Day 3 in Edinburgh - Transition from the B&B to a Downtown Hotel

We awoke to our first morning of bright sunshine today. In fact, today the weather has been more like Santa Barbara than Scotland. Here are a few shots that show how clear and sunny it was today:

This is known as 'Arthur's Seat -- it's a great hike up from the base near Holyrood House.

The photo above was taken at 7:00 pm this evening. Of course, it's now 9:15 pm and still light out. It seems like it doesn't get dark until about 10:30 and it gets light again at 3:30 am.

An International Swim . . .
This morning Susan and I went to swim at the Commonwealth Pool (they call it 'The Commie Pool' for short). Wow! What an amazing facility. It's not too often you get to swim in an INDOOR 50 Meter swimming pool. It must have been renovated recently because it is absolutely gorgeous. We got in about 10 am and swam for an hour. I didn't want to get out. I swam in the 'fast' lane and there were only 3 or 4 other swimmers in my lane, so there was plenty of room. I took a photo and was then told 'no cameras allowed!' Not sure why:

The Commonwealth Pool in Edinburgh -- a beautiful facility.

Here's a photo from their website that's a bit clearer:

One thing they do here that you don't see in the states is how they set up the swimming lanes and the way swimmers circle. They alternate clockwise and counter-clockwise by lane. This is a great set up because you are never swimming towards somebody in the next lane, which means you never hit somebody else's arm across the lane line. That happens to me all the time back home. This was a great start to our day and my first ever international swim.

After our swim we moved out of our B&B, the Mayfield Gardens, and into the Parliament House downtown. This hotel is situated nicely for our tour of the Edinburgh Castle tomorrow. I still can't believe the weather today. It was about 72 degrees and sunny all day -- this is unusual here. Tomorrow I will add a few more shots from Susan's camera that show how gorgeous the day was.