Edinburgh

So here I am, now hurtling back to London on another fast train. My first trip to Edinburgh run n done. A very pleasant, albeit cold, weekend. If I thought London was cold...
2C (apparently) was the temp when I arrived just after midnight. Nice to hear people speaking in English (alright, Scottish) instead of polish, Albanian, Sudanese, etc... that seem to just be a constant in London. Anyway, we went for a small walk from the station to the main street nearby before cabbing it home to meet Charity’s landlord before crashing for the night.

Saturday started out a little late, but once up Liz led us for a walk through the nearby Pentland hillsides where Robert Louis Stevenson had lived (left). Nice golf courses here too! The very wide scene you see here is actually the view we had of Edinburgh from where we were walking. Golf courses left and right with Edinburgh beyond them. That haze you can see isn’t pollution either as Edinburgh is far cleaner than London and the air easier to breathe - something I found very handy on Sunday. Quite a few mountain bikers around too, so there must be some good trails about as most had a good spattering of mud on them. Is it sad to pine for a bike?? CC, I’ll be in touch!
From here it was a casual afternoon in Edinburgh itself where we had to drop some things off at charity’s new workplaces. This took us through various parts of Edinburgh, many of which were paved with cobblestone streets. And yes, this had me contemplating a “Melburn Roo-baix” stylee ride through Edinburgh - especially as I also managed to find quite a decent bikeshop on our travels. One thing I noticed fairly quickly was the fact that unlike a rather flat London, Edinburgh is anything but. Still nice walking through it all. We made our way back towards the main hub of town and eventually found a seafood restaurant where we tucked into kilo pots of muscles (and sticky date pudding!). Full of seafood, we ventured back out into the cold night and checked out more of the town - Edinburgh castle and other monuments all lit up for night viewing. We even managed to find the Scottish variation on the Tardis, before deciding to head home and back to some warmth!

Sunday began with a run through the Pentland countryside on the outskirts of Edinburgh, and through the golf courses along with other runners, dog walkers and horse riders. Very pleasant despite the cold. Nice of the sun to show itself though!! A casual morning followed this with some friends of Liz’ dropping by before heading back into Edinburgh to the train station for the ride home...