Edinburgh

We arrived in Edinburgh on Thursday afternoon with a couple of stops along the way from Newcastle.


First stop was at part of Hadrian's wall which is now only a few piles of rocks but was once the Roman coast to coast defence. We then drove through Northumberland national park to the Scottish border. A national park here is very different to our part of the world as its basically inhabited farmland which has been designated to be kept 'original' so has a lot of restrictions for use and building - certainly not forest and bushland!












We stopped at the official Scottish border for a piccie. When the bus pulled up we almost got rundown getting off by a wild Scotsman in a kilt who obviously saw us coming and came to play the bagpipes and pose for photos!





We then stopped at Jedburgh and Melrose, two small quaint Scottish towns for a quick look and bite to eat.

After taking the opportunity to do some clothes washing as we are here for two nights and our room has the most amazingly large towel rail to dry it all on, we ventured in to Edinburgh city on our own on public transport. The city seems very bland, lots of stone and concrete. It was a beautiful afternoon so that helped lift the drab. We had dinner at a lovely little pub - Mal had asked the barman for his recommendation on a pie and thought he had said 'steak and eel' which Mal declined - after a bit of discussion turned out he said 'steak and ale'!!









We had a bit of a walk round the city after tea then caught the bus back to the hotel. It's a bit weird as it doesn't get dark till around 11pm even though its only the start of summer and its light again around 4am!

This morning (Friday) we had a guided tour round the city and castle with the most hilarious Scottish guide. He was very quick with his puns and one liners and you really had to listen hard as his accent was thick. He wore a kilt and all the garb too. He got caught out though - he was apologizing for smelling like a wet dog as his woollen coat was damp as there was a heavy misty fog this morning. One of the older woman in the group (an ozzie) said 'you'll smell like sheep' to him - he went bright red and it took a few moments for him to realise she said 'sheep' not 'shit'! The look on his face was priceless.














Mal is currently checking out the beach round the road which is apparently gorgeous. After such a foggy start the day has turned out lovely - he was sposed to be back awhile ago - I suspect he's been having a dip or two.
We are off to a scottish show and dinner tonight - am going to give haggis a go!