First Day in Scotland-- Edinburgh!

We arrived in Scotland at 10am this morning. All our flights were on time and we didn't have any problems with our travel-- a huge blessing! We immediately got in a van to transfer to the hotel with one other family from Jones right after we came through customs (an FA and his mom), so that was nice! (Usually it's a big motorcoach and you have to wait until everyone gets there to finally get going.) It was about a half hour to our hotel-- The Balmoral Edinburgh. The whole day was overcast and there was A LOT of rain this afternoon-- about halfway through our walking tour! I just had my cloth Tom's for shoes and needless to say, they were SOAKED and I couldn't feel my toes by the time we got back to the hotel! The walking tour was nice, though, to kind of orient us to the city. Our guide was very nice and I love the Scottish accent! Everyone we've met has been super friendly and they seem like very happy people! On the tour we walked up some pretty steep steps-- and a lot of them, and came to this crest where there was a park and you could see the views 360 degrees around--you could see the Edinburgh Castle in the center of the city and a lot of other old buildings-- cathedrals and other buildings that have been here forever! Looking at the map, I think this was Calton Hill. The guide told us about Old Town and New Town and the basic history of the city. We walked over to St. Andrew Square where the tour ended. St. Andrew is the patron saint of Scotland. We want to walk the Royal Mile in our free time while we are here. There is so much to see!! Our hotel is literally smack dab in the middle of everything, so we are pretty much within walking distance to everything! It's a very good location! After our walking tour, our room still wasn't ready, so we decided to take the tram and go see The Royal Yacht Britannia. This tour got canceled and I really wanted to see it. It was nice to get in so early this morning, so we could go and see things today. The tour was fun, although it was rainy and cold and my feet were still wet because we didn't have our luggage yet for me to change before the tour. Anyway, the tour was very interesting! It has sailed over one million miles around the world and was known to Queen Elizabeth as a place where she could truly relax! It was fun to see all the rooms and how elegantly everything was decorated! This was a home away from home to the royal family for over 40 years, but was decommissioned and is now docked in Edinburgh. We enjoyed the self-guided tour and learned a lot. I've seen the yacht in a series Megan and I were watching about Queen Elizabeth, so I recognized a lot of it! It was really interesting! We arrived back at the hotel cold and wet, but our room was finally ready! We showered and unpacked and went to the Edward Jones welcome dinner. The food tasted so good as we were SO hungry! We got to bed by 10pm so we could rest of and hopefully overcome the jet lag and be off and running tomorrow!