Edinburgh to Inverness

When we asked for directions to walk to Edinburgh Castle I think they thought that we were daft, “It is a very long way, about 5 miles.”   We were up for it and so, this morning we had a brisk walk up to Edinburgh Castle, all rugged up in our coats as it was rather wet but surprisingly mild. 

Edinburgh Castle sits on top of Edinburgh rock in the centre of the city.  The city of Edinburgh grew outwards from the Castle rock, and the first houses in Edinburgh were built on the area in front of the Castle.  The spectacular views of Edinburgh from this Scottish "Castle of Castles" are quiet overwhelming.  There are magnificent panoramas in every direction. 
After the Castle I was keen to visit the Royal Yacht Britannia, Spock not quiet as eager but he still came along without complaint.  It was a great display I loved it.  Some time in the past week I was chatting to a Brit who stated that this displayed how simple the Queens tastes are.   Well I think that their idea of simple and ours are significantly different. It is reported that the Queen and Prince Phillip chose many of the furnishings for the yacht.  To us they were rather plush.  The dining room and lounge were very impressive.  
As we are driving along today we hear on the radio that there is an over supply of nurses in the UK, maybe that is why we are having an influx of British nurses to Tassie.  Nurses are also rather poorly paid in the UK compared to Australia. 
Noticeably absent in Scotland is the large number of pubs that we had seen in the Britain, perhaps it is because the Scots don’t like parting with their money at the pubs.
We then head up to Inverness.  Getting to Inverness requires us to sidle around the side of the Grampian Mountains, where we see very large snow drifts which was refreshing, as the country side had been rather dull due to the heavy coverings of snow in winter killing off a lot of the vegetation.  Water cascades down the mountains and there are a lot of streams that are flexing their muscles and bursting their banks due to the melting snow.  There are loads of men standing in the fast flowing streams fly fishing.

Me on the Royal Yacht Britannia

We book into our hotel this evening to be given a disabled suite.  Low toilet, low hand basin and a very low bed.  As an added bonus  the toilet wont flush….so Spock went to reception to ask them if we could have a bucket!!!  Cant complain we have had great accommodation until now.