We're
in Scotland's capital of Edinburgh!!! We were amazed at just how
beautiful this city is, every building and street is screaming with
history... There are parks everywhere
and overlooking the city centre
is Edinburgh Castle..
So with everything we owned on our backs we
took off from the train station to find our home for the next two
nights - the Belford Hostel... The hostel is an old converted church
and the room was our largest to date!
It was all looking good for the
beginning of our Scottish Adventure.. So, if we have mentioned that
we have done some walking this trip it was nothing like the km's we
covered in Edinburgh... Trying to make the most of the Scottish
summer we started off early (The fire alarm woke us up at 6.30 am!)
we were off.. We walked down the main street of Princes street –
where it seemed every shop sold traditional Scottish kilt dress...
Everywhere we went there seemed to be the faint sound of the Scottish
bag pipes playing (it is obviously a huge tourist draw card).. From
Princes St we headed to the Royal mile and on the way passed the
Scott monument, National gallery and writers museum... Once at the
mile we had the Edinburgh castle at our backs, the sea and hills in
the distance.. It is so so beautiful... So after stopping off at the
local Starbucks (or starsucks as it seem to be called here) we walked
down the royal mile passing Edinburgh University, St Giles Cathedral,
Parliament square, another 2 Starbuck cafe's (they will take over the
world one day) all the way down to Holyrood Palace.. The warm day
was starting to turn windy and cold so we decided it was the perfect
time to head out and climb Arthur's seat, the huge mountain
overlooking Edinburgh... Firstly we followed a few locals and climbed
the smaller mountain and were caught at the top in fierce Scottish
winds, a sideways downpour and absolutely freezing wind chill... The
umbrella didn't make it and it was all bad!!! We survived, just... So
after descending, almost immediately the weather improved and sun
came out (its always the way) so we decided to tackle the largest
peak in the city... It was a huge hike but the views along the way
made it all worthwhile..
There were so many dogs being taken for a
walk by their owners and they all seemed to be in absolute heaven,
was great! At the top, the wind was unbearable... You could only
imagine, I lasted about 2 minutes but it didn't matter as the views
were spectacular.
So after descending the mountain we headed towards
St Andrews Square, Down George St, past Charlotte Square to be home
again for a much earned rest.... We were completely over walking for
the day! Tomorrow we are off to St Andrews – The home of Golf....
