UK Road Trip: Scotland

We made it to the land of the Scots! After a prolonged ferry ride due to strong winds and a five hour drive, we made it to Edinburgh. Up to this point in our trip, this has been my favorite city. It is a good combination of natural beauty and thriving city life. Yesterday, we toured the city on foot. We started out at Calton Hill which has several view points of the city skyline. After taking several pictures, we ventured into the heart of the city. After walking along the Royal Mile and seeing several cathedrals, we toured the Edinburgh Castle. Inside the castle walls was once a small village that now houses several museums. On our way back to the apartment, we walked down Princes Street (commonly mispronounced as "princess") and took in some more sites.

Today, we decided to see more of the natural beauty that the city has to offer. We climbed to the top of Arthur's Seat which is located in Holyrood Park. The hike only lasted about 30 minutes, but it was a super steep trek that caused my legs to burn! Once we finally made it to the top, the wind speed had doubled and I felt as though I was going to tumble down the entire mountain. After taking several panoramic pictures, we ventured back down the mountain and had a picnic next to the lake. The lake was full of swans and Jimmy posed a random, yet thought-provoking question (as usual) that lead to an interesting conversation. He asked why duck is such a popular food to eat, but swan isn't, even though swans seem to have a lot of meat. Our fellow Brit, Laura, informed us ignorant Americans that it's illegal and considered treason to kill a swan in the UK because they belong to the queen. Each swan has a band around it's foot and anyone who kills a swan is put in prison for committing treason, what a crazy law! This lead to a series of questions including: does the queen name all of the swans? does she feed all of the swans herself? how does anyone know if you kill a swan? etc etc. After pondering these questions and thinking of different ways to escape with a swan, we walked back into the city center one last time.

Next stop: London!