Our first full day in Edinburgh, so after an enjoyable breakfast in the Executive Lounge of the Hilton, naturally we headed straight back up to Edinburgh Castle.  We had already purchased our Scottish Explorer pass the afternoon before, so only had a brief line up for security and were quickly inside.

We thoroughly enjoyed Edinburgh Castle and spent a couple of hours wandering around, seeing the Crown Jewels and so on.

When we were done we headed down to the Grassmarket area and had lunch at the White Hart Inn, which is purported to be one of, if not the, oldest inn in Edinburgh.  Lunch was enjoyable in a very old room – pork and lemon sausages with cheddar mash for me and a beefburger for G.

After lunch we visited the grave of Greyfriar's Bobby, as we thought this was a very interesting story - if true of course, and then we did the Mary King’s Close tour, which was really interesting to see how people lived in the city in days gone by.

Next was a visit to the Elephant House, where apparently J.K. Rowling started writing the Harry Potter series.  G. is a mad Harry Potter fan, so this was a necessary visit, although I’m not sure it was worth what we paid for a hot chocolate.  There were large queues to get in, but when we finally got there we did have a nice view of the castle.

Our final activity on this very busy day was the Taste of Scotland at the Scotch Whisky Experience.  We both really enjoyed this, although I am not a whisky drinker.  I did try them, but it hasn’t changed my mind.  At the end of the Whisky Tour and tasting we then had traditional Scottish food, including haggis, in their restaurant, named Amber.  The food was lovely, although I really couldn’t cope with the haggis.  I would highly recommend the Scotch Whisky Experience for anyone interested in whisky.