On one of our first days in the city we took a walk around New Town, the heart of contemporary Edinburgh. New Town was a planned community designed to accommodate Edinburgh’s increasing population. It was built in stages between about 1770 and 1850, and the streets generally follow a grid, unlike Old Town which meanders down the hill from the old castle. The streets of New Town were laid out to provide sweeping views of the magnificent buildings on the hill in Old Town. New Town retains much of its original Georgian period architecture.
New Town is filled with shops and pubs so we enjoyed strolling and window shopping. We stopped outside the Queens Arms Pub to peruse the posted menu and an older Scottish lady stopped and asked if we were looking for a good pub. She recommended a couple of her favorites and we chatted for awhile. The Scottish people seem very warm and friendly. On several occasions people have stopped to chat or to ask where we’re from.
We ate at the pubs that the lady recommended and we went back to the Queens Arms for their Sunday roast, which includes roasted meat (usually beef) plus all the trimmings, including Yorkshire pudding. Sunday roast is an afternoon pub tradition throughout the UK. One of the pubs we tried on the lady’s recommendation was the Bailie Bar in Stockbridge, a neighborhood just to the northwest of New Town. It turned out to be a wonderful crowded neighborhood pub, and the food was good. The waitresses had very thick Scottish accents and we could barely understand what they were telling us. We somehow ordered some beers but we’re not sure what they were.
