Our team of intrepid adventures converged on Edinburgh today arriving on planes, trains and automobiles, in some cases after a journey of several days!  To our surprise and delight we found Edinburgh bathed in sunshine under blue skies and a balmy 22 degrees celcius – no need for the thermals and the rain gear today!

We are staying at Pollock Halls, University of Edinburgh accommodation and the whole site is jumping with visitors from around the world in town for the famous Edinburgh Festival.  Rising behind us is one of the landmarks of the city – Holyrood Park, the site of an ancient volcano and prehistoric dwellings and forts dating back 9,000 years.

Then we headed out on what we thought was a short 10 minute walk around Holyrood Park to our dinner venue for the night – the Sheep Heid Inn.  It ended up being closer to 30 minutes, but it was still light outside and the views back to Edinburgh city and the Castle, and over rolling hills of green and church steeples was beautiful.

The pub was in a tiny little village and is the oldest pub in Edinburgh, and featured a skittles alley – a bit like bowling except the balls don’t have holes in them for your fingers, and the bowling stance is standing with your legs wide apart and heaving the ball down the alley between them.  Quite a few of the girls showed a dab hand at the new sport, but having to walk down the alley to reset the pins and retrieve the balls slowed things down!

The pub owner put on a great salad buffet, and barbequed up venison burgers and veggie kebabs.  Not only was the food fantastic, but he threw in a £100 donation towards the cause – thank you Sheep Heid!!

Tomorrow we go to Edinburgh Harley-Davidson to pick up our bikes and for our first practice ride – here’s hoping the fantastic weather holds!