Kiwi Roaming

We had big plans for our drive from Dundee to Edinburgh but the tail end of Storm Bram meant it was still wildly windy with bouts of heavy rain. Steve tackled the driving conditions well, practice for even worse weather in a few days it turns out. Driving around Scotland we were struck by just how many wind turbines there are sitting in paddocks, not only on hills like at home. We didn’t want to drive into the city itself so had booked a Bed and Breakfast in the next city of Dunfermline which is about a 35 minute train ride into Edinburgh. Our B&B was a former pub with 8 rooms, very very basic but clean and warm, Steve got chatting with the owner and heard all about the plight of publicans in the UK – extortionate energy costs, taxes, lack of government support for small business etc etc.

There for 3 nights we headed out by car the first afternoon to a wee coastal town Limekilns, with two pubs for late lunch in the only cafe there followed by a pint in one of the pubs until it was well dark. Our plan had been to take a walk along the river path but it was wildly windy and raining so did a quick supermarket supplies shop and back to the B&B for an evening of watching Vera and Midsummer Murders on the wee TV in our room instead.

Next morning after our full Scottish (minus the black pudding) we set off on the train into Edinburgh. The train station signs are all in Scottish Gaelic as well as English but unlike Wales the road signs are only in English not both languages. The commuter train was pretty standard, we got off at Haymarket and headed for the picturesque Dean Village through very posh residential streets.

Dean Village is gorgeous, much smaller than we had expected but leads to a lovely walk beside the river towards the central city of Edinburgh. It must be awful living there with tourists turning up to take photos of your building, at least the double and triple glazing here is sound proof so you won’t hear them chattering outside. As an introduction to Edinburgh it was quite beautiful.

We then headed into the central city, following the river for a couple of km’s then up a steep street into town. I had forgotten about salt stations at intersections so enjoyed looking at the varying aged boxes in states of decay (the salt is to shovel on the road to melt ice for anyone wondering), plastic ones were faring the best it seems. Edinburgh is totally decked out for Christmas and its visually wonderful.

Our plan was to go up Carlton Hill next to get the lay of the land but took our time walking there via St Andrews Square to visit with Paddington, then towards the poo emoji shaped building in the new billion pound St James Quarter – which includes a fantastic multi-story open sided mall building which runs on a curve around the turd building. The view from the top of the mall was well worth checking out especially the vista up to Carlton Hill. We contemplated lunch in one of the two food halls inside the St James Quarter but decided they were too busy or expensive, so it was awesome to come across the Edinburgh Street Food indoor / outdoor complex really nearby. The deal there is you find a table and order by QR code with all of the 15 or so food stalls via the one portal – so we of course ordered far too much but omg it was all yummy.

Carlton Hill has two pathways, one that winds around (a bit like going up the Mount) and the other is straight up via steps. We opted for the winds around path which gives you lovely views of all angles of the city. The thing we couldn’t work out was why this city has so many monuments in one place on the top of a relatively small hill? It’s makes things really interesting with lots to look at in one place with the city backdrop. From here you also get to see the craggy rocks of other hills in the city which puts the castle construction (on another hilltop and central to Edinburgh’s landscape) into perspective.

After an hour or so up here reading all the plaques it really solidified for us how the Brits celebrating many “wins” over the centuries now places them on the wrong side of history in many instances.

With it getting dark at 3:30pm we had a short stroll to see the Christmas lights but the volume of people building up towards 5pm made walking around fairly untenable so we jumped back on the train and headed to the B&B.

Where we were staying had an Asda about 1km in one direction and a pub “The Lizzie” about 1km in the other direction so we opted for pub dinner tonight. Luckily we got there about 3 minutes past 8pm when their kitchen closed and they were happy to still cook us a meal. It was warm and cosy, with lots of Christmas decor and lots of locals. Yummy pub dinner.