Cold Bum, Warm Heart

I'm in the hotel room ... and I'm freezing. 


We checked in around 11:30, did a quick turnaround and hit the streets.  It didn't snow or rain; we walked all around the Princes Street tourist area before heading across the Royal Mile a few blocks for a fabulous lunch at Mother India.  We 1) bought a cheap pre-paid local mobile to use for this trip and to have on hand for visitors :) 2) bought a local prepaid 3G SIM card for the ipad and 3) ATM'd some pounds.   Very traditional Scottish stuff ..


After lunch we walked up to the Castle, but just went into the courtyard and enjoyed the views, planning to return for the whole enchilada tomorrow.  I did take your advice and was my usual non-filtering self, and thus enjoyed a friendly exchange with two families in front of the castle.  I asked one of the dads to take our picture, and one of the moms came over to make sure he took a good snap -- apparently after I asked him, and he walked over to take it, the kids said "oh no, she shouldn't have asked Dad!"


 So then I offered to take their picture -- the two families were together, one from Scotland, one from England.  The Scottish kids said they like haggis, the British kids said they weren't going to try it.  The kids were all under about 10 or 12, and they all looked like they were having so much fun. 


Tomorrow morning:  breakfast at Le Marche Francais, almost across the street from our hotel.  If it's not raining cats & dogs, we may walk to look at a few of the prospective neighborhoods.


Edinburgh is stealing my heart.