Edinburgh: Day Four

We clamb the hill the gither; And mony a canty day, John, We've had wi' ane anither: Now we maun totter down, John, And hand in hand we'll go;

The sun came out today and shined upon our venture to Arthur's Seat. We reluctantly skipped the Full Scottish breakfast as we had to scurry to ensure we caught our hop-on-hop-off bus before our time limit ended (luckily Starbucks saved us from skipping breakfast altogether). An additional perk of the bright day meant we could sit outside the enclosed area of the bus and we captured a lot of the pictures we missed yesterday. We lucked out again and had a great guide, Hugh. He was excellent, admonishing us to read Walter Scott, and advising that "Heart of Midlothian" was much less like "chewing bricks" than many of his other works. He also spun poignant stories of the women burned as witches over the centuries and shared the lore of "half-hangit Maggie." A bit of rain fell as we rounded the bend 'round the castle crag, but it ended within minutes, leaving us just a bit damp, but no worse for the wear. We left the bus at the base of Arthur's Seat, wandering through the plaza around the "monstrous carbuncle" to reach the trail. The ascent was initially quite easy and I took DJ at his word that it would be a "nice climb," but it soon became more challenging, and then very challenging. With many photo stops, we (mainly Melody) huffed and puffed and conquered the summit. The weather was spectacular and the view was well worth the humiliation of being passed on the trail by skipping German children and a dozen retirees. We had the foresight to pack a lunch and after clambering down the topmost crest, collapsed in the heather to enjoy it. After a very leisurely stroll back down the trail, we stopped by Jenny Ha's for a pint and ran into our English friends from our first day in town. After a quick catch-up, we left them at the People's Story Museum to browse a few shops up the Royal Mile before our ghost tour. As it was, we were very early, so we watched a few buskers, a bag-pipe player, a flautist and a unicyclist until we spotted a likely guide. Much to our disappointment, the clipboard toting girl was just there to tell us the tour was cancelled. The regular guide had called in sick and there was no one to take his place. We decided to get a bite at the Filling Station (a Scottish Applebees) and stock a few provisions for our drive North tomorrow, and spend the evening with the BBC.
Impressions: From DJ: Edinburgh may have replaced Florence as my favorite city. Florence, though lovely, feels, after awhile, like a film set or a Disney village. While Edinburgh also looks and feels like a city from a fairy tale, it's also a busy, bustling, working city. Also in addition to the architectural beauty, which is much of Florence's charm, Edinburgh possesses a wonderful natural beauty. Built, as it is, over several volcanic hills and surrounded by rolling, green country side, Edinburgh may be the most beautiful city in the world. Also, I like the weather. When it's sunny, it's wonderful and when it's rainy, it's atmospheric. And the beauty of that is, in Edinburgh you're likely to get both in the space of a day. Tomorrow: the long-awaited roundabouts and perhaps a castle or two as well as our first glimpse of Loch Ness.

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