Today was our first full day in Edinburgh. Simone and I both love this city, I could easily live here. As usual, we started with a city tour. Once we had our bearings, we went to Edinburgh Castle for a look. After an hour of queuing in the rain, we were in. Edinburgh castle is dominant over the Edinburgh skyline. It is hard to imagine anyone attacking it – it could not be in a better position. It was pouring the whole time we were there, but we still got around. I really enjoyed the buildings themselves. We also saw the crown jewels, as well as prisons for both POWs and Miitary Prisoners (after it was decided lashings were too harsh). After the castle, we went to The White Hart Inn, the oldest pub in Edinburgh. It was established in the early 1500s. It is a beautiful old pub, nice enough for us to stay for lunch. I had a Caledonian (the 60/- I think), which was delicious. After lunch (~3pm), we decided to wander for the rest of the day. There are lots of quiet back streets in Edinburgh, we had fun exploring. After walking for a few hours, we went to the Malt Shovel, another beautiful old pub. This one serve the 80/-, so I had a few of those. If you are wondering about 60/- and 80/-, have a look here. After a few pints, we came back to Belushi’s Bar (under our Hostel). We are having a quiet night. I am now drinking the Deuchars IPA (another from Caledonian brewery). This is an awesome city :)

July 22 – Day 10

There are huge cliffs a short way from the centre of Edinburgh, and I persuaded Simone to climb them with me. We went first thing in the morning, beating the rain, to climb the Salisbury Crags. It was a steep and slippery walk, but the view was excellent. We saw Arthur’s Seat along the way, but it looked a bit much to climb that as well. After the climb, we went to Holyrood Palace, the royal residence. I am feeling a slight onset of ABP – Another Bloody Palace – but they have been impressive so far. If you are wondering why there are so few indoor photos, it is because they are not allowed anywhere. After the palace, we went for lunch, and were caught in the heaviest rain I can remember for quite a while. It absolutely poured. The city became a series of waterfalls. We walked the wrong way (for ages), but eventually found a deli for lunch, which was a nice change (it is normally a pub). Afterwards, we went back to the hostel to do some washing and get changed (it was still bucketing with rain). We stayed in the bar downstairs for a few hours (for beers). When the rain stopped, we went up to the Royal Mile (main street, touristy) for some shopping. We bought some clan paraphernalia (you name it, they have it with ‘MacIntyre’ on it). Then went to the Halfway House (2009 CAMRA Edinburgh Pub of the Year) for a few pints & Pimms. It is a tiny little pub tucked away in a laneway down steps between two streets. Excellent Real Ale. We continued back towards the hostel to the Malt Shovel, this time for dinner. The pub food here is good value and delicious. More pints were consumed. Now we are back in the bar at the hostel, beering on. I’m loving the beers of Scotland :) We have booked a day trip tomorrow for a highlands and Loch Ness tour, which should be fun.

July 23 – Day 11

As we both have clan heritage in the Scottish Highlands, Simone and I decided to do a day trip. This is no small tour – it was 12 hours on and off the bus! The first stop was to see Hamish, a celebrity of Calendar – ‘The Gateway to the Highlands’. He is ‘a wee highland coo’ – A highland cow. It was a touristy stop, but a good chance to stretch legs. This is the town that Simone later referred to as ‘Curtain Rod’ among other ‘household items’ (her words) :) We continued along through beautiful country, steep mountains and wide glacial valleys. We eventually came to Glencoe, which is apparently my ancestral home (According to the clan history I bought). Evidently, the MacIntyres had a pretty nice spot to live – Dad, I can imagine hiking trips here. The tour guide mentioned that there are no trespassing laws in the highlands – you can walk and camp pretty much wherever you want. I though Glencoe was absolutely incredible, it was very beautiful. I believe it was between Glencoe and the next stop that we saw Ben Nevis, the highest peak in the UK. It was shrouded in cloud (as it is for over 300 days of the year), but it still looked menacing, Apparently it is very dangerous to climb, it claims more lives than Everest each year. The next stop was Loch Ness, where we did a boat cruise. The scenery was excellent, but Nessie was no where to be seen. The guide told us about a canal that was built that allows boats to travel right through Scotland – with locks and swing bridges, and everything. It was built so that commercial ships didn’t need to go around the Northern tip of Scotland. It took them 20 years to build it, by which time the boats were too big to use it. Now it is for rich people in nice boats. After Loch Ness, we stopped at the Commando monument, a memorial to commandos who died in World War Two, before continuing on to a small village called Dunkeld, then back to Edinburgh. I had such a great time on the tour – I would love to go back to the Highlands again one day. We did the tour with Haggis Adventures – the tour guide, Matt, did a really good job and knew a lot about the history of the area. He also had a wicked sense of humour, and good taste in music (mostly) – it definitely didn’t feel like 8 hours of driving. We were back in Edinburgh around 8pm, and needed to check in for our flights to Paris. We found an internet cafe, and fianally managed to print boarding passes. It was at this point that we realised we needed to change airports in London, which was a pain, but went smoothly.