19
Nov 09

Edinburgh

Today, we decided to be tourists. We went up to the fantastic Castle, where Regi was overwhelmed with excitement to see the Crown Jewels and the ’thing with the thing’. I like the Castle, it’s really quite impressive, nearly as good as Caernarfon Castle.

Horse statue at the Castle

From here, Regi insisted that we went up Arthur’s Seat: ‘a remarkably wild piece of highland landscape in the centre of the city of Edinburgh, about a mile to the east of Edinburgh Castle. The hill rises above the city to a height of 251 m (820 ft), and provides excellent panoramic views of the city.’ It was crazy how the weather conditions changed, just by going up this little Hill – and it was our first glimpse into what was in store for us, weather wise, walking up these Scottish hills. About 10m from the top – the wind, rain and hail came. The wind was something else – blasting those wee hail stones into our faces, it was bordering unpleasant.

The view from Arthur's Seat

Edinburgh from Arthur's Seat

It was a nice view though, well worth the wee trip up there. The way down was something of a mission for me though. I wear Vans skate shoes, and, well to be honest, I need a new pair. The floor was slipperier than Bon Jovi’s album title ‘slippery when wet’ – and it sent me flying, smack on my back. This was Regi’s first glimpse into how accident prone I am. Winded I was for a few minutes.

To dry out a little we headed over to the National Gallery, where I saw a really nice drawing of Caernarfon Castle by someone who was really busy back in the day – Paul Sandby. I really enjoyed it.

A good first day.