Edinburgh; Saturday, 02 November, 2002

Depending on which forecast on which day you had listened to the weekend was either going to be cold and wet, warm and wet, sunny with showers or heavy rain. In the end it turned out to be gray and overcast (not predicted) until the early evening when the heavy rain arrived to be replaced on Sunday with sunshine and no showers (also not predicted).

Visiting Edinburgh the obvious place to start is either by hiring a taxi or get some climbing equipment to scale the hill up to the old town. Failing that it makes for an energetic morning stroll up to the castle.

Seeing as the castle is so old and the repair work that goes on inside it only matched by the nearby Forth bridge every time you visit there will be another new bit to see and a bit you saw before that you cant access this time.

After the views that you can get from the top of the castle the next best viewing point is 247 steps up the inside of the Scott monument. So this appeared to be the next best move for us. After a short climb (about 10 mins if you are unfit and have to stand panting on each landing for a couple of mins) up to the top you get a wonderful view over the whole of Edinburgh and the Firth of Forth.

Last time I came by the time I had got to the top it was already dusk and all you could see was the castle floodlight this time there was much more to see.(through the gloom and murk of an overcast day).

After climbing back down (and spending about 5 minutes to get your balance back after the spiral staircases) it was lunchtime and after that a quick trip to the Edinburgh dungeon.

From there back up the hill to the Camera Obscura and then the Whisky heritage centre.

Finally (in the heavy rain now) back to the hotel to deposit off souvenirs before dinner in a Thai restaurant and drinks in the hotel bar.