I woke up in the morning and decided that I would head to Edinburgh on an early train, rather than stay in Bristol for another day. Another option was to spend the day in/around Bristol and then catch a sleeper to Edinburgh, but I decided against that option.

So, off I headed to the train station and I arrived at about 11:53. The train was scheduled to leave at 11:58, but due to a broken rail somewhere the train was running about half an hour late.

The train was the Virgin service to Edinburgh, stopping at about eight stations between Bristol and Edinburgh. The landscape was quite nice, but due to battery problems, I couldn’t take any pictures. The train lost an additional twenty minutes or so due to signalling problems, meaning we didn’t arrive until about 18:30.

Upon arrival at the station, I immediately headed to the accommodations booth since I had only been able to secure a hotel for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday nights. They were able to get me a room within walking distance of the train station. It’s not bad, but a little pricy at 70 pounds/night. The other hotel is 50 pounds/night, but they warned me about the street noise.
I’m going to check it out this evening and see what the sources could be. If it looks like it’ll be too noisy, I’ll stay where I am now. If not, I’ll probably change hotels tomorrow.

So, I’m out and about exploring Edinburgh. Within two blocks is The Castle, as it’s identified on my map, overlooking everything. This is a seriously defensible spot with nearly vertical slopes and high walls on top of the slopes.

At the base are the Princes Street Gardens. There is an amphitheatre with outdoor seating and there was a demonstration of highland dancing taking place when I walked by. Unfortunately, it was almost over, so I only saw a couple of dances.

As soon as I’ve uploaded the pictures from yesterday, I’m going to continue my roaming while there’s still light and get a bite to eat, too.

Click here to view the pictures from Day 12.