For all the mad dash of yesterday, everything came together today. We arrived right at 10 all our luggage made it fine and it was an easy cab into the city and our hotel.

The weather was what I guess is a typical spring day for everyone not in Texas. The sun was shining and the air was crisp if somewhat cold. The plan for the day was to make it through until evening, so after dropping off our luggage we headed out to see what was in our neighborhood. We are on a nice pedestrian street with several pubs and coffee shops pretty much in the center of new town and not far from the historic high street.

We walked around to get our bearings and soon started doing what we do best -shopping. I am a sucker for scarves and Edinburgh is the mother load of tartan scarves. It wasn’t long before I had picked out my first one. I will say there is a tartan store on every block and often two or three and even the same stores right across the street from each other. You did find different colors so we checked out most of them (big surprise I know).

We did quite a bit of walking and found our way to several of the sights we will see on the tour so we just took a few photos from the outside and moved on. We did make several wrong turns that included climbing flights of stairs. We went down the never ending stairs by the castle (the castle sits on the top of a volcano to give you an idea of of the never ending staircase) only to find there was no way around on that side and had to climbs back up. Stopped for lots of pictures at the top to catch our breath before we back tracked the way we came back to the hotel.

We picked a pub close to the hotel for dinner. There were a lot of people drinking but no one eating which should have been our first sign. The tiny kitchen behind the bar should have been our second. Ever the adventurers I went ahead and order two fish and chips. All I can say is that the beer was good. Actually the fish wasn’t so bad just lackluster.

We made it to 8 so felt respectable to head back to the hotel for bed. We watched a little BBC before completely crashing out. No air conditioning so it did get a little hot in the room but we slept until Val’s alarm woke us up at 6. She forgot to turn it off. Sun was already out so it was hard to go back to sleep. But more on day two tomorrow.

Here are some sights around Edinburgh. I got the new iPhone so my camera would be better and I think it really paid off. The gargoyles are on the top of the Scott monument. Also for a mere 10 quid you could hold that eagle but I passed not because I didn’t have cash because surprisingly he took cards to make it super easy to have your photo op, I just don’t want to wear the nasty glove. I forgot to take pictures of my purchases but will do that tomorrow.