We got up yesterday morning and the sun was shining, so decided to get out and enjoy it, by climbing Arthur’s Seat. So who’s Arthur, you’re probably wondering. I know I was – I had just assumed he was a giant because his Seat is pretty big, at 253 metres high. But then I read in the paper that:

 Legend has it that deep in the hill, King Arthur and his knights slumber, ready to defend Scotland in battle.

I thought that King Arthur and his knights were English, maybe they just like to identify with the underdog. Anyway, it’s nice to know that they are there should battle loom.

It’s a spectacular walk – starting from The Palace of Holyroodhouse – one of the Queen’s Scottish timeshares – up past the ruins of C15th (at least) St Anthony’s Chapel, a couple of wee lochs and generally a lot of wilderness for a hill right in the middle of the city, to the summit and amazing views. Then back around via the Radical Road (really just a path) along the Salisbury Crags.

Up on the hill, you get a good view of the New Scottish Parliament (three words that have inspired many jokes as well as much gnashing of teeth up and down the land, and have made some people very very rich). It’s not even nearly finished, by the look of it (even though it’s already 2 ½ yrs behind schedule), is the only building site I’ve ever seen with 2-storey Portakabins (an entire village of them), and has gone over budget by a whopping £300 million. The latest in the ongoing saga is that an inquiry into aforementioned overages will itself cost £1 million and not report until 2005!

Architecturally, it looks quite quirky and original, and Sir Sean approves. But I wonder if I will ever see it finished…

The scooter’s good fun – great for zipping around town with no parking hassles. We saw Respiro last night, which is an excellent scooter movie, a great ad for Vespas in particular, and has the most resonant film score I’ve heard in a while.

Next weekend, we’re off to the highlands...