For now though...
The other weekend it was a whole year since Sam and I had our first date so we decided to go to Edinburgh for the weekend. It was wonderful, relaxing and freezing all at once. We actually got snowed on, on the Friday night!
Edinburgh castle was brilliant, proper crenellations, turrets, the works. And the Scottish equivalent of the crown jewels. Not a glitzy as the Queen's but fairly interesting nonetheless, the history being basically one of English oppression and thievery. *cough*.
By far the most amusing part of the que was being behind possibly the world's stroppiest teenager. It was free to go to the castle that weekend and, as she pointed out to her Dad who was clearly trying to have a nice family day out, on a regular basis, 'if we haven't paid that means we're under no obligation to stay, can we go home now?'. He ignored her (quite rightly) and she spent the time as we wound our way through the exhibition doing her best Kevin (of Kevin and Perry) impression, although she was obviously too young to get the reference, which meant Sam and I could joke about it within earshot.
On the Sunday, post sauna, swim, check out and brunch we wandered around town and up the Sir Walter Scott Monument. It's on Princes Street, right by the seasonal Christmas market/ fun fair and it gave us the most amazing views of Edinburgh.
We had walked past on Friday night and wondered what it was, then happened to walk the other side on Sunday and realise you were allowed to clamber up for the bargain price of £3! The funfair was definitely an interesting juxtaposition... Poor Scott, his monument defiled by yokels yelling obscenities at each other to a background of pumping house music.
It was the most gloriously beautiful day, blue skies and sunshine but completely freezing winds. And the higher we got the colder it felt, so that when we came back down to ground level we actually felt warm by comparison! The building was built by another Free Mason (Scott was one) in honour of the Scottish author, in the Victorian Gothic style. According to Wikipedia it is 200ft 6inches high. And it very much felt it. there are viewing platforms at intervals. Although I had a vertigo attack on the second to last staircase and baulked at going to the very top with Sam, the views were amazing.
I had to have the railings in the picture unfortunately, the alternative was to let go of the handrail and stand near the edge, which was just never going to happen.
Arthur's Seat is just visible at the top of a steep trek. We had planned on doing this on Sunday but when the receptionist warned us 'not to get blown off' and we realised she wasn't really joking we decided on a wander around town instead!
Edinburgh Castle in slightly more hospitable weather than the day before...less rain anyhow.
There was a little space inside the first level with beautiful carved wood and stained glass windows.
This was the point at which I decided the staircase was too narrow and scary...brrr...
After we came back down I spotted this - a human snow globe!!!
And last but not least...
Boom, boom. xx
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