The tale of the badly located parliament

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Sunday morning - breakfast 8:45 am, then pack our bags and off we go again. The plan this time was to head straight for Holyrood Park and go to Foodies at the Fest again. Our train home was at 4 pm so we had plenty of time - the only problem was we were carrying our backpacks - and it's all uphill from our B & B.

I was wondering if there might be a shortcut to Holyrood Park which didn't involve going all the way up Broughton St and the Bridges then down the Royal Mile. Jo jokingly suggested we should climb Calton Hill and have a look from there. We laughed the idea off at first, but then thought - why not? It was going to be another nice day - misty start, but clearing, so up we climbed - two old fogeys with cardiac conditions, puffing away.

The views at the top were great - across the Firth to Fife in the north and across the city to the west. There's a bit of a Greek temple style folly at the top:

and this one is taken with my back to Princes St:


Round towards the north west, Jo sat on the edge looking down over the Glass House where we had stayed on our last visit to the capital a few months ago:

South east towards Salisbury Crags/Arthur's Seat, peering through the early morning mist:


then looking directly down Princes St with the zoom:

South east overlooking the Scottish Parliament, which, to me, is the wrong building in the wrong place - what was wrong with Calton Hill? Donald Dewar is no longer around to face the music on this one:
Holyrood Palace is a different matter altogether - a graceful building in what was a fine and natural setting:

We even stopped to have a cup of tea at the Palace after we came down from the hill:

Then it was the Foodies Festival. Jo opted for the rum tasting - what was wrong with the gin one, Jo? By now it was a glorious day and we sat in the sun and listened to a few of the performers, including the Soweto Gospel Choir and the Oxford Belles female accappella group. Time to grab some grub - pig in a bun was the order of the day:

Took this snap of the Palace on the way back:

Walking back towards the foot of the Royal Mile, I looked up and saw two walkers in the far distance on top of Salisbury Crags - it must have been at least half a mile away, but the air was clear so I zoomed in as best I could:


Then it was the train home and we were back in Arbor Court well before 7 pm. Lovely weekend - but much rest needed now.