Edinburgh

Those bent on attacking the ancient Castle of Edinburgh would have found it formidable. The craggy hill juts almost sheerly up from the coastal plain, and well-placed cannons peer down from the dizzying height of the walls. Long before it was a English fort, however, it was a sacred and religiously vital monument of the original Scots, before Romans march to the highlands and before their kings were deposed in favor of the British.

King Arthur's Seat, to the north of the city, is reminiscent of how the castle hill, pre-British control. The climb is heart-poundingly steep, but the wind at the top is fresh and the heather is sweet, and the view of the city around it unrivalled.

I've included pictures of both from our trip to Edinburgh over the weekend. You can see the sandstone buildings at the base of the castle hill, each laboriously built by the Scots the English used as slaves, and each carved beautifully into the side of the hill, making the streets wind and twist into and under and around each other. It really is a fairytale city.