Storming The Castle

Today was our last day in Edinburgh. And it rained. Check that, it poured. All day. As I write this blog, it's still raining and it's about 7 p.m. So yeah, it's been pretty crappy all day.

Still, we had a plan for the day and we were going to achieve our goals! Here were our said goals for the last day in Edinburgh:

1. Go to Edinburgh Castle
2. Go to St. Giles' Cathedral
3. Climb Arthur's Seat

We got downtown and were still relatively dry at this point. As we were trekking up to the Castle, we made our first great decision of the day: stopping for coffee and breakfast. A very cute place off of the main road that had the best tomato and cheese croissant I've ever had. Great decision.

Then we went back out into the weather, which had worsened. As we walked up the hill, the rain started falling sideways so our umbrellas were pretty much useless. Our shoes, jackets, and jeans were pretty much soaked once we made it to the castle entrance. Here is where we made our second great decision of the day: only doing item one on our list. I knew the rain would persist all day and that a trek up the mountain was not in our best interests.

So we toured the castle and I personally don't have any pictures because it was raining and I didn't want to get my camera wet. It was really cool and on a clear day, it would have been great to see the city of Edinburgh from it. But it wasn't so we didn't get to see much.

After leaving the castle, and stopping at the shop of course, we made our way back into town. On the way, we made our third great decision of the day: stop for lunch before heading back to Dalkeith. We went back to The Albanach to actually have their food this time and they did not disappoint. I may have had the best beef stew ever (besides my mother's of course). And we couldn't resist having their dessert one last time so Sticky Toffee Pudding Cake it was!

(Side Note: We're all extremely happy that Jenny will most likely be moving here next summer so we aren't too upset that we didn't see everything. Melissa and I will just come back to visit and see stuff then! Next summer, hopefully.)

Then it was back to Dalkeith via the bus. Still raining pretty hard. We made it back to our rooms by 330, and I proceeded to spend the next 30-45 minutes in the shower to warm up to normal temperatures again. This evening will be a relaxing one of packing and preparing for our five days of travelling that commence tomorrow morning. I may not be as frequent about my blogs because we will be in a different hostel every night and I may not have the time to keep up with it. As a reminder, here is our schedule:

Thursday: Edinburgh to Newcastle. Visit Hadrian's Wall, Then back to Newcastle and head to York for the night.
Friday: York all day. Leave for Nottingham in the evening.
Saturday: Nottingham all day. Leave for Cardiff, Wales, very late.
Sunday: Cardiff all day.
Monday: Leave Cardiff mid morning. Return to London early afternoon.

Hopefully I'll be able to check-in periodically but I can't be certain. It will be a whirlwind but I'm looking forward to it. Til then!

- Kate