So, a few minutes later armed with gloves and a scarf to match my hat we were good to go... we made it as far as Costa coffee. I mean, you didn't expect me to walk straight past and NOT go in right?
After that we found our hotel. At first I wasn't convinced we had the right place. It had the right name and was in the right place but surely it should have cost a lot more than we were paying? The room we had was on the 7th floor, which you reached by taking the lift to the 6th floor, walking down the corridor, going down a flight of stairs (yes, down) and then back up another flight of stairs to the 7th. This is what we found when we got there:
Well, ok this is just the bed, but you will have to take my word for it, the rest of the room was just as nice.
If you ever find yoursef in Edinburgh, I would recommend the hotel. It is Fraser Suites and is right on the Royal Mile, well St Giles but it is as close as you can get really.
Saturday we visited the castle. As castle's go it doesn't really look much like one. It was however, very interesting and there are lots of little museums hidden inside. We saw the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards museum and also had a look at the Scottish Crown Jewels and found out about their history. We spent the morning at the castle and left just after the daily 1pm canon.
It was at this point that I again began to feel that I was completely ill-equipped for the climate. I was wearing a t-shirt (long sleeved), a thick hoody jumper and a coat, my hat scarf and gloves and I still felt like parts were going to freeze and start falling off. After lunch (Pigeon!), we visited many shops in search of a jumper to wear in addition to the aforementioned clothing. That did the trick and we set of for a wander down the Royal Mile.
The Royal Mile is Edinburgh old town. The buildings are lovely and are full of charm and character, then you continue down and see something appearing on the horizon which is so completely different to the rest of it you just have to ask yourself why. This, you realise when you finally see it in all its glory, is the Scottish Parliament building. I'm sorry Scotland, but it is just hideous. And it is such a shame to put a building like that between the Royal Mile and the palace of Holyrood, which look like this:
And this is the building in question:
See what I mean? The building may (may!) look ok somewhere else, but here? Really?
Saturday night we visited Mary King's Close which is a maze of 17th century close's and buildings that were covered over in 1753 when the Royal Exchange was built. You can visit for a daytime tour, but we were visiting for a paranormal investigation. We held vigils from 10:30pm to 3:30am. We didn't experience a lot, a few noises etc but the atmosphere down there is quite something and the place itself is incredibly interesting. If we hadn't visited at night I would have liked to visit for a tour.
Sunday was spent recovering! I can't handle late nights/early mornings!
Monday we were due to leave for the airport at 3pm. We visited Greyfriar's Bobby (the statue anyway!). This commemorates a dog who remained loyal to his owner after he passed away and stayed by his grave for 14 years!
We then had a walk around Princes Street Garden's, which have some interesting(?) statues. Hubby had read that you can climb the Scott Monument so we decided to give that a go. Pleased we did as the views were amazing! The staiurcases to climb the monument get smaller and smaller. I thought I might not be able to squeeze through at the top (I had a rather large bag which was threatening to get stuck), but we made it and were rewarded with views like this:
We had a quick visit to Harvey Nichols (Very exciting food section) and then it was back to the sunny south (Well, sunny compared to Edinburgh anyway). Loved Edinburgh, would visit again but I would save it for the summer next time!
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