Arthur's Seat, Edinburgh

An pretty full on day, and all the better for beautiful hot weather. So we started with a drive to Edinburgh, and specifically the very end of the Royal Mile, parking next to the Palace of Holyroodhouse. Only £1 an hour to park, we wish we'd found it before! After a coffee at the palace, with walking boots on and rucksacks of water and snacks, we began the climb. There were hundreds of people climbing this imposing 'must do' edinburgh attraction. An extinct volcano, I read it last erupted 325 million years ago. It took us (me) an hour to climb. The others had to stop for me, and we did stop for a snack break about 3/4 the way up. I was very out of breath; I am very unfit. I can't say I enjoyed the climb, but I was very pleased to get to the top. A sense of achievement and stunning views! As we got closer to the top, I found i couldn't look down. There was a sort of path, but at the end a rocky scramble against a backdrop of people all fighting to get to that very highest bit! I was clinging on to Jon a lot! Bravely, I let go for the photo, which Mollie took from another high point. It was scary when the wind blew, but I didn't stay there long. We sat to one edge and took photos. I changed to my zoom lens and took some photos of landmarks we could see, mainly the castle.

We took a different route back down, and in all we were up and down in 90 minutes. An ice cream and we got in the car heading out to the coast. Just past Mussleborough we stopped for our picnic.

We then spent the rest of the day in North Berwick. It was still such lovely weather we sat on the beach for an hour, finishing with fish and chips.

Since getting back to the caravan I've noticed red sun burn on my back; that was from the climb. Everyone is shattered. Tomorrow we will chill out. It is due to rain anyway. We think we've done Edinburgh justice, leaving a few things for another visit.