There is this huge mountain/hill that kind of overlooks Edinburgh that seemed to be calling my name to climb it. It’s not huge, but it’s pretty big and by the time that I made it to the base of it, I was seriously wondering if I was going to be able to make it to the top. The only thing that convinced me to actually try it was that there were other people making the trek up, some of these people were old too (whatever “old” means).
It was not as hard of a climb as I thought it was going to be, in all it took me about two hours, or maybe an hour and a half of climbing, but that includes climbing another mountain/hill right next to the first one. The view was pretty good, the positioning of the mountain isn’t the best to get great shots of the main area of the city, but being up so high I still got some great views and some pretty good pictures. You have to kind of imagine the first hill, actually I’ll put up a photo so you don’t have to, but it’s almost like a big slab of rock that has been pushed out of the ground. One side is nothing more than a cliff of rock and the other is angled down to the ground. The top of this “slab” is covered in grass that has footpaths worn into it. So I’m making my way up to the top wading through some of the tall grass and in the distance I hear bagpipes playing. I don’t think I could have asked for anything more perfect. It seemed to me to be something straight out of a movie. It could only have been better if I was walking beside an ox that was pulling a cart loaded with hay…
Most of the rest of the day I did what I’ve been doing the other days, walking around, watching shows, taking pictures, and just enjoying the whole experience. And this festival really has been an “experience” from almost every standpoint. It’s been so fun that for the most part the crowds haven’t bothered me too much.
Tomorrow at 11 I leave for Inverness, Scotland and will be there for two nights. I’m looking forward to seeing another city, and from what I’ve heard Inverness is really pretty. We’ll see.
