Edinburgh, Day One

Professional mountaineers we'll never be, but my Dad and I ascended Arthur's Seat shortly after our late afternoon arrival in Edinburgh on Sunday, 11th August by train from Inverness. Arthur's Seat is actually an extinct volcano that sits right at the edge of Edinburgh proper - it took us less than 15 minutes to walk there from the Panda Villa B&B - we were able to check in right away. It took us about 45 minutes each way to climb and descend the Sampson's Ribs portion of the Seat.
 

The weather was nice as we started our ascent, but it became really windy by the time we reached the top. On our way down it began to sprinkle on us. 

 

My Dad and I researched pubs near to Arthur's Seat a couple of months ago, figuring that we would deserve a decent dinner and a couple of pints after our hike. We snapped a couple of quick shots of the city from the top of the hill, then we were off, down the mountain quickly (we slowed down a bit after Dad nearly rolled down the side of the mountain to his alpine demise). We like our dinner and our pints, but we value our lives a wee bit more dearly. 

 We had narrowed our pub search to a place called the Abbey Bar. Our selection of it was based on location to both Arthur's Seat and to our B&B, the great-looking menu posted on the Abbey's website, and reviews on TripAdvisor. 

This time our preselected activity exceeded our expectations enormously! The Abbey Bar on South Clerk Street in Edinburgh is a homey, friendly, lively and local pub. Catering somewhat to nearby college students (now in between terms), the Abbey also appears to have a loyal core of older patrons - my Dad fit right in. 


My Dad and I each had a few pints to complement our dinners - I had a meat-filled Yorkshire pudding with tatties, and Dad had a steak and ale pie.

We stayed a little longer than we might have otherwise, and it was exactly the right thing to do.

Stay tuned next installment for the Edinburgh Castle(!) and the Royal Edinburgh Tattoo.