The original plan had been to fly up to Glasgow from London Gatwick Airport and then move onto Edinburgh once I’d done all that I had to do there. However, the initial flight to Glasgow that was abandoned mid-flight meant I could only fly directly to Edinburgh as an alternative. Consequently, I was then on even more limited time and only really had the morning of January 4th to look around the Scottish capital.

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 9:00 pm. That 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 Tennent’s in a very local bar followed by a takeaway was about all we had time and then the next morning he went to work 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 Hibernian Football Club 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 still nearby but I’d given up on it by then as my flight to Paris was always hanging over me. I settled for seeing it in the distance from the top of Calton Hill.

It may not have been the greatest day weather-wise but the views from the top were still really beautiful.

The wind was still kicking up one hell of a gale, so I didn’t get too close to the edge!

I then followed the Royal Mile (having missed the Scottish parliament and Palace of Holyrood house) all the way to the city’s most famous landmark.

By the time I got to Edinburgh Castle though it had begun to rain and as I was running out of time, I decided against going inside and having to rush round.

I descended from the castle via The Mound and its impressive buildings.

I finished my fly-by tour of Edinburgh on Princes Street and that was just about it for me. Even by my standards, my Scottish venture was overly short. I would’ve loved to spend a few more hours there but having come close to just scrapping Scotland altogether the day before I was very glad that I did make the effort to pop in for a quick flying visit.

Click here to read ‘Scotland Pt I: To Glasgow & Back in a Few Hours’

Click here to read ‘Edinburgh Filming Locations: Trainspotting (1996)’