Ben Cruachan Guest House Edinburgh

... but one side has nothing - it's just bare and exposing a monstrous building left from the time when the area mined coal from under the sea. I ask a guy sat next to me what the building is used for now and he tells me that it's going to be dismantled but requires a lot of money and asbestos specialists to take it down. The coastline will look ...

... is screaming for mercy. Found some very nice cookies though, yum!

Time for some wandering! We didn't hit the Royal Mile unfortunately, but we did get a good wander up and down Princes Street. Waiting around in Pizza Hut for some food, just having a general laugh.. who needs to be touristy when you get the full-on local effect?

And the best part was.. SNOW! Very random and very light, but it was there :)

Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom kilgiraffe

... phones through to the AA and books a transporter to take me back to take me back to Nottingham (East Leake).

Tow truck 1, turns up at 11:50 to take me on the first leg of the journey home from Fort William to Stirling. This takes approx 3 hours and I get dropped at Stirling service station where I am supposed to be met by the next tow truck. It takes about an hour for the next truck to turn up. Which was arranged for 14:30

For my day 'in town' today, I decided that I needed to get 'out of town'. As much as I've fallen love with old town Edinburgh, I can't handle another tourist shop. Every other store or so, they are becoming a bit monotonous as they all selling the same thing! Foolishly I went into a few, hoping to find something worthy of spending my money on, but was sadly disappointed. And there's 100's of these! Cheap kilts, sporrans, clan scarves ...

... the Highlands. Before continuing out into the wilderness, people would stop in Pitlochry to make out their last will and testament. Thus, there were always plenty of lawyers on hand to accommodate these pioneers. He also told us that Queen Victoria spent a great deal of time in the area at the local spa, and that she was stoned out of her mind on opium most of the time. LOL

Chris informed us that we would have a choice of activities in Fort Augustus. We could either wander ...

... border - he has a bearded face and looks nothing like Mel Gibson - It is an imposing statue - and a 5 min walk from where the bus dropped us off. Back into Edinburgh - we went out for dinner and found a restaurant called 'Frankie and Benny's - a New York type of Italian restaurant - boy was the food nice. Malani had the surf and turf and I had the ribs - the kids had spag bol and F&C. Our waitress ...

... Bones playing 101 (Manfred got it at the end!), guitar playing by Fiona, and more whisky. Ah, I really like this place. Anyway, I left this morning for Edinburgh, will be here for a night at friend's place, and tomorrow back to London, and Thursday to fly out. I don't wanna talk about that right now, its a sore subject. Details and what not about some other random events in between come later. Cheers to all.

... of the Royal Mile, the Palace of Holyroodhouse is closely associated with Scotland's turbulent past, including Mary, Queen of Scots, who lived here between 1561 and 1567. Successive kings and queens have made the Palace of Holyroodhouse the premier royal residence in Scotland. Today, the Palace is the setting for State ceremonies and official entertaining. Calton Hill is one of Edinburgh's main hills, set right in the city ...

... held just nearby. But that is still to come, today was the peaceful rally against poverty. I wasn't going to go out and join in the march but I figured I'd get out and have a look at it as it made its way right past my hostel. So I went out and got myself a nice spot about half way along Princes St. and the march eventually made it's way past and just kept coming and coming and coming and coming. I hung around for probably about 45 minutes with a couple of ...

Today was not an incredibly tiring day. We went to the Tourist Bureau after breakfast to get reservations for Edinburgh. After the secretary had gotten all information plus our deposit, she told us that there would be half hour wait before they could tell us if we had accommodations. We went over behind Shambles Street to the Mercado Al Aire Libre and ...