In Search Of A Monster

Last week I spent a very enjoyable 3 days in bonny Scotland.

My daughter had a week off and a lot of hotel loyalty points and suggested that we fly up to Edinburgh for a short break.

We flew out from Stansted early on Tuesday morning using the meet and greet parking as the last thing I want to do after an early start is drive to a car park and wait for a bus. On arrival in Edinburgh, we decided to try the tram which takes you easily into the city centre. The beauty of only going away for a couple of nights is that you don’t need a lot of luggage so we then had an easy ten minute stroll to our hotel.

After check-in we set off to see the sights and sample a bit of shopping on Princes Street followed by a lovely meal in a pub including tasting the local raspberry gin and haggis (well the vegetarian version but they say the flavour is the same!) We also visited the tourist office and booked a day trip for the following day.

Wednesday brought another early start as we headed out of the city and up the country though stunning scenery to Inverness and Loch Ness (No! We didn’t find her) with several stops including Ben Nevis and to see some local deer and Aberdeen Angus. We were out from 07.30am to 9.30pm and covered nearly 500 miles so an amazing excursion with an excellent guide who played an array of Scottish tunes and gave a lot of interesting background. On arrival back we found ourselves in the middle of a massive film production with crew, vehicles, catering lorries, special effects, huge lighting cranes and numerous cameras filling the Royal Mile which leads up to the castle. Unfortunately, we neither saw the main stars nor were invited on set but exciting to see none the less.

Thursday we filled our last day with more sightseeing and even climbed the ancient volcano Arthur’s Seat for the stunning views over this beautiful city before a late flight home. Amazing what you can fit into a few days!