Last Day in Edinburgh! Natural History Museum of Scotland!

Friday, 30-Dec-2017

Our last day in the seat of Scotland… awww…

We’re not ones to give up easily though. We were packed and out the door of the apartment nice and early, intent on tracking down a good breakfast and some great artwork. Also – historic exhibits. Also… yeah, mostly just those three. Because we were on our way to the Natural History Museum of Scotland!

First, we had breakfast. I ate a full Scottish fry up. It was tasty… yes, even the Haggis. I mean, I wouldn’t order it exclusively, and I don’t think I’ll ever have it again, but it wasn’t as bad as I expected sheep lung to be. But yeah. Breakfast. Then, onward to the museum!

Not as large or as famous (at least in my knowledge) as the London Natural History Museum, this one was actually notably more pleasant, in my opinion. Subtle things, like the design of exhibits and the flow of traffic mean a lot in a museum, and London had missed the mark pretty hard on those – whereas Scotland struck them right on. The exhibits in Scotland weren’t as impressive or rare, to be sure, but they were more enjoyable, and the museum itself was a more pleasant experience.

We all split up to wander our own ways, and I took a circuitous route through a few bits that I thought would be interesting – A robotics exhibit, a whole section on Pacific Island culture, and even taking the elevators all the way up to the top, for a look out over the city from the parapets.

It was a little tough though, by the end, knowing that we only had a few hours to explore. Museum’s like this, they need days. They need you to live in the town, and go visiting on random weekends. A few hours in obviously not enough, but I feel like I’d still have missed out on the cool random rooms even if we’d spent a full day dedicated to the museum. Not a reason to skip it, not at all! But still, a small bit of sadness that I had.