Wild and Windy Edinburgh

Arrived back in the NE last night after a wild and windy 4 days in Edinburgh. It's my Grandma's birthday today (and my cousin's - who reckons she's 29!), so as soon as I've finished writing this I'm going to head over to Sunderland, where she lives. Was going to buy her some flowers, but when I spoke to my Dad last night he told me not to get any more flowers as the place there's no more space in the apartment for any more.

Apart from the wild weather I had a great time in Edinburgh. The setting of the city is so dramatic - surrounded by hills with the castle perched high above the rest of the city on the remains of an ancient volcano and the Firth of Forth to the north. As usual I did a lot of walking and will probably need a few days to recover! On Thursday I climbed Arthur's Seat - a 251m high peak to the east of the city, which towers above the new Scottish Parliament and Holyroodhouse. I'm surprised I didn't get blown off the top it was that windy, but it was definitely worth it for the superb views over the city - and the amazing rainbow.

The castle itself I thought was a bit of a rip-off - like a lot of places in the UK unfortunately - but I couldn't not visit it. It cost £10.30, which didn't even include a brochure, never mind an audio-tour, and although the views were spectacular there wasn't that much to see inside. A lot of the buildings had been converted into shops, cafe and restaurants - UK Inc. as Kiya always says!!!