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.