A story of two little pigs and their travels: Edinburgh and Stirling

Edinburgh

Looking at these photos, it must seem like a heck of a long day for us to fit in the highlands AND Edinburgh. Well, it was. We had woken up early at our midge-infested hostel on the banks of Loch Ness to get an early start down south.

Being August (peak summer season) and the fact that the Edinburgh Fringe Festival was on, there was absolutely no where we could get a bed. The nearest place we found room was Stirling, a city in between Glasgow and Edinburgh. After hastily checking in, we drove to Edinburgh to see what we could squeeze into an afternoon.

The city centre.

Although slightly smaller than Glasgow, Edinburgh is the capital of Scotland and enjoys a reputation for being one of the hippest, coolest, history-filled cities in the UK.

Edinburgh Castle

We sampled some Italian food in Edinburgh, a tad on the expensive side and nowhere near as good as Melbourne

A Celtic Cross in the Scottish National Museum (yes we managed to fit in a heck of a lot!)

Crowds in the streets for the festival

Scotland is a great place to trace one's Scottish heritage (if you have any), and so like I (Nat) did in Wales, I thought I would see what I could dig up here. My grandma on my mum's side was of Scottish ancestry from the clan Macnaughtan. I looked around and sure enough I managed to locate the Macnaughtan tartan for sale in a shop in Edinburgh. I bought a tartan scarf straight away.

St Giles Cathedral in the Royal Mile

The Royal Mile in the Old Town

Another view of Edinburgh Castle

The Scott Monument, a Victorian Gothic monument to author Sir Walter Scott

Since we were in time for the Edinburgh Festival, the largest arts festival in the world, we decided to get tickets to some random stand-up comedy. We managed to get half-priced tickets to a show The show we went to featured the youngest comedian at the festival, a 17-year old British schoolboy of Indian descent. The show was passable but juvenile at best.

View of the Old Town from where we purchased tickets

Stirling

Originally, the second choice to staying in Edinburgh, we soon discovered that Stirling is a city with a rich history of its own. Situated almost evenly between Scotland's two biggest cities, residents can commute to either and live in Stirling.

Stirling is most famous for the Wallace monument, a monument erected in 1869 to commemorate William Wallace (as portrayed in the film 'Braveheart') the Scottish nationalist hero of the 12th Century. It was in Stirling that Wallace defeated an English army.