From Stirling, we move on to Edinburgh. We are heading there to meet Lars' parents, who will be joining for a week or so touring Scotland. Their plane lands at around 11 AM, so we head off from Stirling (after another big breakfast) just before 10 AM. It is not a long drive. We are there by 10:20 AM. We take the extra time to check out when the flight will be arriving and to drop off our car at the airport hotel they will be staying at. We then head over to the terminal to meet them.
Lars' parents are pleasantly surprised to see us meet them (we had not made any plans to do so), and we help them collect their bags and take them over to their hotel to settle in. While they are shaking off some of the cobwebs from the jet lag and the hours in the stuffy plane, we head downtown to find ourselves some accommodation and to take a look around town. Driving through these one way streets is a nightmare, and this is followed by the headache of finding a parking place. Once we have sorted this all out, we get some kind and very friendly help from the tourist information office on arranging for a place to stay. It turns out to be more difficult than we had originally thought - it seems very busy, in particular as there is a big rugby game this evening. In the end, we find a place near the airport and on the way to the city. A good location.
We then spend the next couple hours taking a leisurely stroll and having a relaxing picnic along Princes Street, lying below the castle high up on its plug of rock. The weather is very nice, with the sun shining and warm enough to be in shorts and t-shirt. We decide that we should take advantage of the weather and the many open green spots to have a picnic lunch. We pick up some fresh bread from Marks & Spencer and along with our leftovers in our own picnic basket we put together a nice meal. We decide to sit right under the imposing Gothic monument to Sir Walter Scott.
We are not the only ones - the locals in the hundreds are taking advantage of the weather to sit out side and lounge on the grassy lawns (and the trash is overflowing). Once we have finished our lunch, we wander the length of Princes Street, occasionally stopping in a shop to pick up some supplies. We also take advantage of the views of the castle to take some pictures. But it is soon time for us to head on - we need to check into our B&B and to go and meet Lars' parents, who we will be having dinner with.
The B&B is well situated - just off the road between the city and the airport. We will be traveling on this road often over these few days. We arrive at the B&B just before 5 PM and it turns out to be very nice, with a very nice couple from Zimbabwe as our hosts. We drop off our bags, and empty lots of stuff out of our car. We need to free up the back seats in order to have room for Lars' parents.
Once that is all done, we head out to the airport hotel, where we pick up Lars' parents and head back into the city for dinner. It is a good thing we had come into the city earlier in the day - it would have been very stressful trying to navigate all these winding one ways with so many people in the car. We eventually find a parking place and wander around for a while before finding a nice pub for dinner.
After dinner, the evening is so nice that we take a stroll around the New Town and down to Prince Street. We have a great view of the castle and the buildings lining the Royal Mile running down along the ridge from the castle.
The evening sun throws some wonderful color and light on these ancient and special buildings. It has been a long day for everyone, so we are soon on our way back to the airport to drop off Lars' parents. From there is it s short drive to our own B&B, where we retire for the night.