Our next visitor was Joakim! We spent a week in Edinburgh before heading off to Holland for ten days. Loads of pictures of his visit and can be found on CJ's Picasa site! Joakim's biggest achievement was probably to climb Scald Law, the highest peak in the Pentlands. After Arthur's Seat last year he was ready for a new challenge! He was a trooper and barely complained, but he thought it was a bit windy on the top. And he was right! That's why there's an area called the Windy Door Nick, visible right behind us.
Cees-Jan's friend Harold from Holland came to visit for a week in August. He thoroughly enjoyed wandering around Edinburgh during the festival time and having a beer somewhere, watching the world go by! It was also a good opportunity for Iwona and me to visit some places we hadn't seen before.
During the festival Edinburgh changes completely. It is a pretty, lively town normally, but in August it is boiling over! Almost every venue in town, pub, gallery and anything else, has changed into a theater and the Royal Mile is one big stage for artists and musicians. You certainly wouldn't think you were in Britain as English is certainly a minority language! Well, British English and Scottish that is, the festival is very popular across the pond.
One of the things we came across during the festival was the Hairy Coo free Highland Tours! You read that right, free. And for two Dutchmen, one of them living in Scotland, that sounded very tempting. The only catch is that you tip whatever you think the trip was worth and what you can afford. And it is certainly highly recommended. We visited some great locations (such as Stirling Castle on the photo), had a guide named Donald who was dressed in kilt and who knew more about the history of Scotland than I thought there was to know, and of course we saw quite a few hairy coos (Scottish Highlanders)!
We also did a Forth boat tour. There are quite a few islands in the estuary, most of them uninhabited except for large colonies of birds, but on one of them there is an old abbey which is worth visiting. The boat tour starts in South Queensferry, goes under both bridges and them steams up along the coast to Inchcolm Island. The medieval abbey is beautiful because it is very well preserved and is very popular for weddings. In fact, there was one on when we got there! From the top of the tower (which goes through the narrowest of spiral staircases, not for the faint of heart, read, Iwona) you have great views over the Forth. On the way back we were treated to a group of nosy seals sticking their heads out of the water. They seemed to be as curious about us as we about them! Highly recommended! 
OK, this has been a long post, but we couldn't finish without showing a real Hairy Coo! His name is Kyle and he needs a haircut :o)
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