The Outlander Odyssey begins

The first guy we meet
and he winked at me

¸Palace of Holyroodhouse abbey ruins 

The lovely staff wear kilts

Arthurs Seat

Palace of Holyroodhouse

Climbing Nelsons Monument

National Memorial from top of Nelsons Monument

Looking down Princes Street to Waverley Station and castle

Scotts Monument with everyone
collapsing in shade from the heat

Exhausted but happy

BA8704 ready for take off, ack, balh, be, bob, what did they say? We haven’t even left the ground and I don’t understand the Scottish accent. One hour later we are circling our destination straining to check out where is the castle, all the houses are in very straight rows and what is that big mountain in the background. Everything is bathed in sunshine and green.

Our taxi driver knows we are tourists, how did he figure that out? And gives a great running commentary of all the sites along the way, what a great way to be introduced to a new country. Time to dump the bags and get out into sunny Edinburgh.

Off down the Royal Mile with a plan to keep Jane on track, our destination is only open today as then it shuts for the royal garden parties. Someone keeps getting distracted by shops and photo opportunities and its not Jane! We arrive, where are the unicorns, distracted by Arthurs Seat and finally tickets exchanged and we are in. The Palace of Holyroodhouse is the official residence of the Queen in Scotland and has a long history including Mary, Queen of Scots and Bonnie Prince Charlie. Audio guide in hand we explore all the rooms and get generally confused by all the Charles' and James' in history. The bits I like most are the embroidered chairs with fancy ladies and the room where Sean Connery was knighted. No photos allowed throughout the palace so it's a very sedate experience for us.

Ejected out into the ruins of the abbey now the photo frenzy starts, then onto the garden. It's beautiful and so glorious in the sunshine. All the staff wear kilts and are so friendly.

100’s of people look like little ants walking up to Arthurs Seat, they must be hot. Onwards and upwards we go in the other direction towards the top of Carlton Hill. Cutting up through the burial ground Jane jokes that we will end up with sunstroke and the headlines will read, ‘two Aussies admitted to hospital with sunstroke on their first day in Scotland’.

Arthur’s seat and all of Edinburgh laid out below us looks just amazing in the sunshine. There is lots to explore where do we go first. As usual I am drawn to the highest point and you can enter, will we go? Of course we will, its so cool inside Nelsons Monument and we slowly climb the 132 steps to the top for a photo frenzy.

Now onto National Monument, I cant get up the wall, most people get pushed up, Jane gives me a good shove but its not to be, too high. A rest in the shade and then a gradual walk down to explore more of this beautiful city.

The Balmoral Hotel, very fancy, Scotts Monument, the largest monument to a writer in the world, Jenners a famous old department store and gradually make our way back to base to collapse.

Note: London City Airport is the chosen departure point, its a business airport much closer to the city that I want to try out. Well, that was a mistake its an overcrowded, disorganised throwback from the 70’s.