Auld Reekie

The only time I was in Edinburgh was in December 2007. The winter sun blinded me as we exited Waverly Station, the wind was persistently cold. The walk toward the castle was an intimidating tourist trap of age, bagpipes blaring out of every shop window and history.

Sunday's visit was different. We took a cab from Waverly to our B&B, got the key from the owner, put our bags on the bed, stopped at a shop for some snacks and went to Arthur's Seat



That was the view from the window of our B&B. I'm just going to post a few pictures here to depict our ascent. We took the hard route, which we probably should not have, but we did not know any better. We did not know about the relatively easy path on the other side, the one we took down!

Some things you have to work for, and the wife and I worked hard for these pictures.










If you look there, you see Emma doing some rock climbing. She did the rock proud!

As you see it's a clear day, it was also a lot warmer than we expected. Going the tougher route really took a lot out of us. But we continued and prevailed.





Em' decided not to make it all the way up, but I continued, only to be rewarded by a Midge attack. As you see, I'm happy, but being swarmed by the beasties, as was everyone else up there.



Em's down there somewhere.






There's the path down, which eventually led us to what is alleged to be The oldest bar in the U.K. The refreshments were well needed, and we beat the crowd.






The image above is of the legendary Heart of Midlothian. That is not my spit.

We were in the city on the last day of the Fringe Festival, and I have to say the service workers in bars and restaurants were more than a bit surly. I get that they wanted it over, but there was one wanker bartender who did not seem to want to sell us the refreshments we wanted. I'll call him a tASShole.



Here, they were nice.

There's something about the city that gives me bad vibes. Sure, there's plenty of history but the citizens have to realize that tourism is giving them work, and not a reason for them to act like douches. Oh, the guy who sold me Buckfast (more about in an upcoming post), he was cool. I was respectful the whole time and nearly had my head handed to me when I made a wrong turn in the B&B and put my head into the owner's private quarters. It was not just bad luck, they're not as friendly a bunch in Edinburgh as they are in the rest of the places I traveled to in the country. I think it's time to go someplace else during our next trip over.