Scotland Day 2 - Edinburgh

Today we got up at about 6.45am and then went out about 7am. We walked out to Holyrood park, and did the walk up to the peak. The first bit was very hard with a lot of steep stone steps, and they were a bit slippy as it had rained.

We went back down the other side of the hill and saw the ruins of an old chapel, then went down to a large pond / small lake at the bottom. There were lots of pigeons in one area all having a wash, but the swans would come and annoy them.

Next we walked to the palace of Holyrood, but didn't go in. We walked along the Royal Mile from the palace to the Castle. We spent quite a while in the castle, then walked down to Hanover Street to catch a bus to the Royal Botanic Gardens. We should have been able to catch a bus before that but Ramsay Lane and The Mound (where the bus route was meant to go) were both closed to traffic.

At the Royal Botanic Gardens it was free to get in but we had an expensive cup of tea, £1.80 each. It was a good cup of tea and well needed though. We looked round the Royal Botanic Gardens for a while, then left at 5.45pm as it closed at 6pm. We got the bus back towards North Bridge, then walked along North Bridge / South Bridge to find the cheap Cheeseburger and pie shop we'd seen the other day.

Unfortunately they had sold out of Cheeseburgers, and didn't have any Haggis pies left either :( . So we both bought a Scotch Pie instead, though Mauser probably would have bought a Scotch pie anyway. They were 95p each. We also went to Tesco, but this time the larger one, and bought a pot noodle and some croissants.

Further on Mauser thought it might be better to have chips with the Scotch Pies than the Pot Noodles, so we bought some chips for £1.80, though after that we saw another shop selling chips for £1.50. We walked back to the B&B and were very glad about having the hot chips to go with the pies, which were only warm.

After eating and copying all the photos to the laptop we went out again in the evening. We got the bus partway down the street, then walked to Greyfriars to see the Greyfriars Bobby statue. I took a pano there, though it took quite a long time as a drunk New Zealander was talking into the camera like he was on TV, and then hung around for ages trying to talk to Mauser.

I tried to take a photo of Greyfriars Church, but it wasn't lit at all, and I couldn't get my camera to focus correctly. The 18-55 IS lens I was using has no manual focus distance markings, liveview was black even at ISO1600 with a 30s shutter speed, and the viewfinder isn't good enough for manual focusing, especially in light so dim. When I was just giving up a tour came round to the front of the church, talking about the story of Greyfriars Bobby.

We walked down various streets and along behind Edinburgh Castle, and saw a couple of Churches off Lothian Road. Then we walked round Charlotte square, which reminded me of the large posh squares they have in London, with a small park in the centre. We then walked back along Prince's Street, and finally caught a bus from North Bridge back towards the B&B. I copied the rest of the photos, then went to bed about 12pm. I didn't feel too well, and was sick a tiny little bit in the room's sink. But after that I felt better.