For Sunday we had decided to do the Highland tour. Meant for us that we really had to get up very , very early. We needed to leave the guest house at 7.30 am and so it was clear there would be no breakfast served at that time. Luckily the couple taking  care of the house was so nice to prepare us a take away breakfast so that we had something to eat at last. Shops in Edinburgh seem to be open on Sundays as well, but coffee shops don’t open before 8.30 am as we finally realised.

Our tour guide turned out to be a guy in a kilt named Andy and we started in Edinburgh at a 08.15 am. First stop was Doune Castle which was featured in Monty Python’s „The Holy Grale“ and we had time for a walk around the area. From Doune Castle there’s a way leading to Bridge of Teith. Andy told us that Teith was the area where most of the weapons came from and that’s where the expression „armed to the teeth“ comes from as during the ages teith became teeth.

From Doune we had our next stop at Lough Katrina which is one of the smaller loughs in the Highlands but I must admit that I actually liked it more than the later visited Lough Lomond. Maybe it was due to the weather as it started to rain when we left Lough Katrina and rain didn’t leave us the rest of the tour. The Scotsmen say it doesn’t rain in Scotland, they call it liquid sunshine or „atmoshperic“ but it spoiled the tour a little for me personally even though I must say after seeing a part of the Highlands I will definitely go there again for a Hiking Tour. Beautiful area and some very impressive mountains.

When we arrived at Lough Lomond we had time for a lunch and we went for a fish & chips shop „Palombos of Balloch“ which turned out not to be the best choice for me personally as I somehow fighted against the fish for the rest of the day.  As already mentioned Lough Lomond was covered with rain the whole time. I was more or less happy when we turned homewards again and on our way back we stopped at Stirling Castle which is closely related to the history around William Wallace.  So finally I can say the tour was a big fail for me. The price was 30 pounds (weekend price) but I wouldn’t recommend it. If we’d had more time we’d better rented a car and made a hiking tour through some part of the Highlands..would have been more fun.

Second day and we got up at half past eight. I tried out the shower and that was really refreshing. The only negative point was that the heating in the bathroom didn’t seem to work and I’m sure in winter this would be really cold. We got down for breakfast which is served from 8.00 on during week and from 8.30 on weekends. Breakfast was delicious. We could first choose between Yoghurt, Muesli, Cereals, Cheese, Jam & Toast and had then to quote which second course we wanted. The options were „Southside Grill“ (egg, potato cake, sausage, tomato, mushrooms & bacon), „Southside Vegetarian“ (pretty much the same, only that the bacon was replaced by beans and the sausage was a vegetarian one) and „Smoked Scottish Salmon & Egg“. Absolutely tasty and coffee was fine as well. So we had a good basis for the upcoming day.

We started in direction of Carlton Hill which leads along the Royal Terrace and then to the City Observatory and the National Monument as well as Nelson Monument. From Carlton Hill we had an absolutely nice view over whole Edinburgh and I guess we spent there around 2 hours with taking pictures and looking over the city. On our way down we decided we should go through St. James Centre, Edinburgh’s shopping center, and from there we walked along Princess Street with all it’s shops, turned and walked through Rose Street which has a lot of tiny restaurants and finally made our way over the bridge again in direction of Dublin Castle.

Dublin Castle is huge and I can only say we spent more than 3 hours in there and we could have been there much longer if we’d decided to read every information chart. The entrance fee is 13 pounds and there’s no use going through the castle without either an audio guide or the guide book ( 4 pounds). But it’s worth the time and the money. After Dublin Castle we took a long walk along the Royal Mile and finally for the day ended up in an Indian Vegetarian Restaurant named „Ann Purna“ (45 St. Patrick’s Square). Food was okay but for the price paid it portions were really tiny. I wouldn’t recommend it as there are lot’s of other Indian restaurants in Edinburgh.

Finally that day I discovered that Lidl sells Pear Cider in Edinburgh…quite jealous now..

We started early today. We had to get up at 7.00 a.m. and had breakfast with my parents as my Dad was so nice to drive us to the airport afterwards.
We‘d booked our flight with Ryan Air and I should mention some points regarding that airline. Ryan Air is cheap if you only travel with hand luggage. We had booked a onboard luggage as well (additional 30 Euros) for 15 kg and I can say that every kg more will cost additional money. They are really strict as this is probably the way they make their money. On our flight to Edinburgh there was some bowling group on board which made sleeping during the flight absolutely impossible.
When we arrived in Edinburgh we directly went to the Tourist Info in the airport. There we got a bus ticket into town (6 Pounds – inclusive return) and a map of the city. We‘d already decided that we‘d like to do a one day trip into the Highlands and we booked this for Sunday as well.
Afterwards the bus got us downtown which was a 30 min trip and we ended up at Waverly Station. From here we decided to walk to our guest house. Waverly Station / Bridge seems to be the lowest point in the whole city so that our way was up the hill and we already got a glimpse of the Royal Mile and the area around it (lot of coffee shops here). We had to walk about 30 min until we finally reached Southside Guest House. I had already advised the owners that we would be there around 2.p.m and when we arrived there the lady opening the door told us that the room wasn‘t ready (we expected this as normal check in would be around 3 p.m.) but we could leave our luggage there and head off for something to eat. We ended up at „The Steamie Pub“ ( Newington Road 72 – 74)for our first pear cider and burgers which were absolutely delicious and we spent about an hour there before we returned to the guest house to have a look at our room.
Southside Guest House was a great choice. The whole house is quite old and all room are set up in a different style. Ours was at the second floor and was mostly in purple colours with a huge bathroom. We changed clothes there and went of for the city. We mainly walked through the ancient part of the town that evening and finally got rewarded with a beautiful view of Carlton Hill with it‘s Monument and a double rainbow above. Absolutely perfect end of day one.