7/19: Highland Hike

So we caught another heat wave in Europe. This one’s the UK one that includes the hottest day on record in London ever, but we’re not actually in London as scheduled. Our train from Edinburgh yesterday turned around on its way to London because of track fires ahead, so we rebooked for tomorrow and Simone found an AirBnB in a fantastic location in Edinburgh. Also, Edinburgh’s at least fifteen degrees F cooler than London right now. Finally, our first heat wave in Rome included seeing sidewalks melt (we could see imprints from shoes from that day), and the second in Saint-Malo made for a pretty uncomfortable first night; so, we’re riding this one out pretty easily.

Right after we’d secured lodging, we messaged Ricky, the guide from our bike tour a couple days ago. He didn’t have any availability off short notice today, but he recommended a couple things that sounded interesting. (In a related note, we recommend you ask us for Ricky’s info if you make it to Edinburgh and consider a bike tour.) Luke had been excited to see highland cows (and bulls) from yesterday’s train ride from Edinburgh to Edinburgh, so we went to a golf course outside of town and hiked up a very large hill to see highland cows grazing. Ryan’s effort getting to the top in particular was very impressive.

That morning hike was pretty much all we did besides some Harry Potter paraphernalia browsing in a local store and dinner at Edinburgh’s fish market. The first picture doesn’t fully capture the steepness. We really had to mostly go to all fours to get up this last part in the first picture. You can see the highland cows in the background. (Ryan was ahead of me.) For the second picture, I went with the version of the panoramic that Luke took at the very top instead of the one Kiera took because I think this is Luke’s best panoramic work to date (and Kiera’s and mine showing off that we’re so photogenic that we appeared twice). There’s a similarly good one that includes Luke in Kiera’s place because she took it. The third pic is Luke much closer to the cows than it appears in this picture, and the fourth pic is Ryan with Simone. The fifth picture is from that evening at the fish market after dinner. The bay behind the kids connects quickly into the North Sea.