And finally we started the long trek back to Edinburgh to visit Jarek and Evelyn before flying back to Germany. I had been hoping that the weather would be typically scotish - overcast, raining, etc - so that we could drop the car back to the rental company a day early, and hopefully they wouldn't notice the chip in the windscreen. While eating breakfast the gods were surely on our side, as most of the hills around Glencoe were shrouded in fog, and it was drizzling. But unfortunately it didn't stay that way as we were getting closer to Edinburgh - the sky was a brilliant blue, no clouds in site, and the sun was shining right onto the chip in the windscreen, making it stick out like dogs' balls. So in hoping that tomorrow would bring shitty weather, we decided to take the car into down-town Edinburgh, part it overnight, and return it the next day when we drove out to the airport.
Arthur's Seat | 
Edinburgh Castle from near Arthur's Seat |
In Edinburg, Jarek took us on a whirlwind tour of the local sites. We hoofed it up to the castle, along the royal mile, took a hike up the smaller hill in front of Arthur's Seat (and proceeded to nearly get blown off), ate the most awesome pastie that I have had in a long time, hit Greyfriars Kirk (including the grave of
Greyfriars Bobby, a little dog who spent 14 years guarding his owner's grave), before catching up with Evelyn at The Last Drop pub for a drink and then dinner at a neighbouring local.
Arthur's Seat | 
A rock that I found cool |
After dinner Bel and I were off to visit Mary King's Close, which is a tour through the covered over streets of early Edinburgh. Although the tour is a little cheesy at times, it was interesting to see these streets and houses that were simply built over when it was decided to make Edinburgh a little flatter. Apparently there was still one man working down in his workshop "underground" until the 1930s. He had refused to leave because his family had taken out a life-long lease on the workshop. If you get the chance to take the tour, then I would recommend it.
National Monument | 
Greyfriar's Kirk |
The next morning it was off to the airport after breakfast with Jarek at his house. When we went outside all of my prayers appeared to have been answered - it was raining, and it kept raining the whole way to the airport. As we were approaching the rental company's return compound I stopped using the wipers in order to let the water build up on the windscreen and hopefully hide the chip. I also had my choice of car parks in the return area, so I chose one with a sign pole at the front on the driver's side, as this is where the chip was, and I was hoping that the guy wouldn't be able to look too closely because of that. The guy came over, took the keys from us, check the fuel, did his lap of the car to check for damage (he looked very closely at the passenger door at a dint that was already on the car when we got it, and was also documented on the previous damage report), and ... nothing! So we signed off on the car, high-tailed it out of there to the bus, and disappeared off to the terminal, and back to Germany. :)
Scotish Parliament | 
The castle from Greyfriar's cemetery |
Upon arriving back at the car in Germany, Bel and I realised that we had no idea where our car keys were, and had to proceed to completely unpack our bag onto the ground in order to find them. So I guess it was a good thing that we limited ourselves to the 1 carry on bag each after all. :)
So that's it, the end of our Wicked UK Tour, and what a wicked tour it was too. We had heaps of fun, and send out a big thanks to all of those who put us up (and put up with us) along the way. Maybe next time we will take it a little slower and not do so much - 1000 miles in 1 week was a bit too much, especially when combined with a case of the green apple splatters.
Tschüß,
Brushy.
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