We had intended to catch the train out to Saint Andrews for the day since we have several days in Edinburgh both on the tour and on our own, but decided to do the hop on and off bus on our way to the train station. Turns out it was a good decision. We had a great day seeing the sights and not surprisingly doing more shopping.

First stop on the bus was the grass market where they were having a farmers/craft market. We bought a few things and walked around and saw the sights. The location turned out to be where there was supposedly this great view of the castle – if of course you are willing to walk up several flights of steps. The first picture is from the ground level no steps required just hop off the bus and snap. The second probably equivalent of 4/5 flights. Was it worth it. Not sure.

A better find at this bus stop was Victoria Street. There is a pub on this treat where JK Rowling started writing Harry Potter and some say it was the inspiration for Diagon Alley. Regardless of whether you are a Harry Potter fan or not the street is worth a visit with its brightly colored buildings. There is also a small museum that was once an oddity shop that is cashing in on the Harry Potter fame. There was a line of about 30 people waiting their turn to enter.

From here we hopped back on the bus and headed off to the next stop. which turned out to be more shopping. We intended to do the textile museum but never made it. Instead we shopped our way down to the next bus stop. We found the cutest knitting shop that sold both wool and finished items. I came out with a green sweater and a blue hat. Val went crazy and bought basically one of everything. Not really but she did keep adding to her stack. Being hot natured most of the sweaters were way to heavy for me but it was fun to look. The owner told stories about who made what so at least we knew we were not buying mass market tourist stuff.

We had a bite to eat then off to the next bus stop to finish our tour. However, it turns out a protest was coming down the street so no buses for a while. We thought we would get away from it and walk on to the next stop but ended up making it past two before we saw the buses running again.

If we hadn’t climbed up enough for the perfect picture we did it again. This time up Caiton Hill. This one was more worth it but still not the best photos of the castle. There was a least some things at the top of the climb to see but not sure I would recommend it. You can walk up without using the steps so not horrible just not all that great.

We had dinner plans with one of the ladies we met on the last tour so we walked back to our hotel to get ready to meet up with her. This time we took a recommendation from the concierge at her hotel and our dinner was much better. I had the steak and ale pie and it was delicious. She had just flown in so she went back to her hotel after dinner and Val and I wandered around a bit and I finally got the picture of the castle I had been hoping for. the sun was setting and the castle looked like it was glowing. We took several more photos and called it a night.