Travel diary Scotland day 15, 2016: Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hoggy Warty Hogwarts, teach us something please... Oh, wait...

 **Disclaimer: I write and upload the same day, often after a long and exhausting day. I often don't have the focus to re read and take out the typos, grammatical and vocabulary errors. Beware!**

Halloooooo!!

Ooh to end my trip in the city where Harry Potter was born. It's a good way to end a trip. So yesterday I've visited the Queen's Galary and walked up Arthur's seat, but I couldn't leave Edinburgh without fitting in a tour or two.

Privat New Town Tour
So Friday afternoon I bought a ticket for the New Town Tour. The tour guide, David, kindly explained to me that it was a very very new tour. And with very new, it is only 2 weeks old. I was confused. I was planning my trip weeks in advance and the New Town Tour was already mentioned on the Sandeman's Tour website. The tour had run a test periode, but apparently they never took the tour off the website in the meantime. But yeah, it is clear that they are still working on the New Town Tour. It was our guide's first time walking the tour as well, so it's literally in its baby shoes. Because it isn't well known, the group was very small. Only 3 other tourist, so including the guide, we were 5. You could call it a privat tour. Unfortunately the tour started in the pouring rain. I even had wet feet and you might not know it, but I hate have wet shoes. Well, after yesterday I have to correct myself on that. I don't hate having wet shoes after all. I hate having wet shoes whilst sitting at a desk inside, but having wet shoes whilst walking around didn't seem to bother me at all. Might sound very odd, but it is great news for me x)

The New Town Tour covers the North part of the city. It was certainly interesting and I did learn a thing or two, but it was also very confusing at times. By now, I do know quite a bit about Scotland in 18th Century and about the Great Fire of London in 1666, so I got really confused about dates and events that the tour guide mentioned at times. I tried to shut up as much as possible, as I can imagine nothing is more annoying than a tourist who thinks she knows better. But it was also quite obvious that I'm quite bias. Our guide was Australian and had a more broad view on what happened in 1745, whilst I'm currently leaning very heavily towards the standpoint of the Jacobites. Still have a lot to learn about the other sides of the story ;)

Luckily the weather cleared up towards the end of the tour and we had this lovely view on Edinburgh Castle at the end.

After the tour, we all went to get a drink at the nearby Starbucks with an amazing view on the castle. Honestly, I'd never know that Starbucks was there if the guide hadn't shown it. Breathtaking.

The Dark Side Tour 2.0
As for the evening, I wasn't quite sure what to do. I had considered to do the Sandeman's Pub Crawl, but after reading a bit more about it, they advertised it as: "meet other people who like to party as well with a visit to 5 pubs, get 5 shots and have free access to a club at the end of the night." Yeah, not really for me so it seems. Am not really the party animal. Don't get me wrong, I do like to go to the pub every once in a while, have a nice chat, even do a bit of dancing twice or thrice a year, but not more than that.

But I didn't want to do nothing either. So I decided to join the Dark Side tour again. I had done it last year as well. Travel diary Scotland day 8, 2015: Harry Potter's birthplace and Game of Thrones Red Wedding That turned out with a night to the pub and then another bar. Was really cool to hang out with 2 women from New York, a Scotman and a Frenchmen. Who knew what this tour would bring?

More rain, is what the tour brought. But also a very animated tour guide called Jen. It was interesting to compare the two tours. It was obvious that they had to cover certain areas and stories, but they also had some freedom to cover the stories they were interested in. Jen is a fan of Mary, Queen of Scots, like I am, and she had some very interesting stories to tell about her which I didn't know!

Unlike last year, the tour didn't end with a trip to the pub, but I had a delicious pizza at the closest Bella Italia. I might have gone to a pub after dinner to have a gin and tonic anyway. I might have. Just because. To be honest, gin and tonic is growing on me x) Around 11pm it was time for me to return to the guest house and get some sleep.

That was my final complete day in Edinburgh. Tomorrow afternoon I'll be heading back to London. Can't belief it has gone by so fast. *sigh*

Anyway, thanks for reading!
xo - Sara