Edinburgh is not flat
Not that I ever thought it really was, but I found out the old-fashioned way; on foot.I spent the last week in the city doing some work there and had a hotel right smack in the middle of town. It was all of 12 steps from the “Royal Mile” on Bridge Street. Of course, not being a tourist I did not know that August is the month of the Edinburgh Festival. This festival is made up of 3 fests together; the formal Fest, the Military Tattoo and the Fringe. The Fringe is a hundred or so theatres, pubs, back lots and street stages set up all over the city center. On the stages are theatre, music, comedy and basically whatever they want to perform. It attracts huge crowds. I got one night, Wednesday, without rain and spent it on the streets wandering from stage to performance just enjoying the show. I saw Scottish Highland musicians, jugglers, percussion teams and comedy sketches all in the period of 2 hours. And it cost me maybe 5 pounds; donated of course.The Military Tattoo http://www.edintattoo.co.uk/ is a show they put on in the Castle every night. It was hopelessly sold out but just watching the crowds’ line up each evening at 8pm to hike “up” to the castle was fun. So back to my initial reason for this post – the city is not flat. You can tell this when coming into town; the castle is poised high up on a rock formation right in the middle of the old city. There are also 2 other “rocks” protruding upward out of the relative flatness. One is Carlton’s Hill with its collection of 19th century memorials as well as two observatories. The other is Arthur’s Seat (820ft) in Holyrood Park http://www.geo.ed.ac.uk/arthurseat/.Holyrood House is the official Scottish residence of the British royal family http://www.royalmile.com/info/holyrood.htm . So, on my last day there I decided to get out early and jog around town. Initially, I wanted to make it to the coast to see the fog. I could see it from my hotel window, out to the east. So armed with little information as to exactly where I was going I headed out. Starting by just following the sun I figured it would eventually take me to my destination. After about 30 minutes I figured that this was not as easy as I had hoped since there are many large business sites at the coast hindering my progress.So, I had been running north, northeast from the city center and had occasionally seen the Holyrood hills behind some of the buildings. Looking for an alternative to the coast I decided to change route and head for the hills. This was much easier to reach as there is a large park around this area with wide bike paths with smooth asphalt which was really great for running. Of course, I knew that this would be a climb but I was hoping that there might be a view from the top. Twenty minutes of climbing later I reached the summit. The wind was really blowing but the temps were mild and the air really clear. It had rained most of the day before and the ground was quite soggy but it made the view spectacular. Once on top I was afforded a view of the city, castle and surrounding neighborhoods to the northeast as well as the open sea to the east. My eyes were my only camera there but they took it all in. It was worth every bit of experience that Edinburgh is not flat.