Summer 2026 Graduation Celebration: Edinburgh, London, Disneyland Paris, Paris - Day 2 Edinburgh

We had a leisurely morning so we could sleep in and have some rest. Emmaline and I had reserved a time at 11 AM to make Harris Tweed handbags at Islander UK. This was something she was really excited to do and I decided to join in. Roger did not make a handbag so he stayed back at the hotel and arranged to meet up with us later. We took the bus and first made a stop at the Ba Ba Sheep store to see the sheep (and some Highland cow) merchandise. She got a little keyring to hang on her bag. 

The bag making was actually really fun. You pick a base then a top and straps and they show you how to put it all together while giving you information about Harris Tweet, tartans and Scottish Isles. The guy who led the class was super funny and we had a lot of fun. And at the end we had cute bags. Classes book out so if you're ever going to Edinburgh, you do have to book in advance. They have multiple locations throughout the city so if one location is booked up, which happened to us, try another. I'm actually glad we ended up at the Marshall St. location because it was actually super chill compared to some of the others. (We stopped into another one later when Emmaline decided she wanted a wallet and then another location when my bag strap had an issue and I needed to swap it.)

After this we went to go find lunch but none of the previously researched places sounded good so we ended up in a cute little place called Mum's Comfort Food and everyone had a nice little lunch. After lunch we walked over to Victoria Street and did a little shopping, made a visit to the Greyfriar's Bobby statue. Legend has it that the little dog guarded the grave of his owner in the nearby kirkyard for 14 years. We saw the dog's grave on our tour a little later.  

After this we went over to a coffee shop nearby (named, aptly, Bobby's) to have a coffee before meeting up with our Potter Trail walking tour at 3 PM. This is a free tour, reservations are required and there is a suggested donation, with a portion of the donation going to the Scottish Trans Alliance.

We began the tour in the Greyfriars Kirkyard and ended it on Victoria Street and it was a cute little tour of the area and some of the inspirations of the books with a lot of names taken from the graves in the kirkyard. 

After this, we returned to our hotel and got some dinner from the pizza food truck across the street, which was really good wood-fired pizza served up by a couple of guys from Naples. Then we set out again to do a little shopping at Tron Kirk market (local artisans) and then take our tour of The Real Mary King's Close. A close is a little narrow street that ran between the Royal Mile (the stretch of road between Holyrood Palace and Edinburgh Castle) and the small body of water that used to run where the current Princes Street Gardens are. There were many closes and some are still there today but others were built over in the 18th century and are now underground and this one is such a close. So essentially some rooms and buildings where people lived and worked in the 17th century.

Some of the tour was cool, but it also was just a tad melodramatic and a little long. No photos were allowed inside, but you can click through the link above and see some photos on their site or check out this webpage for more information about the closes. 

After the tour, we came back to our hotel and got ourselves prepped and ready for our earlier morning tour the next day.