If you remember correctly, there were a lot of things that Kristen and I didn’t do in Edinburgh.  In fact this part of the trip is much more “someone else go do this and let me know how it was” than actual travel advice. 

But this – oh, this – we actually gave it a damn good try; and had it not been for fear of our lives, we’d have made it on this one!

Have I mentioned that Edinburgh is windy? 

As someone who lives in Halifax (a very windy city that frequently maims umbrellas and makes having a decent hair-do impossible without copious amounts of hairspray), I don’t speak lightly of the wind.  The city centre of Edinburgh was okay, but when Kristen and I tried to climb Arthur’s Seat we realized that the elements were against us.

And we were not going to be blown off a mountain.  Not today.  Not on Rex Manning Day.

We approached from the South (or maybe the North…  possibly the West – we didn’t have a compass).  We were determined, resolute, focused, in the zone!  We just met with a slight problem – there weren’t any marked trails where we were. 

Well, there were things that looked like trails, but for hard-core mountain climbers (of which we are not). 

[The lack of trails probably had something to do with us approaching the mountain from the wrong side, but I guess we’ll never know…]

We decided to walk around the mountain sorry, I mean hill.  According to Wikipedia it’s a hill – or, rather, a group of hills.  We walked in an East/North direction (from where we were standing), and the ground took a more gradual slope upwards. 

Also, the wind picked up.

We reached the area where Arthur’s Seat split from the other hills.  Kristen and I had eagerly wanted to climb Arthur’s Seat, but as we stood at the divide we realized something…  We were literally being knocked over by the wind.

This was one of those moments when you have to weigh the advantages and disadvantages and decide what’s best for right now.  There were other people climbing up Arthur’s Seat, but the hill looked steep and the wind was crazy and, well, we tapped out.  Neither of us wanted to call the other’s family and say “your daughter was blown off a mountain”. 

It was disappointing, but sometimes shit stuff happens.  Sometimes you don’t get to climb the hill.  Sometimes you have to settle for climbing part of the way up the hill.

Next time, perhaps?