Edinburgh!

We made it to Edinburgh in one piece yesterday, though it took us some time to figure out the WiFi setup here at our B&B. If anyone reading this is looking for a nice place to stay just outside the main area of town, we highly recommend the Ardgarth Guest House in Portobello. It's about 3 minutes away from a beautiful beach and maybe 10 minutes away from town by bus.

As a contrast to our London experience, when we arrived in Edinburgh the sun was shining and it was very warm. We took an Airlink bus from the airport into the center of town. It's a double-decker like 99% of the buses here in Edinburgh and we got up top right in the front (wee!).

Edinburgh is absolutely beautiful! It's basically the downtown St. John's area, as if it were a city... with a medieval castle on a hill in the middle of it... and a long extinct volcano. But in all seriousness it feels like we're home.

Everyone is so friendly too. Two total strangers helped us out yesterday when we got lost, it was so different from London where a lot of people just seem very distant. I think it's just a symptom of London being so big. People were nice and all, but with 7 million people I suppose you just keep to yourself.

Anyway, we got off in the middle of town and scoped out everything in the area. The Scott Monument looks like something out of Mordor, this black jagged looking Gothic spire. The only difference is that Mordor isn't a beautiful green park. Apparently you can climb to the top, looks like you can get a good view. There are also a lot of performers around for the various Festivals that are ongoing this month. It's pretty cool. We ended up going to the Tourist Information building just after this to get some info about the buses and whatnot, and after that we headed to the Lothian Busses building around the corner to pick up some Day Passes.

We hopped on the bus we needed up across from the Marks and Spencer and headed for Portobello. More great views of the neighborhoods along the way greeted us. When we arrived we were greeted by Ursula, one of the owners of the B&B. She is really friendly and jovial and has lots of useful advice and information about the area. After checking in we headed down to the beach and walked around in our bare feet at the water's edge. We're going to have to come back here before we leave and actually try some swimming.

After wiping all the sand off our feet we started walking down Portobello High Street to check out the shops. We eventually reached the roundabout that would have taken us into town but we took a wrong turn and ended up going down the motorway, which also happens to be lined with auto dealers as far as the eye can see.

We ended up going the right way into town after walking back the way we came and took a bus into the city center. We bought a wool blanket and had a fish and chips picnic in the park, it was great.

After this we walked to Holyrood Park. Along the way we got lost but a friendly girl helped us get our bearings. We ended up taking the incredibly hard way up but it was more than worth it for the beautiful view in the end. We finally walked our way down the easier path in the dark, managing once again to not get killed, and after getting lost (and being helped by yet another friendly stranger) we managed to get to our bus home to the guest house.

Off again!