The apartment itself was mostly fine - except for the limited kitchen implements making cooking challenging and we couldn't figure out how to turn down the heating combined with the locked windows meant the apartment was baking hot. The immediate area was quite industrial and busy.
Thursday dawned cloudy but with temperatures forecast to be around 16-17C we'd decided to incorporate a visit to Edinburgh Castle as well as taking turns to go for a run around Holyrood Park. I had the early morning slot for a run, so just after 7am I left to go exploring. Had planned a route that ran along the base of the Salisbury Crags and climbed to the top of Arthurs Seat. Needless to say there was much more climbing involved than I'd thought but I did eventually reach the summit and was treated to excellent panoramic views of the city. Meanwhile, Andy and the girls were enjoying a slow start to the morning.
With both girls quite tired from travelling (and Ella showing the signs of a potential cold) we tried to keep things as simple as possible. A short bus trip into the city dropped us off on Princes Street, the main street of Edinburgh and adjacent to the East Princes Street Gardens. We stopped at the Scottish National Gallery Cafe for coffee while overlooking these lovely gardens. Historically both this garden and the West Princes Street gardens were originally a body of water (mostly sewage) known as the Nor Loch which provided an extra defence to the north face of the Edinburgh Castle. Today the gardens are immaculately kept providing a special sanctuary for both tourists and residents.
From the gardens, it was a short, steep walk to the entrance of Edinburgh Castle. The esplanade was busy with cranes and construction teams who were building the stands for the Edinburgh Tattoo (held annually in August). We'd thought as it was mid week that the castle mightn't be too busy. In hindsight we should have pre purchased our tickets to avoid the 40min queue. Once inside the walls, we marvelled at the Honours of Scotland (Crown Jewels) which were first used together in the coronation of Mary Queen of Scots in 1543, toured the Great Hall, stepped into the quaint St Margaret's after the bride and groom had left (yes anyone can get married there apparently), saw the Mons Meg (a very large cannon built in 1460), walked along the Half Moon Battery, got scared at the loud noise of the one o'clock gun firing and stumbled into friends!
An average of 3000 people visit Edinburgh Castle each day. So it was much to our surprise that as we were coming to the end of our tour that we were recognised by Anita, Keith, Kyla and Findlay who were just beginning theirs! It was Anita's super powers of observation who recognised Andy but thought it couldn't be as he lived in Australia. However her instincts were proven correct when she saw me join him. Turns out Anita and Keith were on half term holidays and had travelled from London to spend some time with Keith's Scottish parents before spending a few days in Edinburgh.
We first met Anita and Keith through Susie and Patrick around 2002 when we were living in Southampton. Funnily enough, we were intending to contact Anita and Keith to see if we could catch up but just hadn't got around to it yet. Well at least now we were able to pencil in a date for the end of June for a proper catch up!
Anyway we left them to explore the castle and headed home. While Andy took his turn to run around Arthurs Seat (in the sunshine!), the girls got straight into their pj's (a recent fad on returning home from a tiring activity) played around before having some 'quiet time' = ipad time.
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