zoo, you have to climb two flights of stairs from the street. (There is a ramp if you need it.) The entrance is a beautifully designed building large enough to accommodate groups, with a central counter where tickets can be purchased or presented. On the other side in the same room is a gift shop with everything you could ever want as a zoo souvenir.

But I knew something was up when the zoo worker asked if we would need assistance getting around the zoo. I guess we looked like the senior citizens we have become. No, we assured him we would be fine. Famous last words…

That zoo ain’t for sissies. To get to the back of the zoo, you have to walk up the hill, and it feels like the path/road will never end. There aren’t many animals to view on that steep incline, but some thoughtful engineer, placed benches at strategic shady places where the old and infirm can rest. Trisha and I didn’t mind the five or ten minutes we took minding that bench, let me tell you. (So that’s the reason Mr. Young Man at the ticket counter asked if we needed assistance. I wouldn’t have refused it at that point of the trek.)

It was worth the climb. The view from the top/back of the zoo is amazing with the hills of the Highlands in the background from the cheetah exhibit. We saw lots of different animals, but my favorite were the koalas. Oh my goodness, there isn’t an animal much cuter. The penguin exhibit was pretty cool, too. A lot of thought and expense went into the huge pool that featured a bridge, plexiglass fences, concrete nests, some of which had canopies, and even a rock diving board. The star of the penguin exhibit in my opinion was the rockstar, I mean Northern Rockhopper penguin. He certainly strutted like the rockstar he resembled.

Soon it was time to do our gift shop shopping and hop on a bus to take us back to the City Centre so we could attend the Scotch Whisky Experience we had signed up for. Stay tuned for the terrific, tiring, terrible trudge to the top of the Royal Mile. Had I not climbed enough already? Sheesh…

Haste ye back!

XOXO