Walk to Arthur's Seat

Am on the train to London right now so thought I'd take the chance to catch up.  Have been feeling a bit tired and miserable to last 24 hours or so.  The cold has started to pass but still a bit sniffy, tired and over things.

Getting back to Saturday.  Caught up with a local, Ross, who I'd been chatting to on line for a while (he's an actuary, and turns out to have been working with some people from Watson Wyatt recently).  He had offered to be my guide for a walk up to Arthur's Seat (the hill to the South East of the city which you can see in some of my photos) and we finally found an opportunity on Saturday.

It snowed all night, leaving a cover of about 5-10cm.  A bit mucky and wet on the streets but quite pretty everywhere else.  Turned out to be a fairly steep climb, which would have been fine in dry conditions, but positively scary with all that snow and ice around.  Got some great photos, but chickened out of the last, very steep, climb to the top.  I was having trouble keeping my balance as it was, it juts wasn't worth the risk of slipping and falling this late in the trip!

• The path on the way up

• View out over Edinburgh Castle from near the top

• Partly frozen pond on the far side

• Rather slippery steps on the way down to the pub :)

• Three pretty scenes from the walk back to the hotel

Walking around in slippery conditions, not to mention up and down hills, is very tiring.  Got back to the hotel about 3 or 4pm and was pretty well asleep until I got hungry.  Found what turned out to be a pretty good thai place quite nearby.  It was pretty much the first non-entirely-junkfood meal I'd had in days.  Was very nice.