Edinburgh

After a relatively leisurely start and amble over to Edinburgh, we arrived around 11am and found a 4-hour on-street car park in the Grassmarket with its clock set an hour forward, giving us an extra free hour's parking. Bonus!

The first thing to greet us was a complete refurbishment of the street masonry in the area, which proved to be just the first of many construction projects ongoing in the city. Everywhere we looked there were cranes, skips, diggers and workmen busily rebuilding every inch of the place, which made "tourist photography" a bit of a tricky endeavour. Even the Scott Monument (whose 287 steps I had climbed as a boy) was not exempt, its digger apparently in the process of reconstructing the nearby gardens.

We hopped on another city tour bus - fast becoming a feature of this holiday - and enjoyed an hour in the company of a very knowledgeable old gentleman who shared his history of the city with us, and oversaw the transformation of the day from crisp blue skies to cold grey ones. Even so the promised downpour never materialised. Once again we'd lucked out with the weather.

After completing the tour we left the bus at the castle stop. As you might have predicted it's approaching "30 years" since I was last here, and I recognised pretty much none of the Royal Mile, the interior of the castle or its layout. In my defence I plead that my parents took me round so many castles in my childhood and teenage years - often as many as six in a single week - that they've all blended together in my memory.

Conscious of the parking meter, and the need to shop for woollens, we left the castle around 3pm and wound our way back to Grassmarket via the various outlets lining that part of the Royal Mile. The early evening rush hour was only just beginning as we headed out to Peebles where we were to spend the night.

Peebles is a pretty little town. It claims to be Scotland's second favourite tourist town and although I found that hard to believe it certainly has a lot going for it. Especially the excellent haggis on offer in most of the local pubs. I like haggis, but even I don't eat it for dessert as well as main course. Enough said. Another early night - we were all pretty whacked after all the walking around - so I'll leave you with a panorama of the view from Edinburgh castle...