Sunny Edinburgh

One last look at the Writers Museum: when they buried Burns' wife, they took the opportunity to dig him up and take reportedly three casts of the top half of his skull, one of which is in the museum and lord knows where the others are.

The forecast tells us the weather will be good (by Edinburgh standards) until Saturday. Then it will rain for the rest of our holiday. So we're doing the out of doors stuff while we can.

First up, Arthurs Seat, the volcanic remnant at the other end from the Royal Mile tail. It reminds me a lot of Diamond Head, which shouldn't surprise. It is neither an easy nor a hard climb most of the way to the top. The path is clear, quite rocky (of course I stumbled and hurt my knee; but I saved the camera) and, when we climbed, only half mad with tourists. 

But the utmost summit was crowded. So we decided that wasn't on our bucket list anyway and stopped climbing before the peak.

From the prospect of almost at the top, we saw there were lots of ways down, one of them ridiculously easy compared to the way we had come up, so that's how we went down.

At the very bottom of the Seat, we saw a man disappear down what looked like a path, so we went that way and descended a long stairway made of stone.

There we came upon the 14th century village of Duddingston, where stands Scotland's oldest pub.  

Two hundred and seventy four years to the day after Bonnie Prince Charlie held his Council of War before the battle of Prestonpans, I took this picture.

We were pleased with ourselves for stumbling on something so charming. But, vacation luck runs out, so I used the map on my phone to get us turned in the right direction to find the Botanical Gardens, about an hour's walk away.

Healthy-looking monkey puzzle trees. From Peru.

Thriving red paper tree. From China. 

Giant lily pads. From the Amazon.

So far, I would say the Botanical Gardens are the highlight of what we've seen. We've already noticed that the Scots have a skilled hand with lawns and hedges. Put those together with an inclination to science and order and an impossible-to-miss appreciation for growing things, and you get the RBGE. There are ten glasshouses; a grove of monkey puzzle trees of various ages; a 100 year old, fifteen foot high hedge of beech trees and stunningly beautiful lawns and immaculately kept gardens everywhere.

The other thing about the day: as you can see in these pictures, it started solidly overcast, but by two o'clock it was sunny. Clear sky sunny.

Today is 100% sunny all day long. So we're going to the seaside.

Thanks for reading!

Karen

Bruce's Pun-of-the-Day
Rabbit holes on Arthurs Seat: Edin-burrows.