After last night's delicious dinner we had high hopes for breakfast this morning and Achray House did not disappoint. I had the full Scottish breakfast and Linda enjoyed the kippers.

All this while enjoying the view of the loch, including some swimmers. I would have joined them but, ah, you know, no wetsuit and, time pressure, yes, that's it, we needed to get going.

Achray House has been a timely and enjoyable holiday within our holiday. We will return if and when we are next in Scotland.

From here we drove down to Edinburgh, only an hour or so to the south. We started off on a B road driving through typical highland visas - wide open valleys with lots of sheep and not many people - but very quickly transitioned onto a motorway with lots of cars and towns. We got a view of Stirling Castle as we drove past.

We are still discovering new things about our rental car. When Linda tried to put the window down to take that photo, she accidentally triggered the seat warmer and five minutes later got a shock as the heater started pouring out warmth.

Over dinner last night, the couple at the table next to us had recommended that we use the Park and Ride in Edinburgh and take the tram into the city. This turned out to be an excellent suggestion.

We took a quick tram ride into Princes St, spotted Edinburgh Castle on the skyline and walked up the hill, turning a corner and finding ourselves in the mass of humanity that is the Royal Mile. It came as quite a shock after the emptiness of Skye and the Highlands.

And yet, every 50m or so, there would be a side alley or close off the main street that you could turn into and within a couple of steps, leave the rest of the world behind.

The greater mass of tourists never bothered to enter them and, to be fair, after the first couple, neither did we.

The Royal Mile was lined with generic souvenir shops selling the same products we'd seen in gift shops up and down Scotland but at vastly inflated prices. We saw three "Thistle Do Nicely" shops in the space of a few hundred metres.

Halfway down the Royal Mile, we encountered St Giles Cathedral, the centre of world presbyterianism.

We went in and admired the architecture, the stained glass windows and the visiting school choir who were making the most of the acoustics.

Outside we came across a different sort of religious artifact, in the form of a statue of Adam Smith, the author of "The Wealth of Nations".

We continued down the Royal Mile, the throng slowly diminishing as we got further from the castle, enjoying the houses and views down the side streets.

We bought lunch at a corner shop and found a grassy area down a side lane to sit and eat it. Despite her bird phobia, Linda took a photo of the local wildlife.

We made our way back to the tram line, climbing a hill which gave us a good view of Arthur's Seat.

Another quick tram ride back to the Park and Ride and we were on the road again, heading south.

It was 18 degrees and sunny as we left Edinburgh, heading south. An hour later, I woke Linda from her snooze and bundled her out of the warm car in a roadside layby to take a photo. It was now 13 degrees, extremely windy and on the verge of raining.

Not the best photo and not the best conditions but this commemorates the moment we crossed the border into England. Farewell Scotland, thanks for the memories.

Our destination for the night was Holy Island. This really is an island but for six hours at a time around low tide you can drive to it over a causeway.

Our hotel room window looked out over the harbour to Lindisfarne Castle.

The causeway closed at 6pm and the thousands of day tourists had departed, leaving us, some other well prepared tourists and about fifty permanent residents as the only people still on the island. We took advantage of this to walk out to the castle in relative solitude.

We had good views over the harbour and ocean to the nearby mainland.

The castle was closed but we could wall around the outside.

Looking back, we could see the village, our hotel and the ruined priory.

There was also a walled garden with just about the only greenery on the island.

We enjoyed a simple dinner at the hotel. Afterwards the weather had improved and the light was looking spectacular.