I knew when we planned this trip that we would have this day but the reality always hits a little differently. The plan for today was to exchange our tickets for Edinburgh castle that we couldn’t use yesterday due to the train delays and then walk the Royal Mile and then hike up to Arthur’s seat. We started off looking for breakfast but our first place was booked until 11 so we walked over to the castle to exchange our tickets for later in the day and got tickets for 330p. As we started down the Royal Mile we saw a little coffeeshop on a side street and grabbed a sandwich and pastry and coffee. We continued down the Royal mile listening to our Rick Steves audio walking tour.

After getting to the bottom at Holyrood palace we turned left into the park area and we’re greeted by our first real sight of Arthur’s seat. Arthur’s seat is an ancient extinct volcano and the highest point in Edinburgh. We took the relatively easier way up but it was a mile or more of basically all uphill hiking. I definitely had to pace myself and take breaks every steeper part but we finally made it up. Becky was much more ready for this day and i slowed her down immensely. The views when I did stop and rest were beautiful. Everything is so green and the yellow gorse flowers were in full bloom.

By the time we reached the summit some fog had rolled in and that somewhat limited the views but we could see all of the old town and much of Edinburgh in all directions.

We brought our various soccer scarves and took several pictures to document our conquest of the hill.

The way down was so much worse though 😂. My knees are just not made for steep downhill hikes anymore and by the bottom I was definitely feeling it.

Becky got my a promised ice cream when we reached the bottom again. We headed to the bus stop but I had seen a restaurant I was wanting to try right by the stop so we grabbed lunch at Oink which is a Scottish hog roasting chain (think basically pulled pork). I had a sandwich with pork, haggis and chili cheese at the recommendation of the staff. Becky had a sandwich with pork, sage and onions and apple. It was fantastic.

I told them they need to come try American BBQ pork as well but that this stood up to it. After lunch we headed back to the castle by bus and passed by Grey friars bobby statue and pub. This is the statue of a little Scotty dog who would come to guard the grave of his owner after he died.

We also passed through Victoria street which apparently was one of the inspirations for Diagon Alley in the Harry Potter books.

We got back to the castle and did their audio tour and pretty much completed it by the time the castle closed at 6.

The highlights for me were the views from all around, the dog cemetery, and finally seeing the Stone of Scone in person with the Scottish crown jewels. Learning so much about Scottish history had been really interesting. After the castle we caught the bus back to the hotel (though we got off one stop early thanks to Google being wrong) and changed for dinner. We had a reservation at the Queens Arms near the hotel which i had seen had a library of books and sounded like a fun place for dinner. Overall the food was good and the atmosphere was fun. The service on the other hand was definitely iffy. They seemed to forget about us for long stretches and even brought Becky the wrong meal though she was happy with it. After we finally got someone’s attention to pay the bill we headed back to the hotel to relax and rest my worn out feet. They may never be the same but it was worth all the steps and soreness I am anticipating tomorrow. I will return to this post tomorrow if I can and add more pictures from my camera. UPDATED!