Sorry it's taken so long: there was an awful lot to do when we got back...
The flight up was uninspiring - clouds all the way, and it was raining when we disembarked. We found the Halls of Residence easily enough, and signed in with a very friendly admin: our rooms were in Baird House, on the first floor. We dumped everything and - in a break in the weather - got the train to North Berwick. The clearer weather didn't last, alas, and the rain was extremely cold, so we came back pretty soon and tried for an early night... (not really possible in a strange place with strange noises, even though the bed was fine and they'd given me the extra pillows I'd requested).
The first full day we planned to explore the castle, but first was breakfast...
Ye gods. As much as you wanted of - sausages, bacon, hash browns, potato pancakes, black pudding, fried eggs, scrambled eggs, boiled eggs, Scotch pancakes with golden syrup, vegetarian sausages, vegetarian haggis, baked beans, grilled tomatoes, toast, croissant, at least six different cereals, two different yoghurts, fruit salad, tea, coffee, cranberry or apple or orange or pink grapefruit or tropical juices, milk, water... and for the continental visitors, salamis, crusty rolls, two or three different cheeses, hard boiled eggs, quartered tomatoes, and strange little muffins. And after you'd stuffed yourself with the first course you could go back for more (we didn't), all included in the price. Set everyone up very nicely for the day!
We wandered up the Royal Mile from North Bridge, but when we got to the Castle we discovered that the queue just for tickets to get in was 50 minutes long, so we took some photos and decided to go back to North Berwick for a proper look around.
It's gorgeous there! And the weather was lovely. (And I've laid claim to North Berwick Law, the little volcano on the seashore - see photos, link coming up shortly.)
On Wednesday we took the train to Aviemore. It rained most of the time, but the journey took us through the Pass of Drumochter: the mountains, even in the rain, were dramatic. Unfortunately the train was delayed three times, for over an hour in total, so we didn't have much time in Aviemore itself. But it was a great day out, really enjoyable!
It was sunny back in Edinburgh, so we took an initial peek at Holyrood Park. Oh, the views! We went back on Thursday, after a very quick trip to Carlops (which was a little anticlimactic). We managed to get all the way to Dunsapie Loch before heading back, absolutely knackered...
On Friday morning, before heading home, I finally got to climb up Calton Hill. Well, it's not really much of a climb, we took the spiral path, but the views from the top are magnificent. We got the tram to the airport, and the flight back was gorgeous - still cloudy, but sunny as well. Altogether a fantastic break, and Kai loved it too, I think!
Small assortment of photos here - 52 of the over 500 we took. Well, Kai took most of them. He needs his own camera!
Arrived back to find my raised bed and display cabinet had both arrived. No photos yet - the cabinet is built but I've had to order extra shelves. Kai caught a cold while we were away, but is not feeling too terribly bad, and managed yesterday's venesection OK. Today I've been trying to catch up with everything I missed: still have some client stuff to do, which may have to wait until tomorrow.
Labels: busyness, Edinburgh, holidays
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Joules *Dances with Haddock* Taylor
pontificated this at 8:23 pm
2 Comments:
What lovely pictures! My favouties are North Berwick shore and Dunsapie Loch and Crag but they are all great. The Seabird Sanctuary seal is adorable. So glad you both had a good time.
Amazing! It was a shame you didn't have better weather throughout but I'm glad you enjoyed it all.