British Isles Explorer Ocean Cruise
Day 15: Tuesday, April 21, 2026 - Edinburgh, Scotland
The day's statistics:
⛅ Weather: low 60s
👟 Steps: Linda 4,108; Steve 11,056
As our excursion wasn't until after 9:00, we awoke at our normal time and did our regular morning routine.
Our group - 12 - met in the Star Theater at 9:00 for our departure to board the tender, which took us 12 minutes to get to shore.
Upon arriving at the port dock, we were once again greeted by a bagpiper.
The group gathered - but we had to wait with our guide Heather a few minutes for our bus, with driver Gordon.
After boarding, we headed out into the city of Edinburgh.
"Edinburgh" is pronounced a number of different ways. "Edin-borough", "Edin-burg", and "Edin-bruh". Our local native
guide told us that it is pronounced "Edin-bruh".
The city is built on seven hills. On one of the hills is Holyrood House - which is much like our Capital Hill.
We drove through the city seeing a number of different sights, architectural highlights, memorials, and parks.
Eventually we arrived at Charlotte Square. In the middle is a memorial to Prince Albert.
On one side is the West Register House, the Prince's apartment, John Lewis Stevenson's birthplace (red door apartment), and more.
Continuing on.
The Scott Monument is dedicated to the author Sir Walter Scott.
We passed a taxi with a passenger getting in on the "wrong side" using a suicide door.
And continuing on.
We (slowly) passed the Palace of Holyrood House, the 16th-century palace of the Stuarts.
Continuing on.
After more than an hour touring the city and seeing the highlights, we arrived at the National Museum of Scotland.
The group went inside and we made our way to the main floor. In the first open room, Heather handed out some maps that
showed suggested paths for an express review of the artifacts for those with limited time - like us. The obverse had one
map with multiple floors with markers of sites for a one-hour visit, while the reverse had a map with markers of sites
for a half-hour visit.
We were then set free for a bit more than an hour, with a request to be back on the at the drop-off spot at 11:45.
The first floor had a number of interesting items that weren't even on the map.
Generally, the pictures are on the way up to the roof. Then a few more on the way back down.
First up was the Fashion and Style wing, Teal room and #3 on the reverse map (almost everything was behind glass and it
was a little crowded - I did the best I could).
Back to the main part of the museum.
Globes from the late 1700s, and a few more items.
A couple views of the rooms from the third floor.
Up on the roof, the Edinburgh Castle was right there.
I took a video pan while on the roof too - save on pictures...
Back down into the museum.
These are some of the chess pieces from the Lewis Chessmen we saw in the
British Museum.
Still continuing on.
There was a huge, 90,000+ piece Lego® museum on display, with a couple "Can you find..." questions.
A few more artifacts from the main room.
At the far end and to the left was a room called "Earth In Space".
There were models of the solar system, telescopes, mineral samples, and more.
This solar system model was inside a six to eight foot round glass ball. What was particularly neat were the tiny little
mechanized moons "orbiting" the various planets.
Waaaaaay off to the left is either Neptune or Pluto, but it is SO far out, it was cropped out of the full picture
above for size. I felt bad for it, so here it is.
Elsewhere in this room.
Back in the previous room - Animal World - were dinosaur skeletons, and various stuffed animals.
Then it was on to the smaller Living Lands and Patterns Of Life rooms.
Next was the Collection Stories area.
I typically only point out individual objects / artifacts when they have some sort of something about them. That is the case here.
This slice of petrified wood is from the Petrified Forest National Park. While that is in of itself not a big deal - having visited
said NP in 2025 (4 days short of
one-year-to-the-day ago, incidentally) makes it so.
After a bit more than an hour, it was time to head out to the bus pick-up spot.
As we headed back to the ship, we passed a statue of a Skye Terrier dog. While the details of the full story a somewhat
disputed, the gist is that after the dog's owner, Edinburgh City Police Officer John Gray, died, the dog sat on the officer's
grave for 14 years before his own passing.
Continuing on.
The ship, with an approaching tender, was off in the distance of the harbor. We also passed the Fish Market.
The bagpiper was no longer playing.
After embarking, the next thing to do was go to lunch. Buffet at the World Café.
We headed to the Explorer's Lounge for some more cards.
Based on a Viking Traveler's-related Facebook® group, someone commented on how good the "Success Cake" from Mamsen's was.
I am usually up for some cake. I wandered over to the counter and ordered a slice of Suksessterte (Suksess-Tarte, or perhaps
Success Tart). We shared it at the table where we were playing cards. It was just OK. It was frankly WAY too sweet for our
preference. The layers of filling were very dense. Linda had one bite and I ate the rest.
One reason there wasn't too much concern about eating too much - this day, at least - was because we knew we had The Chef's Table
tonight and those meals are usually smaller portions (not that there is anything wrong with that - they are REALLY good).
Even counting the tea, we only had an "afternoon snack" three times now.
Not before long, it was time for dinner already.
Tonight's theme at The Chef's Table was Lotus.
As usual, we both got the same servings for all 5 courses (though Linda may or may not have given me one of her lamb
chops from the main course).
The ladies were playing in the atrium, so we enjoyed a couple songs.
Before heading to the lounge for more trivia - since we had to go up to the 7th floor anyway - I stopped
into the World Café to once again find that the dinner buffet had the shrimp, crab legs, scallops, and other
seafood on the buffet.
Marty and Sally were our trivia teammates again. We got 9 of 15.
As the game wrapped up, and before heading to the Star Theater for the show, I got a picture of this island in the setting
sun - and the island had at least two lighthouses.
Assistant Cruise Director Simon was performing a one-man show called "An Evening With Simon".
I took a video of most of the show too.
Eventually we were back in the cabin. After relaxing a bit, we washed up and went to bed.
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