Argh... it's HOT!

Not the weather, mind you, but our hotel room. Although I'd like to claim there was some good reason for it being this way (like us doing jumping jacks... get your dirty little minds out of the gutter), it was just that dang radiator. I can barely stand to pull a sweater on, even for the few seconds it takes to grab my key and get out of the room to breakfast. Yuck.

Fortunately, we made it down to the dining room (the hotel rate included a full Scottish breakfast-yummy!), and then headed outdoors where it was safe. The bad news, f you can call it that, is that the weather is chilly and kind of damp. But we expected that-it is Scotland, after all-and so we jumped into the car, determined to find a nearby geocache and swap out a couple of travel bugs. The cache was located near the Glasgow airport (not to be confused with the Prestwick airport, which is where we arrived), and it took a little hunting around to find the right road-I've got to get into the habit of printing out cache pages again. But we finally found the correct road and followed it-first by car and then on foot-out toward a beacon next to the river. Once we got there we hunted around in the mud and thistles to no avail-it seemed this cache was nowhere to be found. Scratched (a part of a retaining wall collapsed under my foot), muddy, and a little disappointed, we headed back to the car, cleaned up as best we could, and headed for a local pub for a sandwich. Afterward we turned toward Edinburgh, driving about an hour in mild traffic toward the city.

At first glance, Edinburgh seemed like nothing special. We parked in a very run-of-the-mill neighborhood and set out on foot, looking for the Edinburgh castle (I should point out that we had no guidebook for Scotland and no time to get one, so we were really "winging it" on this trip), which seemed to be somewhere on the other side of town. Our first stop-only a few blocks away-was the Gorgi Community Farm, which was a tiny, honest-to-goodness farm right smack dab in the middle of the city. The farm comes complete with friendly piglets, friendly calves and goats, and friendly staff members who patiently answered my questions about the state of agricultural exports and general economics of farming in Scotland. It seems that this place is supported mostly by donations and staffed by a few regular paid hands and a number of volunteers, and it exists, apparently, as an educational resource for the community. It was both weird and neat to see this little haven in the middle of the city, and after taking a few pictures and scratching a few heads, we got back on the sidewalk and headed east toward the city center.

Our destination now (courtesy of the lady at the postcard shop, who did her best to give us directions) was the "Royal Mile," which was supposed to be in the middle-more or less-of the city. Nothing that fit the description was showing itself, and after a while we began wondering if we had either missed it or if the place simply didn't live up to its billing. Then, we turned a corner, and were suddenly greeted by a stunning view of the castle from Prince Street. It was breathtaking-the castle sits atop a hill, and is separated from Prince Street by a gorge that has been turned into a city park. We turned on the next street--I don't remember the name, but it's the site of the Scottish Gallery--and the crossed the bridge toward the Royal Mile and the castle itself. Although the site was closed to visitors for the day, we got a nice look around the Scotch Whiskey gallery (gotta love a country that has a gallery like that for one of its most important exports) before heading east again.

Turning south again, across the bridge that crosses over the train station, we stopped and watched the most spectacular sunset I've seen in many months. The sky turned bright gold, and then shades of pink while we took pictures and watched the sun disappear. We continued back on Prince Street, but the fireworks hadn't ended just yet; soon, scattered orange and red clouds lit up the evening sky. It was a great evening to cap off a fun day.


Getting hungry by this time, we turned our attention toward the restaurant menus, and Harry convinced me to give a Nepalese place a try. It was really, really good-a lot like Indian food, with a slightly different (and somewhat more potent) mix of spices. Despite my initial trepidation, I ended up enjoying the meal, and we'll definitely have to stop in again the next time we get out to Edinburgh. Walked back to the car-about 2 1/2 miles by this time-stopping into an internet café along the way to check e-mail. Arrived back at the hotel in one piece ("driving on the LEFT!") and found that the housekeeping folks were able to shut down the radiator. Awesome.


Cheers,
Leanne