08.03 You really wake up quickly if the water in the shower is cold. If we have the weather and other things with us today, we will probably watch some football. We have slept our first night at the Euro Hostel in Glasgow.

08.46 Christer has found a solution on how to get hot water in the shower. Turn on the water to near-maximum. Advantage, you get hot water. Disadvantage, it is a lot of hot water splashing all over the bathroom.

09.35 Breakfast is finished. It consisted of washy juices, cereals and milk, slightly weak coffee, toast and canned fruit. The toaster was the assembly line principle. You just had to put bread on a small band and the bread rolled into the grate and came out toasted on the other side. Last time I used a similar one such was in Cherating, Malaysia in 2006. Here as there you are forbidden to butter the bread before toasting.

10.21 We have changed from indoors to outdoors. After having looked at the river Clyde, we´ve walked to the St Enoch Mall at Saint Enoch Square. Here are three fire engines. They seem to be finishing their job, but I don’t know what they have done. We can see no flames or smoke.

The sculpture "Citizen Firefighter" outside the Grand Central Hotel.

There are plenty of stores selling kilts.

10.29 This quiet Monday morning is being spent wandering around for a while in the centre of Glasgow. It is a "bank holiday" today and many places are closed. We are now in front of a monument for those who died for their country. We are on George Square. Sir Walter Scott glances down from a pillar on the square. The entire square is in a state of chaos. Something is about to be taken down or being built, perhaps things connected to Christmas.

11.09 Our walk continued to the eastern parts of the city centre. We have followed a walking route which our guide book suggested and passed various important and interesting houses. Now we have entered the city's impressive cathedral, Glasgow Cathedral. Inside here is the Blacaders Aisle. Robert Blacader was archbishop here from 1483 to 1508. It was free of admission to enter the cathedral but you could give a small donation which we did.

Argyle Street, Glasgow.

Christmas decorations on George Square.

War Memorial, George Square.

11.27 We've looked around in the cathedral's various rooms and chapels. Along the walls are quite a few graves of important people from Glasgow who in various ways lived and died on this earth in different places of the world.

11.59 Behind the cathedral is a large green hill with hundreds of tombstones in different styles. The place we have wandered around and looked at is called the Glasgow Necropolis. It is a combined cemetery and lookout point. From the top of the hill there are views in different directions over Glasgow. Here are some old and grand monuments, memorials and headstones. Many have of them have the typical Celtic crosses.

This is how it looks inside the Glasgow Cathedral.

Beautiful windows in Glasgow Cathedral.

Glasgow Cathedral.

A forest of tombstones in the burial mound Necropolis.

Christer is barely visible in front of the door of Major Archibald Douglas Monteath Mausoleum

Celtic crosses.

12.53 We walked back towards the city centre. We have walked past Queen Street Station and Buchanan Galleries. Today's lunch was both quick and easy. We are having a Double Wopper Meal each at a Burger King restaurant near the train station.

13.12 We're back home at Euro Hostel again for a short stop before we head off towards the railway station. We are going to see some football today. The match starts at 15.00.

14.02 Now is the time to go by train again. We bought tickets from a machine and are now waiting for news of where our train departs from. It's not just us doing this. A large crowd wearing Kilmarnock´s blue scarves are in the same waiting mode. We will go to the station Paisley St James about twenty kilometres west of Glasgow.

Euro Hostel, Glasgow.

On the train Glasgow-Paisley.

Bilingual station sign.

14.14 It was a quick far away on the platform, but now we are on board and the train takes us slowly westwards.

14.25 We have jumped off the train at the station Paisley Saint James. The station is located just off the newly constructed (2009) football ground St Mirren Park. St Mirren football club has been named after Saint Mirin, an Irish monk who founded a church here in Paisley. He is also the city's patron saint.

14.34 We are on site at St Mirren Park and the league match between St Mirren FC and Kilmarnock FC. The stadium has a capacity of 8023 spectators. It was easy to buy a ticket and a code on the ticket made the gates open. It is kickoff in less than thirty minutes. The home team St Mirren is also known as The Saints. No home team has won in the games we've seen before on our travels. Oldham Athletic and Sliema Wanderers have lost and Queens Park Rangers have played a draw in football. HC Košice has also lost in icehockey.

15.04 The match has started. The poor man who read the teams and did interviews before the start of the game got a ball kicked against hims and his glasses broke. He then had trouble reading what was in the papers.

15.56 It's half time and it says 0-0. There are chances both ways. It was a long queue to the toilets but an effective one. Experienced men are urinating and smoothly slip out again.

16.13 It´s the second half. The Saints have chances and bids on goal a few times.

16.22 What is the use of chances? All it took was a quick free kick, a pass and a goal by Liam Kelly from Kilmarnock. The attendance rate is 6118 brave spectators. It's getting pretty cold and St Mirren fans are far from happy.

16.37 The score is now 2-0, this time the goal was scored by Craig Bryson, and more cheers come from the away supporters. Home fans have begun to leave their seats. There are no kind words being said. Imagine how a sport can transform ordinary, friendly family men.

Saint Mirren Park, Paisley.

Some mascots in good mood before kick-off.

Saint Mirren has a corner kick.

17.20 Kilmarnock won the game 2-0. The curse continues. We had to wait quite a while for the train back to Glasgow and the cold weather is eating into the body and soul. In the end, we sat down on a cold train that will take us into the train station. Next to Christer on the train is a guy who plays with a deck of cards. Could this be some magic practise?

17.55 We are having coffee and cake at Café Costa at the railway station Glasgow Central. At the table next to us there are a few young girls. They are not very different from our students back home when it comes to behaviour, appearance and conversation topics. Now my pen refuses to work. All I can do is to change. I have changed the pen. We will finish our coffee before we return to the room.

19.28 We are relaxing in the room. I read in my book, and Christer is resting and is getting warm again. It was a bit chilly in the stadium and we were quite frozen.

20.12 We have surfed on the internet and checked the league position for St Mirren. It does not look bright for them. They are well down in the table.

Crystal Palace

Two pints of Abbot Ale and a thirsty Peter.

20.45 We do not want to remain in the room. We do not want to go out in the rain. What should we do, put ourselves in the hallway? However, we are hungry, so we will need to go out. Where shall we go?

22.25 We walked a short distance and into the giant pub/restaurant Crystal Palace on 36 Jamaica Street. There we drank Abbot Ale and ate Scotch pie and grilled chicken. During the meal I looked at a dart contest on TV. Now we are home to pack our things. Tomorrow is another day.

Tuesday 4th of January

08.05 The second and last morning in Glasgow is here. Christer has caught a nasty flu, a memory of yesterday’s cold football adventure. We now have two hours to eat breakfast, get ready, go to the station and purchase tickets. The train to the last stop on the trip departs shortly after 10.00. We are going to Edinburgh. We discovered during the breakfast that we were not the only Swedes here. A woman and her young daughter seem to speak Swedish.

09.31 We’ve made an important decision. There is no panic to catch the 10.10-train. It is, after all, vacation and quite a few trains depart to Edinburgh.

10.03 We arrived at the station and decided to try to catch the train anyway. There was trouble at the ticket vending machine. It did not like our Northern Irish banknotes. The banknotes were returned every time we tried. We went to a regular ticket office and bought our tickets in the usual way. We managed to catch the train we planned to take. Now we will leave Glasgow, will we ever come back again? The accommodation in Glasgow was, well OK. It was a bit poor breakfast with watery juice and weak coffee. The shower could have been better too.

10.45 We just heard three sharp knocks, bumps and now we are standing still. Is something broken? Did we run over something?

10.50 Apparently, the automatic switch was released and stopped the train. There might be problems further down the track.

11.06 The problem has been cleared. Now we are on our way again. We are soon in West Calder. The landscape outside is partly covered by snow.

11.43 We arrived at Edinburgh Waverley Station and went out to see our new hometown. Among the first things we did see was a bus from City Sightseeing and among the first things we heard and soon saw was a kilt wearing bagpipe player.

We are in Edinburgh.

A bagpipe playing man did his best to give us a real Scottish atmosphere on arrival.

12.14 We're at Caledonian Backpackers (http://caledonianbackpackers.com) and in room number 9. It was messy here and the beds were unmade when we arrived but it is being taken care of as we speak. We live next door to the Mathers. It is a pub which is being mentioned in the detective novel that Christer is reading.

12.44 The beds are made. A guy in dreadlocks jumped up and down ever so devoted. It is still messy, so now we leave the room so that they can come in and clean up.

We are staying in room 9.

13.17 Our first day in Edinburgh has been launched. We’ve walked around a bit in the nearby parts of the city. This part of Edinburgh was built in the late 1700´s and early 1800´s and is known as New Town and are along with Edinburgh's Old Town on the UNESCO's World Heritage List. We’ve walked along Rose Street with its restaurants and shops and along George Street with banks and magnificent buildings.

14.31 We are now, after a little wandering, photos and an eternal quest for a lunch restaurant, at Pizza Hut. We are going to have their salad, pizza and pasta buffet. You can eat how much you want for a certain price and this seems to be heaven for a Swedish middleaged man who has something blessed in his eyes and takes more food again and again.

15.26 We are at Gayfield Square. It is located next to the police station where the fictional detective John Rebus worked. We both read the books about his escapades in and around Edinburgh. My mobile phone just rang. It was a lady who asked me if I ever owned a horse. She had apparently at some point sold a horse to a Peter Johansson. It was not me.

Rose Street, Edinburgh.

Frederick Street, Edinburgh.

Balmoral Hotel with its clock which is too fast to give passengers enough time
to catch the trains at Waverley station next door.

The pub "The Conan Doyle" is on the same spot where the author
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was born in 1859.

16.19 The streets were windy and we went to room 9 again. The room has been cleaned and we have received an orange curtain. There is a lot of walking in the corridors and up some stairs before you reach our room. I think we might live as far away from the reception as one can do.

17.38 We had some lazy minutes in the room. It is time to go out again.

18.09 We had not been out long before we went back inside. We went in to a Starbucks café on George Street. Here we will be having coffee and muffins.

19.33 We walked back home in the rain and wind, a wind that mortally wounded Christer´s umbrella. A short process gave the umbrella a final rest in a garbage basket. We have also walked along King's Stables Road. There a man was murdered in "Exit music," the book that Christer is reading at the moment and which I also have read before. Above us we have the majestic Edinburgh Castle which is situated high on a cliff.

Peter in front of Gayfield Square police station.

20.26 We have been in the living room here at Caledonian Backpackers and have borrowed a laptop. To benefit from this service, we had to hand in our passports. It is a bit tricky with laptops. You have to be gentle to use it the right way. Now we are back in the room and will catch our breaths before we are putting on the jackets and head out.

21.12 We were planning to take a hamburger at the nearby Wannaburger. That wasn't possible. They closed at 21.00 and we missed it by five minutes. The next place we found served food until 17.00. Now there was only beer.

22.14 We had burgers after all. It was at the old trustworthy Burger King close to Waverley Station. A long walk along Princes Street was necessary to reach our goal. Some teenagers enjoyed themselves at Burger King. A girl sat on a table and kicked at the door. One of the staff told her to stop and she replied that she indeed had paid and she could do what ever she wanted. The young ones disappeared shortly before two police officers showed up. We went home and just missed to get into a store before they closed at 22.00. Once back Christer tried to buy a Seven-Up from a wending machine. 0:40 pounds was already paid. He added 0.20 and pushed the button. Out came not one, but two cans. Thank you!

23.18 We are reading in our books by Ian Rankin. Familiar places and addresses appear in them. We have been to some of them today, such as Princes Street.

Mysterious grave at St Cuthbert's cemetary.

Wednesday 5th of January

08.15 I have been taking a shower. It was a good shower with hot water but a little bad pressure. I did not see anyone else in the shower room or en route to and from it. Are they all asleep? Now, the first full day in the Scottish capital is about to be planned.

08.45 There are others here, Christer met an Asian man in the shower room.

10.25 The breakfast that was served at the bar in the common living room is finished and shoes and jackets are on. Now we are ready for Edinburgh. We are finally in the city that has been the main objective of the entire journey from the beginning so there is plenty to see and discover.

Caledonian Backpackers, our home in Edinburgh.

Saint Cuthbert´s cemetary with Edinburgh Castle in the background.

Edinburgh Castle

10.51 We have ever so slowly been walking up to the castle. We walked along the King's Stables Road and the square Grassmarket on our way here. Up here, we have been stunned by the Edinburgh Castle and the view. Now we are walking along the Royal Mile, the street leading from the castle to Holyrood Palace. We hear a bagpipe playing in the distance.

11.20 We made a stop at the statue of Adam Smith, father of liberalism. Nearby there are also many other attractions. St Giles Cathedral is the Cathedral of The Church of Scotland. Even John Knox House has religious ties. John Knox brought the Protestant faith in Scotland and we have seen the house he lived in. It is also possible to get down to the system of underground tunnels and housing that meanders below ground across Edinburgh's Old Town. You just enter at the City Chambers (Town Hall) The town was once very densely populated and people had to stay on top of each other in different floors, some even below ground level. But this is nothing for us, at least not now.

Grassmarket, once upon a time a place for executions.

The White Hart Inn, favorite pub for the national poet Robert Burns (1759-1796) and others.

View from Edinburgh Castle towards Arthur's Seat.

Royal Mile, Edinburgh.

11.27 We have briefly left the Royal Mile. We are in the narrow alley Fleshmarket Close. It is yet another place with connection to our hero detective John Rebus. The alley has given its name to one of the books we have read.

11.32 I have slipped into the Marina Cafe for espresso and a toilet break. Guess what was needed the most. You can only leave liquids here if you first have bought some liquids.

12.14 We continued our walk along the Royal Mile. Christer bought whiskey candy in a small shop. A picture has been taken of Christer and a poet at the church Cannon Gate Kirk but also of a colourful cow that looked a little angry. The cow was standing in front of a primary school.

Adam Smith and Saint Giles Cathedral.

John Knox House.

12.21 We continued along the Royal Mile and are now at the end of it, we are looking at the newly built Scottish Parliament. The architecture is special to say the least and should apparently be seen from above to be understood. We can’t ask the man behind it since he is unfortunately dead.

12.28 We took a brief look at Holyrood Palace which is located where the Royal Mile ends. The palace is nextdoor to the new Parliament and mixes the new and the old Scotland in the same place. "Holy rood" means "holy cross" in the old language of "Scots" that was spoken before in Scotland. The language contains Celtic and Germanic words and also the origin of the ancient Vikings' vocabulary. Holyrood Palace is the British monarch's official residence in Scotland.

12.41 Enough of walking. We are at The Canon's Gait and will try their lunch and a Border Brewery Co. 'Reivers' IPA (India Pale Ale). On the TV old films with Laurel and Hardy are being shown. High on the walls near the ceiling are miscellaneous quotes and words of wisdom about food, drink and pub culture written.

The new Scottish parliament.

Holyrood Palace

13.25 We are now, with good Scottish food and beer in the stomach, ready to discover more of what the Scottish capital has to offer.

13.55 Edinburgh has offered us a steep walk up a hill. At the foot of the Salisbury Crags hill, we saw an elderly couple and their dog. The dog had a rack on wheels attached to its abdomen. The hind legs floated in the air. We don’t know if the dog is handicapped or have it temporarily after an operation.

14.20 It is quiet and mighty here in Holyrood Park at the mountain side. We have walked along a footpath up the Salisbury Crags and have stunning views over Edinburgh in different directions. With heavy breathing we have slowly made our way up and it's a bit tough to meet people who are running up and down the mountain as an exercise. Looking east you can see the ocean and Hibernians Easter Road football stadium.

Salisbury Crags

A disabled dog taking a walk.

The green stadium is Easter Road, the home of Hibernian FC.

New and old architecture in Edinburgh.

14.51 We're down on the streets again and in the district of Saint Leonards. It's raining. The rain was also one of the reasons that we did not continue up to the mountain's highest peak, Arthur's Seat.

15.14 We passed and photographed Saint Leonard's police station. Why did we do this? Well it is one of the places where fictional policeman John Rebus has worked. Now, we have moved ourselves into yet another Starbucks cafe. A girl, about ten years old, just got inside of here. She ordered a cappuccino. She seems to have some sort of school uniform, plaid skirt, green jacket, white shirt and tie.

16.42 The twilight was upon us as we began our way home. We passed additional sites mentioned in Ian Rankin's books about detective John Rebus. The books are really coming alive when you are in the city where they take place. We'd almost like to read them a second time to get a new perspective on them.

A jogger is fighting his way up the Salisbury Crags.

This valley in Holyrood Park is popular with dog owners.

Christer is enjoying the Scottish nature.

Walking down from Holyrood Park.

18.23 It's been quiet since our return. Soon we get to find our way out again. There are things that we want to check.

19.21 We have been out and looked around a bit for tomorrow. We do not know if we have become that much wiser. We have also purchased an evening beer and something to chew on, the beer was bought in the store which was closed yesterday. It is time for dinner.

20.10 The dinner was plain, fast and tasty. We went to Wannaburger next to our home. It was where we were top late yesterday. It was no great dining experience but it was really good meat in the small burger.

21.56 We have surfed the internet. Christer managed, after a few attempts, to reach the network on his borrowed laptop. I did not make it on mine and switched to a desktop. Now we know for sure that Swedish actor Per Oscarsson is dead. As we are looking out of our room window we can see straight into a Chinese restaurant on the other side of the alley.

22.50 It's time for a forgotten tradition. We are enjoying an evening beer. Edinburgh has had a lot to offer. Both the new and the old town are as said before on the UNESCO World Heritage Site and the city has lots of mysterious alleys, cemeteries and above it all is Edinburgh Castle and the great hillside Salisbury Crags and the peak Arthur's Seat.

Peter is relaxing in the room at Caledonian Backpackers.