Even though I ended up flying directly to Edinburgh from London Gatwick I was still on very limited time and only really had the morning of January 4th to look around the city. My University friend ‘Willy’ Steve kindly offered to put me up for the night and after a couple of expensive payphone calls to him and asking numerous strangers I finally got to his at about 9pm which was probably only a couple of hours later than I’d originally planned when I had intended to go to Glasgow beforehand. A quick pint of Tennants in a very local bar followed by a takeaway and that was about it with him until the morning when he returned to his job nearby and I left for four hours of exploration before taking the airport bus just after midday.

Having seen Easter Road marked on a map I thought I might as well go and see the home of Hibs so I headed in that direction and could see some floodlights but when I eventually got up close I was horrified to realize that it was the home of the relatively unknown Edinburgh City FC who play in the East of Scotland League! Easter Road was nearby but I’d lost interest by then and settled for seeing it in the distance from the top of Calton Hill which offered some great views of a really beautiful city. The wind was still kicking up one hell of a gale so I didn’t get too close to the edge.

I followed the Royal Mile (having missed the Scottish parliament and Palace of Holyroodhouse) all the way to the city’s most famous landmark; Edinburgh Castle. By the time I got there it had started to rain and as I was running out of time I didn’t go inside not that I really ever planned to.

I descended from the castle via The Mound and it’s impressive buildings. I finished my fly-by tour of Scotlands capital on Princes Street and that was just about it for me. Even by my standards my Scotish venture was overly short and I would have loved to spend a few more hours there but having considered scrapping Scotland completely the day before I was very glad I did make my debut in the country.