Amherst to Edinburgh

On Tuesday, Nateene, Fernando, and I climbed up Arthur’s Seat. For those of you from Tucson, it’s kind of like Sabino Canyon. For those of you from Amherst, it’s kind of like Norwottuck and the Holyoke Range. Actually, it’s not really like either of those places. Arthur’s seat overlooks Edinburgh, and you can walk directly into its park from the Scottish Parliament, or from the University of Edinburgh dorms. It would be kind of like if there was a mountain and crags in place of Boston Common (at least thinking in terms of a comparable urban area).

Fernando goes up fairly frequently, so he showed us how to get there easily on foot. It turns out that it’s better to get up the mountain from the dorms than from parliament, as it saves the effort of an additional hike. Here’s a picture of Fernando and me in back of Pollack Halls, in the midst of the best weather we’ve had so far.

Just because it was a beautiful day in Edinburgh doesn’t mean the wind went away. Especially around the highest point in the area. Here’s Fernando at the top, being windblown and chilly.

Here’s a picture of Nateene at the top, being windblown and chilly. She was also hanging on for dear life. The disc gives distances and directions to assorted landmarks visible from the peak. It was such a clear day that we were able to find just about everything in view.

And here’s a picture of me. I wasn’t so chilly, for some reason.

Arthur’s Seat has been around long enough, and the top gets enough wind, for there to be nothing but exposed rock at the top. Then again, most of the slopes of the park look like they’ve been mowed. There isn’t the most vibrant collection of vegetation. The view of Edinburgh from all that rock, though, is spectacular.

Here’s a more detailed shot of the old town, including Edinburgh Castle.

The sea and more of Edinburgh is visible from the other side. Just out of the shot on the bottom left is Holyrood Palace and the Scottish Parliament.

Here’s a picture of Fernando and me on the way back down. I found a Scottish flag near the top, and Fernando wanted to bring it back as a souvenir. So we decided to have a few shots of us as explorers.

Winding around the back of Arthur’s Seat, on the way down, we caught good views of a couple golf courses. The view probably couldn’t have been more Scottish, unless there was a great big Haggis pudding smeared on the lens.