Fabulous Edinburgh

Arrived in Edinburgh yesterday afternoon in glorious sunny weather. A rarity according to locals. The train journey from Cambridge went smoothly despite a couple of changes at Peterborough and York. We have now travelled on 3 or 4 of the different trains in Britain's fragmented railway system but so far all have worked alright. On this journey we went through Ely again, also Durham with its cathedral and castle; Newcastle and its many bridges over the Tyne including a mini Sydney Harbour bridge; travelled close to the coast north of Newcastle and saw the North Sea and Lindisfarne Abbey in the distance.

We did a free walking tour today conducted by. 24 year old Edinburgh local who had graduated in history and politics. He was great and brought a lot of great acting ability to the role. The tour covered the old city and included a miscellany of things: where John Knox is buried (originally the graveyard of St Giles but now under car park number 23 which has no special designation or sign at all, why there are so many statues of people dressed in togas (including the philosopher Hume). Answer is because some people thought of Edinburgh as the next Rome or Athens in the making! Of course we visited Greyfriars church and the statue of Bobby the dog, talked about Harry Potter because Edinburgh is the city where the books were written and other more serious stuff.

We spent the afternoon chasing up some past Black family history such as Sciennes House where Walter Scott met Robbie Burns. And finished by catching a bus to Leith and the waters of Leith to have dinner at one of the many cafes in the dock area.

Edinburgh is a fabulous city combining history, lots of old interesting buildings (still dirty with coal fire pollution) and amazing scenery. It is built on a site with a number of extinct volcanoes.