IT'S just after 11am and Claire Martinez from Hawaii has boarded a red vintage bus outside Our Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh. Despite the relentless drizzle, Claire and her daughter, Nina, have decided to travel on the upper deck of the open-topped bus
– and it turns out they are enjoying the rain.
Nina in particular is enjoying the novel experience of feeling the wet and chilly Scottish air and donning an extra layer of clothing as it's not something she needs to do at home.
"I'm really enjoying it – even the weather. It gets boring if it is sunny all the time. Here you get to wear jackets and stuff," she says.
Claire adds: "For her, it is all about the clothes. She gets to wear jackets and raincoats and to dress up for the weather – that is part of the appeal."
Claire and Nina are among the 500,000 people who enjoy Edinburgh's bus tours every year. The trips are the third most popular paid-for attraction in Scotland and, despite the credit crunch and this summer's poor weather, business is up by 5 per cent against last year.
Tour guide Les Defesche says the rain does not put people off taking the bus trips: "It depends. We had a brilliant May and June wasn't bad. But sometimes, when it is raining, people like to get on and off the bus."
For £10, tourists can buy a ticket which lets them get on and off a particular bus tour as often as they please, while for £13 they can purchase the Grand Ticket, a 24-hour pass valid for any of the four tours operating from Waverley Bridge.
Rolf Skantz, from Gavle in Sweden, has boarded a blue-and-yellow Majestic tour bus which travels from the city centre to Leith and the Royal Yacht Britannia. He is visiting Scotland for the first time, with his wife and two friends, and has just arrived in Edinburgh.
He says: "We took a tour around Glasgow, the north of Scotland and Loch Ness. The weather was not so good, but I suppose this is the weather in Scotland."
En route to Leith, 12 people brave the rain to enjoy the panoramic view of the Edinburgh skyline from Ferry Road, but Harley Gill, from London, says her husband, JJ, is unimpressed with the rain.
"It's just British weather, isn't it?" says JJ. "But I've been up since 4 o'clock this morning, so I'm suffering."
After a quick pit stop at Ocean Terminal, we catch another Majestic bus back to town. It's spitting with rain and the sky is full of rolling grey clouds – only Jason Murray and his wife, Georgia Ross Murray, from Canada, are brave enough to be sitting in the open air.
"It's fine," says Georgia. "Especially for him, he likes the cold."
Journalism student Jason already likes Edinburgh so much he fancies coming to live here while Georgia, a teacher, is thinking of looking into doing an exchange with a teacher at a school in Scotland.
"We are here for four days and then we're heading up to the Highlands for a week," says Jason. "The weather is great – I like the cold."
Jason and Georgia say that they have been having a fine time exploring the restaurants and bars of the Grassmarket and say they've particularly enjoyed bringing their own wine to Khushis restaurant on Victoria Street. Jason says: "That sort of thing is very rare in Canada – it's only Europeans who are so open-minded."
Although they say they don't mind the wet and the cold, Georgia admits it has been hard to get used to how quickly the weather can change: "What amazes me is that the weather can change every 20 minutes. It doesn't do that in Canada. If it is sunny, it is sunny all day and if it is rainy it rains all day."
Back in the centre of town, we hop on to one of the bright-red City Sightseeing buses where we run into Thanaa Altae, who originally comes from Baghdad but lives between Abu Dabai and Dubai. The antiques dealer is relishing the feeling of cold and rain on her face and being away from the uncomfortable heat of the desert.
"As soon as I got my new passport, I got the chance to come (to Scotland]. The weather here is very nice. It's amazing. It's green everywhere.
"I want to go to all the crowded places and see the real people; see how they shop, how they chat to each other; what is the real life of the city."
As we start driving round the side of the Castle, Thanaa is joined by her husband, Mahmood Yoseph, and the couple's two-and-a-half-year-old daughter, who is well wrapped up in fleecy clothes.
"I thought it would be too cold for her, but it is fine," says Thanaa. "She is just in a state of shock. Everything looks so different to her."
By the time we get on tour bus number five, the rain has started again in earnest.
But Alyson Barnett and her husband, John, Paul Brighton and his wife, Emma, and Neil and Susan Howell are having a fine time out on the top deck.
The group of friends, who have travelled up from Chester to go to tonight's sold-out Proclaimers gig at Edinburgh Castle, say the weather doesn't bother them: "On the first bus we went downstairs, but now we have had about five pints so we decided to go upstairs. If you go away somewhere for the weekend, you have to go on an open-topped bus."
Our final trip is on the Edinburgh Tour, where we finally come across a family prepared to admit that, while they love Scotland, they are disenchanted with the weather.
Gunn Pernille Vormedal, from Norway, and her husband, Kjell Neset, say that they came ill-prepared for their two-week holiday in Bridge of Allan.
Kjell says: "We brought a lot of summer clothes, T-shirts and shorts, but we haven't been wearing them much."
Gunn and Kjell plan to take their son, Markus, four, around some of Scotland's finest castles. They've been to Stirling, climbed the Wallace Monument and we catch them just as they are about to visit Edinburgh Castle.
Kjell says: "It is great. We don't have castles in Norway. Well, we have one, but it is not very interesting. We also went to the Highland Games. I've seen it on the television but never live."
But while they love the culture, they admit the weather leaves something to be desired. Kjell says: "In Norway it is about 20C and we expected Scotland to be the same. We took Markus up to the Wallace Monument and it was so windy he almost was blown away."
Serious guide who makes tourists smilePASSENGERS who board a tour bus guided by Andrew Downie often get more than they bargained for. Like all the Edinburgh tour guides, Andrew is a mine of information about the history of the capital – but the retired engineer is also something of a comedian.
As his bus glides along George Street, the guide tells passengers it was named after George III who was "barmy" and points out a statue of his son George IV as "that wee fat guy".
Explaining that the dreadful state of Edinburgh's roads is due to work for the new tram service, Andrew confides: "I used to travel on the trams to work and read the newspaper so that I could read between the lines."
If passengers appear concerned about the weather, he assures them that it will be 20 degrees tomorrow: "Ten in the morning and ten in the afternoon."
But like all the guides who introduce visitors to the city, Andrew takes his job seriously. "Guides come from all walks of life. You have civil servants, teachers. You have got to like to hear yourself talk and enjoy Edinburgh.
"You could just tell people about the buildings and the dates, but the stories are what makes it interesting.
"One woman said to me: 'How do I know that you aren't just making it all up?' But you have to have your facts right, because you never know who you are talking to. There could be doctors, lawyers, historians. Anybody could be on the bus."
The full article contains 1429 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
