First Weekend of December in Edinburgh, Scotland

 This city is so darling. All of the buildings are so well kept, clean, and inviting. The city center was decorated for Christmas and  full of visitors. We loved the whole atmosphere. The castle is right in the center of everything on top a hill that overlooks the whole area. It is quite the sight. The hillside is almost a sheer drop on all sides. I still don't understand how they preserve the castle.

 We toured the castle and spent most of our first day there exploring it. Such neat stories and artifacts.

 There was a cute winding road that went up to the castle. At night the trees lit up with christmas lights making it even more inviting to stroll along. PS It was FREEZING!

 We went to the only working Tartan Mill in Edinburgh, still making authentic Scottish Tartan. Birds eye view of the working machine! there are tons of these in the basement of the mill and are massive! You bet we left with authentic tartan goods- matching scarf and tie in the Burberry pattern... KC was really nice to succumb to my vision of the matching look! HA

 We stayed the first night in this awesome old converted church. We thought it was going to be a lot cooler but it turned out the opposite. KC almost woke me up in the middle of the night to leave because he was so uncomfortable!  The bed really was terrible, and the pillows like a thin piece of cardboard. The second night we stayed somewhere else and it was BLISS! we slept so well

 It snowed a little that first night and made everything look so pretty. Our feet were so cold though. This was the first time that we've realized the effectiveness of the ventilation in our running shoes. What are we Californians thinking? walking shoes in the UK don't equal running shoes! Walking boots needed!

 We hiked to the top of King Aurthur's Seat and got a gorgeous view of the city and surrounding areas. Again it was freezing and extremely windy at the top! I was holding onto KC's backpack the whole time up there so as not to fly off into the clouds!

An older building on the way down from the hike. Used as a place of skin healing in the ancient days... I really was banking on this place getting rid of any blemish I had then or in the future. It didn't work.

KC and I loved Scotland and were so glad we could squeeze this trip in between his busy schedule.