Why Scotland Rocks, part 2 (rocks!)

On our last day in Edinburgh, we had only about five hours to play. We'd already seen the castle, walked the Royal Mile, and enjoyed the shopping around George Street.

But the day before, we looked up from the bottom of the Royal Mile and saw a park with three hills. Fru examined the map and decided that this must be Arthur's Seat, a local landmark set in the park by Holyrood Palace.

Those of you who are familiar with Eaton Canyon remember that it serves as a wilderness in the center of Pasadena/Altadena. Any time you like you can pop into the park and climb the mountain, visit the waterfall, etc. Families picnic there, people work out, and it generally serves the purposes that parks are supposed to offer, but rarely do. Arthur's Seat is like that. You can see the summit below, on the right side of the picture. In the front, the fields of flowers with tracks moving through it. Lovely.



It took us about 35 minutes to hike to the top. [One hour walking through Edinurgh, 35 minutes to the top, 20 minutes down, an hour back up through the city for a coffee] Below, here I am sitting just a few yards from the summit, enjoying the breeze and the view.

The view from the top is excellent. It was a cloudy day (but it cleared only a couple of hours later! Grrrr.), but you can see that the entire city is spread out below. One can see out to the sea, over the palace below and up to the castle in the distance. Paths led down to the other summits, to lakes and villages.

Anytime one likes, in Edinburgh, one can head up this little mountain (251 meters at the top) and enjoy the pleasure of a good walk, good company, and a look out to sea. If this doesn't constitute a good reason to consider Edinburgh wonderful, then I'm a Norwegian Ridgeback.