ENGAGED in Edinburgh!

So...... the details....... (as requested!!!!)

Simon had been incredibly romantic and flown around the world to come and visit me on my three months away (originally planned as a surprise but he was worried about me getting angry, so told me mid-Germany), the poor thing had flown from Melbourne to Seoul, had an overnight stay and brewery dinner with his Dad, Pierre, then flown to Heathrow and waited three hours for an overnight bus to Edinburgh, arriving early Saturday morning, but had to wait to see me until Sunday night when I arrived back from the Haggis tour! To say he was tired on arrival was an understatement.

He waved frantically as Haggis busses pulled into Edinburgh, only to realise there were more than one and he was getting strange looks after the first two! I gave him such a huge hug when I got off the bus and found him shaking like a leaf - very cute! He waited for me to say goodbye to everyone on the tour and took me to our lovely accommodation right off the Royal Mile, told me to sit down and said his pre-rehearsed proposal speech (400 times apparently!), got down on one knee and showed me the gorgeous heirloom ring.

Incredibly romantic and such Simon style!

Of course I said yes, well actually, I said 'of course' and then I waited for him to calm down and stop shaking (at least now I knew why!), and we went down for a drink with some of those from the tour (barely containing our excitement!).

The next day we explored Edinburgh, did some groceries for making superb lunches, had a nice lunch with Sibel before she headed off for London and then hiked part of the way up Arthurs Seat for a pretty incredible view of Edinburgh - blue skies and a clear view meant that everyone and their dog was out hiking Arthurs Seat, there was such a line up to the top that we decided a detour off the half way mark was a good idea!

View of Parliament and Holyrood House from the mini Arthurs Seat 

There were an awful lot of people on the zig zag path in the middle there - I love how natural the Arthurs Seat area has been kept, gravel paths only the entire way and no signs at all! 

We still got a pretty reasonable view from our vantage point!

Today we woke up very early and decided to catch the sunrise on the Edinburgh skyline - we were glad we did. The city was deserted and although it was a little nippy, the sun was beginning to shine - it was a promise of the beautiful weather we would have for the rest of the day. We walked across to Princes St Gardens and watched the sun rise through the clouds and then took the stairs up to Calton Hill to sit on the monument nicknamed 'Edinburgh's Disgrace' as they only ever built 1/4 of what was originally planned before running out of money.

In the forecourt of Hollyrood House

After heading back to the apartment, having a yummy breakfast of toasted bagels, sauteed mushrooms, smoked salmon and cheesy scrambled eggs (sorry about the detail, but it was so good, its a new fav of ours I think!) and doing domestic things like washing (yay for the apartment having a washer/dryer and not having to handwash my clothes in hostel sinks!), we walked out to Hollyrood Palace. Hollyrood is a 'working palace' (as our audio guide told us repeatedly and rather bullishly!), with many state functions still carried out here; in addition to being the Queen's residence for part of every year. No photos were allowed inside, here's a link to some online, but we got a few outside the front!

We decided to treat ourselves to a nice dinner to celebrate the happenings of the week, it was pretty scrumptious and got ready to leave what will be a favourite place of ours forever.

Princes St Gardens in the sunlight! (Edinburgh Castle in the background)

The next morning we checked out and spent a few hours doing some last tourist shopping and relaxing in Prices St Gardens, soaking up the sun before making our way to the airport.