A Weee Dram : Arthur's Seat

We were hot before bed last night so we decided to leave a window open as well as the curtains. Bad idea. First of all, it drops into the 40s at night and second of all, the light streaming through the window is bright. We tossed and turned all night and barely got any sleep. I have bags so big under my eyes I can pack all my luggage in them. No amount of shape tape is going to help here. I actually had to force Walt to get up at 9:30. AND had to make my own tea. The horror!! As mentioned, we wanted to do this hike the guy at the bar the first night here mentioned to us. It's also pretty visible considering the "hill" looms over the city and every time you look up you see the extinct volcano and all the teeny tiny people walking along the edge. We made a quick stop next door for bacon rolls. Walt and I had this memory of some kind of greasy, bacon croissant thing with cheese. So good in our memory so we were on the hunt. We saw "bacon roll" on the menu of this place next door. We popped in, ordered it and boom, lame. Not our bacon roll. This was just a bun with a ton of bacon. It wasn't horrible, it just wasn't what we were looking for. Still on the hunt. We walked down The Royal Mile again to the bottom and off to the right there's this HUGE expanse of grass, I mean HUGE. There's also a pond with the biggest swans we've ever seen. This was the trail head to Arthur's Seat. Up and up and up we went. We didn't exactly have hiking gear and when we left in the am it was cold. So I was wearing a heavy jacket, scarf, and jeans. By the end I wanted to strip down to my underwear I was so hot. Dripping sweat and carrying everything by that point. Oh, before we took off Walt was all, "this is just going to be a leisurely stroll. We won't try and go fast, let's just enjoy it." Right, jerk. He was off, trying to pass everyone because he "can't stand people in his way". I shouted, "Hey, chariots of fire, why don't you slow down!! The whole freaking trail is people." He just looked back at me over his shoulder and took off again. It was worth every drop of sweat though. What an amazingly beautiful view. The yellow flowers (no idea what they are), the grass, the rocks...all of it overlooking Edinburgh and the castle right in the center. It was pretty magnificent. Walt and I had a blast taking our time on the hike down, thank God. We took an alternate path and just enjoyed the beauty, snapping pics and using the selfie timer like dorks. It was a wonderful day and I'm so glad we skipped the rest of the museums I had on the list for this. Totally perfect for us and I'd recommend it for anyone who is visiting here.

We of course stopped for a beer at The Mitre, the first bar we went to when we got here. We were trying to avoid the throngs of people that came out of the woodwork because the sun was shining. The Royal Mile looked like Times Square in Scotland. People everywhere. And the sound of a bagpipe being played all. day. long. is still ringing in my ears. A quick nap, catch up with the girls via Marco Polo and off to dinner. We went to Makars Mash Bar. Oh what deliciousness is this? A whole restaurant dedicated to mashed potatoes? Sign me up. I honestly have never seen Walt eat a meal so fast in my life. He hoovered his sausages and then wanted to see if he could just order a side more. I told him he was fine and we went with the sticky toffee pudding instead. I think this will be the trip that I actually gain weight on regardless of all the walking I'm doing. Damnit! Off to Oban tomorrow via Sterling and Loch Lomond. We might make a stop in a town where some of Outlander was filmed. Depends on how well we acclimate to driving on the wrong side of the road. And when I say we, I mean he. I'm a little nervous. Wish us luck!! **Again the pics are out of order. Please bear with us while we try to fix this technical difficulty.***

PS I was the only dork on the hill in a hat. Didn't even care. It was 10 degrees cooler under that thing. I only wish I'd put it on earlier.

8,000 pics to follow