Edinburgh

Day one we arrived into Edinburgh around 12.30pm. After disembarking from the plane we headed to the large tin shed where we proceeded to clear customs. Once through we took a taxi to our accommodation rather then try and catch the bus with all our luggage.

After checking in we decided to walk into the city centre after being assured it was a twenty minute walk. So off we set. I was following at the rear as I was extremely tired and struggled to put one foot after the other. Anyway it took us about 45 minutes to reach the heart of the city. There were many people everywhere as we discovered August is festival month and there were thousands of visitors around, it made just walking down the street without bumping into someone on the footpath pretty impossible. Also discovered the Edinburgh Tattoo only finished this weekend which also partly accounted for the large number of visitors to the city.

We discovered Waverley Station, the main railway station which is huge, set on 20 acres very central and is the 2nd largest in the UK. Eventually we also found a place to have tea and then I convinced Gary that catching public transport back to our accommodation was the best way to go. So for a cost of £1.60 each we caught the bus back. Believe me I was happy to pay the fare and slept really well that night.

Day two we woke refreshed and after an excellent breakfast we made our way via the bus into the city. Once there we purchased a hop on hop off bus ticket and set out to enjoy the day. First stop was to check out the Royal Yacht Britannia which is advertised as the No 1 attraction in the UK. (I really missed my sister Sue doing this bus trip and she is wonderful at the Souvenir shops letting me browse with no pressure.). It took us approximately 2 hours to walk through the Britannia which is kept in spick and span condition. Eventually back on the bus we continued our travels and got off to explore the Holyrood Palace which is another well known landmark to visit. Unfortunately we ran out of time and didn't get to Edinburgh Castle although we had visited this on a previous occasion and were able to view the outside from the bus. We had fish and chips for tea before returning to our guest house accommodation.

Day three it was check out morning in Edinburgh. Left our cases at our accommodation and caught the bus into the city and visited the Childhood Museum which contained many items of long ago and although it was a narrow building it consisted of 5 floors of amazing articles! Toys and games of yesteryear. We enjoyed a couple of interesting hours there. Then walked to Waverley Station where we had organised to collect a hire car. We were given a Black VW Golf Polo which Gary was happy with, not so much the colour as he does not like black cars but definitely the make. Managed to navigate through the heavy Edinburgh traffic and collected our luggage on the way out of the city. Gary had organised a GPS before leaving so that helped us a little to get through the heavy traffic.

Even with the GPS we managed to get quite lost but eventually success and we found The Kelpies which was our first planned destination. Quite an amazing place with these 100 foot high statues of the Kelpies. From there we drove to The Falkirk Wheel. This was another interesting venue which lifts boats in the lock some 27 metres high, enabling them to travel along the waterways . We took the cruise which transported us along this unusual lock voyage.

Decided to stay in the town of Falkirk and found a reasonable hotel with offered dinner meals st £10 for two courses or £12 for three courses. Really excellent value.

This brings me to the end of my email. I wish you all a happy week and until my next update it is bye for now.

Love BarbRead more