Thu, 26 Sep 2002

author Tim	location New Lanark, Scotland
posted 11:29 BST	section Europe2002/Europe/UK/Scotland/Scotland 1 ( all photos )

Edinburgh ( No photos )
I'm writing a quick update in the hope that I can find a decent Internet cafe somewhere today - all found so far have no laptop facilities.
Yesterday we had the most amazing breakfast so far - porridge, yoghurt, chopped fresh fruit, scrambled eggs, etc. Didn't need to eat for hours. That B&B had the hugest bathroom any of us had seen - I had a bath - great way to unwind after the day.
We then drove into Edinburgh. After parking in the street to find a tourist information place, we moved the car to a car park nearby where we drove him into a "bay", locked him up, then the door closed. What happened next, we don't know. He must have been taken on a conveyor belt somewhere - it took a little while to get him out later.
We started out on a walk that Liz had found in a little Edinburgh By Foot book that she found, but rapidly got side-tracked at tourist shops, Whisky centres, and fudge-land. Of course, we ended up buying five huge slices of fudge, along with numerous touristy things.
We spent a little time looking at some hostels to stay at, but they were quite expensive and had nowhere safe to park Percy.
The main thing we did was a trip through Edinburgh castle. It's so high up, and you wind around and around towards the top. We saw the crown jewels, the place where the piper stands at the tattoo, the war memorial, etc. The weather turned nasty just to remind us of where we were, and we spent a fair bit of time looking around in general. The girls liked some mead that we tried, so we may have to purchase some of that.
We decided to stay out of Edinburgh, and found a youth hostel at New Lanark - a tiny little village tucked between a river and a cliff-face. We couldn't even find the road in at first. The hostel itself is great - we're going to spend tonight here as well - it's cheap, clean, quiet, and almost smack-bang in the middle of Edinburgh and Glasgow. Dinner was take-away Chinese and a bottle of red, at the hostel.
This morning the girls slept in until 10am when I returned from a three mile walk. This was along side the river, up to The Clyde Falls - Britain's highest. However, it pales in comparison to the falls we have in Australia at only 27 metres high.
We're going to head back into Edinburgh now, taking in Arthur's Seat and looking a little more seriously for a decent Internet cafe.

(customised)