TRAVEL: Easter in Edinburgh

They've got this funny system in the UK where they sell train tickets even when all the seats are completely sold out. I was confused whilst we were taking our reserved seats, others remained standing in the aisles and in between carriages. Andrew then explained what was going on, and that they were on unreserved/standing tickets, almost unbelievable considering the 5 hour journey the trip entailed. He topped this by stating those were our ticket types for the return. Making sure he was not taking the piss (sometimes hard to tell with him), I put it out of my mind, or atleast towards the afterthoughts section of my mind.  Problem for later.  Nothing really much happened on the way to exciting Edinburgh apart from Kelley spilling his chicken sandwich all over the girl sitting next to him, not even apologising by using the 'pretending not to notice' trick.  He was also gassy.  

Travelling mostly in the dark set us up for a spectacular first impression of Edinburgh.  Emerging from the bottom of the station steps upon arrival, it looked like it was raining, and raining hard. Being the UK this shouldn't have been a surprise really, but no one likes getting wet. Once we stepped out we realised it wasn't rain however, but a different phenomena. Mist. Lots of it, and travelling fast. It was pretty awesome for the easily excitable, to see it gusting down the street at such speeds. It was like we had stepped out in the middle of a war between it and the longstanding tall Victorian buildings that towered around. As cool as it was cold, we found sanctuary at a corner pub and sent Kelley to fetch the keys to the apartment on foot, a few km's away.

Light, mist, camera, action!

With four days at our leisure it was decided that one day would be used for driving in and around the outskirts. First destination was Rosslyn Chapel, somewhat infamous for its inclusion in Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code (ref: final resting place of Mary Magdalene/Holy Grail) which has meant a total annual 100,000 visitor pilgrimage to the place since its release. The Chapel itself was pretty amazing with impeccable masonry inside, including hundreds of individually crafted Gothic and Pagan sculptures chipped out of the walls and pillars. Many had stories behind them, my favourite being the one about the head Mason's apprentice who was murdered by his master for sculpting a beautiful design around the Chapel's final pillar while the master was away. The master was justly executed for his action, and his face with a spiteful expression was carved into a wall directly opposite the pillar, forcing him to stare at it for eternity.

Rosslyn Chapel plus road cones

Afterwards we ventured to the legendary Loch Ness. From Edinburgh its about 3.5 hours. Penelope and Kelley are signed up to Streetcar (a type of rental car service) which gave us a BMW 1 Series 5-door for the day. Now, I'm not one to complain (check the archives) but I thought Germans were generally big people.  If this model car's back seat spacing was anything to go by, they were definitely having a bit of a laugh when they released this thing. Andrew and I (both gracefully limbed), were couped in the flanks and suffered severely, mostly in the buttcheek regions (my right, his left). Thankfully we got a little time up front, (I even got to drive for the first time in 4 months!) which was somewhat of a relief... the legroom, not my driving.

Here Nessy Nessy Nessy Nessy....

Loch Ness is a long stretch of water that extends for something like 39km. I thought it was just one big deep massive pond, but it actually has length as well. No wonder finding Nessy is impossible. You'd need a fleet of drift nets... which actually isn't a bad idea... hmm... There are several points along the shores for viewing and we chose the closest at Fort Augustus. Was nice. Not too busy and the waters were peaceful. Perfect for pebble skim and rock throw challenges. Andrew took out the award for best skim at like 7 or something crazy, but my cricket arm took out best long throw. Kelley got the award for best unintentional woman like action, and Penelope and Ann Nee are girls so we humoured them in their efforts but didn't include them in the competitive sections. That would've just been silly and insulting to the athletes taking part.

Kelley with one nancy-girl 10-yarder coming up!

Edinburgh Castle was one of our first iconic landmarks of the city itself we visited. At £14 entry, I thought it was a bit fly for some ruins, but I was thankfully wrong in this instance. Even though parts of it had been standing for more than 700 years, they weren't really ruins as it had been restored and maintained in pretty good condition. The tour from gate to mount was helpful for info and the displays explained the various takeovers between Scot and Pom over its history. It occupies a larger area than one might think too and lent to some good views.

Andrew taking full advantage of the artist at work

The shot I was taking whilst being unknowingly violated

Another way to discover a vantage point was from up top the Scott Monument, a superb structure central to the city. Apparently Charles Dickens thought it was an abomination, but to me it was stark and dynamic, and had to be climbed via its 281 steps. About halfway up, I was questioning this as we had to leave poor Ann Nee behind at the first platform as a casualty to vertigo. The intimidating factor was the spiraling staircase and the fact that each platform going up got smaller and the staircase got narrower. By the very top (approx 200 ft up), you had to squeeze yourself through the small gap, even at supertrim (me). The final platform was 1-person in width between the wall, the rail, and certain death. Kelley, born half-crazy, stuck his head over the edge and shook us all about because he thought it was funny. It was not. After cursing him and some very quick appreciation, we headed down the steps with some haste, kissing the earth at the bottom.

The impressive Scott Monument

And the view from up top

The other thing we all enjoyed about Edinburgh was the cuisine. In terms of value, it seemed much better than London and generally felt more crisp, clean and fresh. Ann Nee hypothesised that this was probably because of the much better water there, streaming down from the highlands. We had delicious dim sum at Saigon Saigon, a posh but affordable meal at Iris and good experiences (including cupcakes), elsewhere. I also appreciated the beautiful beer bottles and labels of the local brews, an indicator to me of care and passion.

Must eat cupcake

The city overall was great. At night it had the whole shipwrecked town thing going for it because of the lights/mist, but during the day it opened itself up with walkabouts, museums, galleries, performers and tours.  The only thing if you are footing it the whole time is to avoid the cobbles, despite the novelty.  After a while it gets really sore on the feet.  

The dreaded trip back on the stand up tickets, were not so dreaded in the end.  Well not for me anyway.  Two gents travelling from Glasgow luckily vacated their priority seats at Newcastle (an hour in) and we got them.  Poor Ann Nee and Andrew had to arse it on the floor by the door for the whole time, but had toffee popcorn to munch on which I think provided some comfort.  The priority seats (intended for elderly and the preggers) were great and made me fully appreciate that stretching the legs was indeed a good thing.  I must remember to do more of it.  My thanks to Scotland for that.