Haggis

We've been so lucky with the weather, only one and a half days of rain in 75 days of holiday, but it was certainly raining when we got up today, and kept raining until late afternoon. It wasn't cold, but the rain just made everything awkward. However, we donned out wet weather gear and joined the free city walking tour regardless, and trudged through the rain with everybody else. Turned out that our guide was from Sydney, so we got a lot of in-jokes thrown our way.

We started at the City Hall and walked the Royal Mile to Edinburgh Castle. Went past St Giles Cathedral, the old Scottish parliament building, and Mercat Cross - a small rotunda like building in the main street used for proclamations and punishments. Down into Grassmarket (the former cattle market now the site of a Bollywood movie shooting), through Greyfriars Kirk where we saw the Black Tomb, Covenanter's prison, and the monument to Greyfriars Bobby - a rather devoted dog who, upon his death, guarded his master's gravestone for 14 years. Greyfriars Kirk graveyard is regularly listed as one of the scariest places on earth due to its documented poltergeist activity.

Finished in Princes Street Garden at the foot of Edinburgh Castle. Didn't go underground, though there are a number of tours that can take you through Edinburgh's underground city below the Royal Mile where thousands lived centuries ago until they sealed it off during one of the plagues with the people still inside.

Following the tour we joined some of the group at a local pub for lunch of haggis. Enjoyed it as most people do, though it's quite rich and you don't need a large helping. It was about 4pm by that time, so we took a bus back to the hotel to dry off and warm up, then eventually out to a pub for tea.