Edinburgh - Day 6

Week-end is already over. It's not that bad, though. I've seen most of what I wanted to see - the rest is mainly some restaurants. I'm eager to move to London next week!

Woke up at 07:00 (yep, on a sunday), ate breakfast, and was ready to leave the hotel at 07:45. I went to the Edinburgh Castle, through all of the Royal Mile, turn right to... indeed! Holyrood Park! The hill is very impressive, especially when standing at the bottom.

West of Holyrood Park. End of the Salisbury
Crags at the left.

If you arrived from the Palace of Hollyroodhouse (east end of the Royal Mile) like I did, you are face to face with the Salisbury Crags. These are ominous, and the reminders along the road that there can be rock slides are a bit unsettling when you look up. I immediately take the road that seems to go up to my right, and continue walking, and walking, panting at some points, reminding myself that I'll continue running when I get back home to get back in shape.

West of Edinburgh, seen from the hill
next to Arthur's Seat.

I get to the point where there are some different paths to take. I take to one that seems to go to the top of that hill, which I wrongfully assumed to be Arthur's Seat (Arthur's Seat was just behind it). The earthen path doesn't rise that much, but there are very tall wooden steps (some around 50cm (1.5 ft) high), which are testing my endurance. I get to the end of the path - the rest is only rocks, pebbles, patches of grass, and earth, that would be deadly for someone under the influence of alcohol. I'm saying this because I actually saw some beer bottles on top of some hills. That's dangerous...

Arthur's Seat, as seen from it's neighbor hill.

I know what I'm doing. There are two clear paths from here, and I take the left one. More earth than rock on a slight incline for about 10 meters, then rises sharply with only rocks. I look back and decide this is as far as I'll go. The other path seems easier, at a 45 degree angle, but mostly rocks. I climb around 5 meters, and decide there must be about 20 meters maximum to reach the top. Now, the climb was not that easy. I had to make sure my footing was good, because even if I didn't use my hands, it was easy to slip.

The Salisbury Crags, from the top.

I look back. Woah. How the hell can I go back if I continue? The rest of the climb is even harder, but even if it wasn't, I decided this wasn't a good day to break something. One slip, and I slide down to the bottom, hitting everything as I get more momentum down the sharp incline. I start going down, which proves at least ten times harder than climbing, even when using my hands. I get stuck about a meter from the path, and after about a minute trying to find a spot where to place any foot, I see no other choice than to jump. It wasn't a difficult jump, but so many things could go wrong, like landing and slipping, and sliding all the way down. There are no rails anywhere, in case you wanted to know. I just jumped and landed safely, relieved.

Just that climb was a terribly good exercise for my legs, but I didn't see Arthur's Seat. I go back the tall steps, take another path leading somewhere dangerous, take another one, same thing, until I notice some people using stairs that go the side of the hill I wanted to climb (the stairs were hard to see if you didn't know they were there). I follow the path, and follow a 200 meters path made out of different sizes of slabs, forming a very long stairs. That was another kind of hard exercise for my legs.

I make it to the top, trying not to think too much about the hill behind it, which is a bit taller, which must make it Arthur's Seat. I go to the ledge, standing on a rock amid the grass, close my eyes, and feel the wind. Because wind there was. A lot of it. Edinburgh (or Scotland, for that matter) is a windy city, most noticeable when in a high location. Even though the wind was cold, it felt great.

There were some paths that now led to Arthur's Seat, but none seemed to be really safe. Maybe there was the "official" path on the other side? I'll probably never know. I look down, notice which path would lead me to the top of Salisbury Crags, go back down the stairs of slabs. Previously, I had taken a path towards the crags, but took a right when it forked. It looked like the correct path, but became muddy, slippery, and dangerous, so I had gone back. Now, with the right path in my mind, I went over Salisbury Crags. The sudden rocky drop was exciting, especially since there was nothing to prevent anyone from falling. In america, there would have been fences and rails everywhere, marring the view.

I follow the oft-disappearing path, back down to the ground on the other side, close to where I initially started on Queen's Drive. Royal Mile, Hotel, 11:00. Quite a walk!

I rest for a few minutes and go down to the hotel reception, asking about laundry service. They don't offer it (damn...), but there is a laundry shop nearby where I can drop my clothes. I decide to go there to get some info first, but it's closed, and no opening hours anywhere. Most shops on Dalry Road are not open yet (it's about 11h15), so I walk around a bit, wondering what I can eat for lunch - with the morning exercise, I'm hungry!

11:35, still not open, so I decide to walk to the Co-operative Food (similar to a Metro or IGA), buy a sandwich, a caesar wrap, and some fruits. 12:05, still not open. Must not be open on sundays. I go back to the hotel, and eat while asking Google what laundry service there are. There's another one that seems even better, opens tomorrow at 08:00. My bus is at 08:28, so all's good. Well, almost all's good, since I'll have to wear the same underwear tomorrow, a wrinkled pants, and one of the unwashed shirt that I bought yesterday. Oh well... I continue to relax a bit in my hotel room, and I tell myself that I really should go out again, even though I have nowhere to go.

I, of course, go to the Royal Mile again. The last thing I could do that seemed promising was the Scotch Whisky Experience. I pay the admission, enter a motorized barrel that brought me along a railway, showing me the process to making scotch. That lasted 10 minutes, then about 10 other people and I were brought to a room, where a guide taught us about the four whisky regions of Scotland. One tasting was included with the admission price, so we had to choose one region. He brought us to a winding corridor displaying the 3500+ bottles of scotch whisky in some guy's collection. That was impressive.

I go back to the Royal Mile, but this time, I try all the perpendicular roads, looking for interesting shops. Of course, being the perfect tourist that I am, I find none, but ended up walking for a long time, looking around. I leave the Royal Mile by the north, and instead of taking Princes Street, I take the parallel street to the north, Rose Street, looking at the different shops there.

Back to the hotel a bit past 16:30, after about 10 hours of walking, and climbing. Some wikipedia, then dinner at the hotel restaurant (entrée of prawns (shrimps) and a tiny salad, then a plate of pesto pasta (which was very fulfilling, even with no meat), and a "Caramel Apple Crumble with Ice Cream"). Back to my room, upload photos, write day, and relax.