Sunny UK

First stop Edinburgh.

Edinburgh is an amazing city with everything made from stone and the streets give you a feeling of a medieval town. Cobble stone roads, grand churches, palaces and the Edinburgh castle with views of green hills in the background.

View of the castle from our hostel

Our first stop after we checked into our grand castle-like hostel was to find a pub and eat some Haggis! Oh we did, and it was delicious! With a beer of course.

Haggis!

The Walking tour of Edinburgh city was informative about history and little details like the heart shape formation of stones along the royal mile. This represents where the jail and tax office used to be situated and is now spat on daily by many of the locals because as it was always a hated place. We saw the café where JK Rowling wrote the first two Harry Potter novels and visited the grave of Tom Riddle, surely inspiration for the character ‘He who must not be named’.

Tom Riddles grave

After not having a chance to do any real hikes the last few months the prospect of a descent sized hill was too good for us to pass up. Arthur’s seat was a good 300 metres above sea level. We were rewarded with awesome views back on to the city and surrounding areas, a great way get your heart rate up and sore hamstrings. We had a little bit of rain but not enough to dampen our spirits.

Views to the city centre 

Views off to the sea

Eating some lunch near some ruins of an old church on the mountain

On our last day we got to see a Scottish marching band play out the front of the Edinburgh castle before our visit. The castle is situated right at the top of a rocky cliff, a good advantage during a siege in medieval times. We got to walk around and into the different buildings in the castle grounds. We saw the Scottish Honours a sword, a crown, the stone of destiny and the crown jewels. We also saw the old prison cells and explored some of Scotland’s military past. We waited for the 1pm canon fire but still jumped when it went off, like all the other tourists.

War Painting in the museum 

At the Edinburgh Castle

Arvi