Tour from Edinburgh, Scotland. 

Today, the weather in east of Scotland was bright, clear but still relatively cold after taking into account the windchill.

Collected guest at the Grassmarket in Edinburgh Old Town and then, after a quick shopping trip in Princes Street, we drove a few miles south to the village of Roslin. Here is the famous (especially post Da Vinci Code book and film) Rosslyn Chapel which dates from the 15th century. This incredible, intensively carved structure, took some 40 years to complete under sponsorship of the St. Clair family under whose control the building remains to this day. We were able to climb up the walkway to the roof to observe the repairs in process and admire the snow covered scenery reflecting in the sunshine.

After a spot of lunch in Rosslyn we drove on, to Glenkinchie Whisky Distillery (see image below). At Glenkinchie we joined the standard tour explaining the malting, mashing,fermentation, distillation and maturation process of the product which is Scotland's national drink and leading export product.

At Glenkinchie there was still evidence of the recent heavy snow falls in the area some of which had started to melt resulting in localised flooding.

Next we drove on, first to the historic town of Haddington, then to the pretty village of Dirleton with its famous castle. After some photo opps we headed back to Edinburgh tracking the coast of the Firth of Forth and observing the snow capped hills in Fife across the Firth.

Perhaps the key memory from today will be the unusual (and unseasonal) combination of sunshine and snow covered scenery.

Weather forecast bodes well for our tour of Edinburgh tomorrow.
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