Englands motorways gave way to Scotlands highways and the views just kept getting better as we drove to Edinburgh. 

On the way we had a brief stop over at the border which wasn't brief enough due to howling winds and freezing temperatures. Next we called in at Jedburgh to view a ruined cathedral and visited the tourist information where we met our first real life Scotsperson... in Scotland. Unfortunately for a brief moment we were ashamed to be Australian after over hearing another Australian laying it on a bit thick and living up to the stereotype... I've never actually thrown a shrimp on the barbie mate!

When we arrived at Edinburgh our first impressions were of streets the could have been straight out of a Charles Dickens book, cobblestone roads and  classical architecture. This was quickly overshadowed by Edinburgh castle, which was everything you would expect a castle to be. Within the castle we participated on a guided tour giving a brief history lesson of the main buildings followed by our own wanderings of each building and great views of Edinburgh city. We were lucky to see the Scottish crown jewels (no longer used) but more importantly the Stone of Scone (or Stone of Destiny). We were told that Scottish kings would sit on this bit of sandstone, during their coronation (no gold crowns etc, initially), to signify they would protect the people and the land beneath their royal bottoms. This was later stolen by the English and for many years was beneath the throne English kings and queens were coronated on. It has since been returned to the Scottish but gets taken out if a coronation takes place. Another area that was humbling was the building that is now the Scottish National War Memorial, which houses leather bound books containing the names of Scotsmen lost in the service of their country. Our 2 hour visit (we were on a parking meter time limit) came to an end far to quickly but we enjoyed every moment of it.

After this we booked into a local caravan park and finally enjoyed a hot shower followed by a bus trip back into the city on our first double decker bus. After enjoying tapas at a local Spanish restaurant, we wandered the streets, taking in this new city. The following day we revisited the city briefly but due to poor weather [Ed: and after Glenn spent 4 hours on the internet at starbucks] we headed home soon after. Attached to the caravan park was a local pub where we enjoyed our dinner next to a roaring fire while trying the local beer (Edinburgh Gold) and chatting to the locals.

Our final day in Edinburgh involved packing up camp and then having our last wander in the city. We walked the Royal Mile and checked out many shops including a tartan mill in the hopes of getting a kilt. Unfortunately the real deal is real expensive and we didn't want a cheap tourist version. From here we left Edinburgh headed for the Falkirk wheel but at the spur of the moment decided to continue on to Inverness. In hindsight this was a more stressful option due to the lack of street lighting, mountainous roads and crazy scottish drivers we had to endure on our night time (4pm...) drive north. Thankfully we arrived no worse for wear in another new city.