I really would like to spend a week in Edinburgh; I have only been a couple of times - once was with the children when they were small and it was very wet and cold (I passed the pasta restaurant today on the The Royal Mile where the youngest left a pair of gloves). The other times have been short day visits. Walking through the centre and then driving around it has made me realise that there's an awful lot to see. It was amazing to suddenly come across the canal at Edinburgh Quay.It was hidden behind a building and if you were just walking by, you wouldn't realise it was there.
It was a pity that the raft races were not on until later: some of the ones we saw on the tow path didn't look very safe! There seemed to be a lot of people going so I hope it went well.
Edinburgh Castle
The heavens opened just as we stopped for refreshments, so I decided to bus back to the van. The bus service in Edinburgh is amazingly good, frequent and cheap; a fellow bus passenger told me that they don't want or need the trams that the council are spending millions on setting up!
From Bernie:
Today's walk 10.3 miles : Cumulative 909.2 miles
Another fun-filled, action-packed day! It's wearing me out! If I just had to do the walking it'd be easy! Maybe this is why LeJoggers are advised to avoid cities!
Started the day by completing the walk into Edinburgh's centre via 'The Innocent Railway Tunnel'; again, this was an industrial feature I'd been looking forward to ever since the earliest planning stages of my route through Scotland. The tunnel is 572 yards long & was built as part of the line linking East Lothian coalfields with Edinburgh & the Forth - it was the city's first railway.
'Innocent' because it was operated by horse-drawn carriages at a time when people believed steam-power to be dangerous & viewed the invention with fear. I'm sure, nowadays, many would view with fear the prospect of walking through such a long, dimly-lit passage beneath the streets of a city... yet it is virtually litter & graffiti-free & the only people we met was a group of 3 cyclists.
The Innocent Railway Tunnel
The city, of course, was manic... & why is it that everybody else is walking in the opposite direction & trying to text at the same time? Survived 'The Royal Mile' & 'Princes Street' & even managed one or two photos without heads & bodies in the way. Beggars, buskers, bagpipes.... a couple of very good mime artistes & locals dressed up as historical figures offering expensive photo-opportunities to foreign tourists. It was all good fun, though I did baulk a little at the 9/10 year old girl, dressed in national costume & playing traditional Scottish tunes on an accordion while someone I took to be her mother, stood guard and/or collected money - I did think there was something in the law about child exploitation.
I'm sure you all know the story of 'Greyfriars Bobby'!
I did say we weren't finished with Sir Walter Scott! Being Edinburgh this is a bit grander than his tomb at Dryburgh Abbey! One more memorial to pass, that I know of!
Highlight of the Day: the Edinburgh Canal Festival! To reopen the Union Canal as far as the Lochrin Basin was a millennium project which is still ongoing. With the decline of canal transport its route was built over, filled with rubbish or generally allowed to decay but its restoration has brought waterside walks & greenery back to some of the poorest parts of the city.
There were lots of watery things going on & people were flocking to this most unlikely setting: families, couples, dogs & hordes of obvious tourists were ambling along the canal towards the Basin. The feature event was to be the '5th Annual Raft Race'.... given the mid-afternoon thunderstorms, everybody will have got a soaking!
Met & chatted to a Dutch lad who was walking St. Cuthbert's Way 'as a kind of pilgrimage'; he'd started on Iona, come down the West Highland Way & had been hoping to reach Holy Island but had nearly used up his holiday. He told me he'd probably have to do Edinburgh to Melrose & over the Cheviots next time - he was amazed to discover that I'd just walked almost exactly the same route.... & knew who St. Cuthbert was!
Giant frog.... also encountered beside the Union Canal!
Beer of the Day: this is taking on the guise of a quest in its own right! Tried 'The Shakespeare' in the city centre - 2 real ales, both off; 'Andersons' in the city - doesn't do ales; 'The Dell Inn' at Slateford - 2 real ales, both off; finally, 'The Bridge Inn' at Ratho where I managed a pint of 'Ossian' from the Inveralmond Brewery whilst floodwater came up through the floor & flowed through the bar! A strong-flavoured, hoppy, golden bitter - I'd had this in a bottle before. A good beer but definitely for the end of a walk... not very thirst-quenching.
Song of the Day (an occasional series!): 'The Innocent Railway' by Scotsman, Jackie Leven. His 'Classic Northern Diversions' & 'Marble City Bar' would be quite appropriate, too!
Jamie: posted 226 postcards so far &, I think, only one to 'The Swiss Bell' might have gone astray. Yours from last Thursday was posted at Housesteads Visitors Centre on Hadrian's Wall.... a place you know well!
Terry & Pauline: thought the railway walk might appeal to you! If you ever get up this way the network of old railway routes that can be walked is absolutely fascinating. Knees just about holding up but I'm grateful for a few days on the level!
Ann: the really brilliant thing about the cycle routes here is that they take you so easily into the city centre & are so well-signposted - much better than the footpaths & certainly better than the roads!
Joe & Sam: I think I can say I'm getting excited now, as well! Only just over 4 weeks to go! Glad you like Scotland, I know that you've been up here on holiday; the scenery over the next 3 weeks should be the best of the whole walk!
Julia: Edinburgh could do with a bit of sunshine at the moment! We were last on Arthur's Seat in February, a couple of years ago, when visibility was superb; I quite fancied going up again today but by the end of the afternoon I was glad I hadn't bothered!
Jean: thanks for the free night's camping at Linwater - the money will go to the British Heart Foundation!
Sent using BlackBerry® from Orange
No comments:
Post a Comment