Day trip to Edinburgh.

Yesterday we planned a day trip to Edinburgh-about 160 miles away-for a city 'fix' so we were up bright and early at 6.30 a.m. in broad daylight and set off on a clear dry day.On the first part of the journey from here to Daviot we saw red squirrels dash across the road,deer quietly grazing, several large brown hares, a buzzard on a fence post and rabbits and pheasants going about their daily business. At Daviot we joined the main A9 heading south and the traffic was surprisingly very light. After a stop at The House of Bruar near Blair Atholl for a much needed coffee we drove on by-passing Pitlochry, Dunkeld and Perth. Here we joined the M90 and the volume of traffic began to increase as did the noise and smell .After a journey of about three and a half hours we crossed over the Firth of Forth on the very busy Forth Road suspension bridge.

This was only opened in 1964 and until then any transport had to use the ferries between North and South Queensferry. Parallel to the road bridge is the famous cantilever Railway Bridge which was opened back in 1890. After crossing over the bridge we were on the outskirts of the city of Edinburgh and eventually managed to park, walk around and have a lunch.It was extremely busy as expected as it is Scotland's capital city and we were quite glad to be on the road heading back home to the peace and quiet of the Highlands. A good day out but glad to be back surrounded by mountains,lochs and wildlife.