Edinburgh

The plan was to do a circuit of Scotland starting in Edinburgh, moving on to Perth, then to Aviemore YH in the Cairngorms NP, up to Inverness, within striking distance of Loch Ness, southwest along the string of lochs to Fort William and ending in Glasgow.

In this rather gloomy photo you can see Salisbury Crags at the far right.The perspective suggests that it was taken from Blackford Hill.

This is the east tower of the Royal Observatory on the hill. The two young men in the photo are a couple of Austrian backpackers I struck up a conversation with. I corresponded with the touseled hair Christian for a couple of years then visited them in Graz on my second tour of Europe en route for the US.

This is Princes Street, taken in the vicinity of the eponymous gardens and looking towards the Balmoral Hotel in the distance. At the time it was called the North British Hotel.

Note that it's wet. Scotland is like that, you have to be prepared for inclement weather even in summer. A postcard I saw made fun of this. First frame, cartoon captioned Scotland in Winter depicting a meadow with miserable looking sheep. Second frame, cartoon captioned Scotland in Summer, depicting the same meadow with the same miserable looking sheep.

Another funny postcard was captioned How the Bagpipe Was Invented. Subcaption: Short-sighted Scotsman mistakes his cat for a musical instrument. Poor cat.

I also visited Edinburgh Castle.

Probably a view looking down the start of the Royal Mile.

At the other end of the Royal Mile is Holyrood Palace, the principal royal residence in Scotland.