Climbing Arthur's Seat

Well, I was right about being sore the next morning and also a little

bit of vertigo.  So, of course Oscar says that he wants to climb the cliffs today.  Because what should I not be doing on a day where I feel swimmy headed?  Climbing cliffs.  But the day is sunny and we know that this will not last, so we decide to go for it.  There are two paths and one runs along

the cliffs and back toward our place off South Bridge, one goes up to Arthur’s Seat.  We get to the fork and the “Radical Road” is closed because of rock slides.  Well, I didn’t want to go up something called radical anyway, so that’s fine.  We start climbing and climbing.  Oscar

points out that you can hear the birds, he’s starting to notice that we’ve left behind the city noises.  There’s yellow gorse and water in the distance, we’re rising up and up and up above the palace, the parliament and all of Edinburgh.  Well, now we’re to the point that you have

to keep going and climb all the way to Arthur’s seat, besides we’re not seeing any cliff walk.  So, we keep going through mud, slick spots and notice as we get higher and higher that there are no other kids there.  At all.  It’s all adults and one brave couple with a baby strapped to the daddy.  There’s no real trail in places and people are just picking the way they like best to get the rest of the way there.  John tells us to wait

as he goes to the summit to see if there is a good way there, but Oscar can’t listen to staying put.  We head up with me pushing him from behind and hoping not to fall myself.  We get to the summit and take some pictures, look around and try to find the way down that leads to the cliff walk and

down  to our side of town.  We get down to some nice trails that go the way we think we should go and can see some stairs under us, but can’t seem to get to them.  We head down a sheer, steep, loose rocked gully to find out that we have reached a dead end.  We’re not even half way down and now we have to go back up that steep gully that was muddy and slippery.  Great.  We head up and I think to myself, if I have to, I can make it up in my 

bare feet.  But without the pull of gravity and with some help from thorny bushes and grasses, we all get to the top.  Oscar and I both have thorns and my finger starts to swell, but I tell Oscar that it’s going to be okay.  Quit your whining kid, but he has a thorn stuck in his hand and it’s not until we

get down to the very bottom that we realize this and John is able to pull it out.  I still can’t believe that Oscar made it up and down that mountain.  I told John that this was something that is definitely on the “no need to repeat” list.  There are lots of places that we climb that we know we will climb again

   when we return, St. Peter’s, Leaning Tower of Pisa, but this climb is done for me.  John says that he actually agrees with me on this one.  We all decide that we want Italian food and when we reconnect to Edinburgh’s free wifi at the bottom of the mountain, I can see that Pizza Express is only 359 feet away.  Now, other Italian places sound a lot more authentic, but they are further away and none of us can make it

much farther.  So, Pizza Express it is.  What a pleasant surprise, they have reserve Italian beers and cider, a great kid’s menu with dessert added to Oscar’s pizza.  John is able to get a barbacoa beef pizza and I get a carbonara pizza.  We all eat almost a whole pizza each.

My pizza is amazing and has an egg in the middle with bechamel sauce and pancetta.  Amazing.  Since Oscar is getting vanilla gelato, we decide that John and I should split the chocolate lava cake with ice cream.  And we wonder why we’re doing all of this walking, climbing, and not

losing any weight….but it’s worth it and we head home from here with some stops at the charity shops that are still open.  At least there is not a big football game on tonight.  We get to bed early after staying up late the night before to watch Chelsea beat Liverpool….