Edinburgh

It is funny how sometimes fate brings people together.

We stayed with one of my correspondents who lives in Bourges in the middle of France, mid-March and somehow we were both going to be in Edinburgh https://www.visitscotland.com/destinations-maps/edinburgh-lothians/ at lunchtime today.

The owner of the camp ground told us it was ten miles away. When we got 2 miles up the road the sign said 10 miles. 2 miles later after the Forth Road Bridge

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forth_Road_Bridge the sign said 10 miles to go. 2 miles later on the cycleway the signs said “Town Centre 10 miles” Aargh. We eventually made it into town at midday following a brilliant cycleway and former railway lines which was a pleasant change from most cities we have visited.

We arrived 100 m from Princes Street, in town and we were dumb enough to assume that the road cycleway was in fact safe. Wrong. Bus and after a bus pushed us off the road so we got off and walked. We caught up with Maryline and her husband, our French friends.We went for lunch in an outside cafe just off the ROYAL MILE http://royal-mile.com/. We chatted away for about an hour an a half before we parted company probably never to meet again.

After lunch we wandered up the Royal mile taking in all the buskers and musicians. We had been unaware it was festival time. The

Edinburgh festival – traditional arts. The fringe festival https://www.edfringe.com/about-us/fringe-society– Where anyone can pay the fee and perform at a venue. The Edinburgh Military tattoo. And it all started tomorrow and the musicians had started early. The atmosphere was amazing. Check out some of the video clips.

We wandered down the royal mile to Holyrood Palace and then off to the Scottish National Portrait Gallery. I spoke to 2 passers-by while Sally looked around inside. Later we cycled to the Scottish Parliament, a rather non-descript building, where we were met by our host for the night – Stefan. He took us on a quick tour on the way to his apartment in a beautiful Victorian building with a very wide and open staircase. His flatmate and his girlfriend asked 101 questions over a yummy dinner.

One question was, “ What was the best cultural moment in Scotland” I replied it was the day we heard bagpipes floating on the breeze as we cycled through countryside near Loch Ness. We also found out that his girlfriend worked for the Fringe itself in a role to determine the most GREEN act. The previous year this award was won by a group from London who had cycled up to Edinburgh and performed their comedy using the bike and parts thereof as the props.

His flatmate also figured out how to download offline maps for Windows 8 so we downloaded the UK and most of Northern France as well. It helped that they had fibre broadband and the files were large but it took no time at all. I have used the maps many times since then and it is a absolute godsend.

The next morning we treated ourselves to a full Scottish Cooked breakfast including haggis which was better than I have heard from a lot of people. We visited the city Art Gallery which was a real let down but then art is in the eye of the beholder. We departed Edinburgh on a another disused railway line which passed through a tunnel before heading out of town.

We loved our time in Edinburgh and wished we had planned to spend more time there. Accommodation may have been an issue though. We were very lucky to stay with Stephan and his flatmate Adam.