So long Manchester, hello Scotland!
We left our hotel this morning and headed to Manchester Airport, which was fairly close to our hotel. For some reason, the coach that we took to the airport was the fanciest bus we have had the entire trip. It was a double-decker bus with lots of room for storage, so no more Tetris games of suitcases in the bus aisles.
Once we got to the airport, checked in, and made it through security, we were able to get coffee at Costa and wait to board our flight.
Going through security was kind of rough for our group in particular because we all kept getting flagged when our bags went through the scanner. The reason my bag was flagged was because of my eye drops and contact solution… so weird.
After getting called to our gate and waiting to board the plane, the guy standing behind me in line asked me about my accent. I was very confused but said that I was from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and I was traveling with a group of students around the UK. He said he was from Los Angeles and found our class trip to be really interesting and cool! Who knew Pennsylvanians had accents?
After the shortest flight ever, seriously it was around 40 minutes long, we grabbed our bags and drove to our hotel in the Old Town neighborhood of Edinburgh, Scotland. Our hotel is decorated so nicely, with magnetic maps of the area we are staying in on the wall in our room.
Once settling into our hotel, we started our trek up multiple flights of stairs to get to the Edinburgh Castle. The views from the castle were absolutely stunning!
After our walk through the castle, we went on a 2-hour walking tour of the Royal Mile, the road leading from the castle to where the old city gates used to be. On this Royal Mile is also the Parliament building.
After walking a fair amount and climbing a lot of stairs, we had a nice group dinner at an Italian restaurant by our hotel.
Tomorrow we have 2 media visits and some free time to explore the city!