'Edinburgh', said the writer Robert Louis Stevenson, 'is what Paris ought to be'.
Having never been any further north than Manchester (at the age of 14/15) I was very much looking forward to my visit to Edinburgh. I must say I wasn’t disappointed! Armed with thermals, a waterproof and of course my faithful Canon I caught a flight from Stanstead on Friday along with Ally and arrived in the city, ready to explore, not long after midday. 287 steps of the Scot Monument seemed like a good place to start, and given the mist that covered most of Edinburgh Saturday/Sunday we were glad to have climbed and taken our scenic shots on Friday. A pure scottish beef burger from the HRC (with an ice cold beer to wash it down) set us up for an afternoon of exploring were we managed to find a couple of geocaches to add to the fun; the first of which was at the top of Carlton Hill (great views) and another in Leith were we stayed – a nighttime find (thanks to Ally!).
After a hearty breakfast on Saturday we set off exploring once more and it felt like we covered the entire 500 miles the Proclaimers so famously sung about! A couple more geocaches to start the day en route to the Holyrood Palace & Abbey end of the Royal Mile which we followed up to the impressive castle at the other end, taking in a little history along the way and with an obligatory stop off to visit wee Bobby!
After an adventurous climb/mud-slide up the side of the castle (all in the name of geocaching, although I question the 2.5 terrain grade!) we found ourselves a watering hole called Frankensteins and settled down to watch the England:Wales rugby match….Hoorah!
Another hearty breakfast was in order Sunday morning before we checked out of our hotel in Leith and walked into the city via another couple of very interesting geocache sites; our total haul for the weekend was 9 with three trackables bought back down south!
Some souvenir shopping, more photographs and a short (or should that read “shot!!”) stop off in a vodka bar and it was sadly time to head back home.

I took over 200 photographs, climbed what felt like as many sets of stairs/hills and saw some amazing architecture and historic landmarks. I know for sure I will be back to visit this city again as there was so much more to see and explore, and next time I’m booking the Monday off work too!! ZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz