Alba gu brath! (Scotland forever!)

Nothing quite like returning to the motherland for me and visiting Edinburgh for the weekend. Dena and I flew into Edinburgh late Friday afternoon and hit the ground running. We caught a taxi to the bed and breakfast where we were staying and were greeted by Helen who showed us our room and took our order for breakfast the next morning. There was no time to spare so we dropped our stuff off and headed out. We raced down the Royal Mile to the Palace of Holyroodhouse, which used to be the residence of Mary Queen of Scots and is now the official Scottish residence of the Queen of England. We took a tour of the palace, the Holyrood abbey and the gardens in the back. It was very nice and very green. We then climbed our way to the top of Arthur's Seat. Well, it was not actually Arthur's Seat, which is a huge hill that has a great view of the city. It was a big hill in front of Arthur's Seat that still had a great view of the city. As if that wasn't enough climbing for us, we then headed to Calton Hill and climbed to the top of that for some more great photos. We headed back into town and over to the Scott Monument. Its a monument to honor Sir Walter Scott who was a famous Scottish historical writer and poet. We stopped off at a pub for a pint and then back to home base for a costume change and then out to dinner. Saturday the weather was typical of Scotland. Rainy, cold and very windy. But we bundled up and headed out to the Edinburgh Castle. The Castle is pretty big so we spent a few hours there touring around. We were pretty cold when we left the castle so we popped into the Scotch Whiskey Heritage Center for a wee dram. We took the scotch whiskey tour and sampled 5 different scotches at the end. That's my idea of an educational tour. From there we headed down to the Grassmarket. Its an area with some great pubs and restaurants. We grabbed a bite to eat and then back to the Royal Mile for some sights and shopping. We checked out a kilt weaving factory and picked up a few Clan Young items. We headed back to the B&B but stopped off at the Jolly Judge pub to warm up and rest our feet and of course for a few pints. There was a nice chocolate lab that greeted us at the door with his tail wagging. It was a great local pub with low painted timber ceilings and a great Scottish feel. The next day we had another great breakfast at the B&B and then headed to the airport for our 10:45 flight. We loved Edinburgh and would love to go back sometime. Hopefully it wont take us too long to get back.