Edinburgh - Day 2 (April 27)

Edinburgh - Day 2 (April 27)

I am loving every minute of being in Edinburgh! So many memories - childhood, school, college, holidays, etc. It is like reading my own memoir!

We found a lovely place for breakfast, The Painted Rooster. A great breakfast roll, bacon, and a latte!! The food here is totally delicious, and I guess for 3 weeks there won't be any lasting efects. Lurpak butter, mmmm, the best! After breakfast we took off along Princess Street to the Vodafone store, and established connection. We walked back up to the Royal Mile and down to the Grassmarket as Robin wanted to check out Hawico Cashmere, a shop in the Grassmarket selling the most beautiful cashmere sweaters. Alas, the styles Robin liked didn't come in the colours she liked so we walked out empty handed. We climbed up the numerous steps to the Royal Mile and back down to Princess Street, and walked further down to the Botanical Gardens. Are you getting the idea of the hills in Edinburgh?? It is a lot like St. John's Newfoundland only much bigger; about 480,000. We spent a couple of hours at the Gardens wandering through amazing trees, plants from around the world, and colourful rhodedendrons, and other plants. All had names, but botanical names, which didn't mean a lot to us!! At 2:00 p.m. I met Iain Hope, one of our companions on our 2007 South America trip. It was wonderful seeing him again and meeting his girlfriend Nikki. After we first met him, Iain joined the Overlanding company Oasis that we travelled with and spent the next 4 years leading and driving crazy tourists like we were over South American and Africa. Now he trying to settle down in Edinburgh. "Settle Down"...how do you do that when your heart "yearns to wander". Maybe there comes a time when you just know. Let's stay in one place for a while.

We headed back to our flat, did a quick change, and headed out to meet Ian (got it Iain my friend, and Ian my cousin) in the flat, literally the next street over in the Dean Village. We had appies with him, then set off for the restaurant Robin had chosen for the evening. He took us via a guided tour on the Water of Leith Walkway, and the Dean Village, in the rain, and we arrived at the restaurant One20, on Dundas Street, almost exactly on time, but dripping wet! Thankgoodness I took my raincoat with me. It kept me warm and cosy. What a treat. This was a small, very modern and comfortable, cosy, restaurant. The service was great, and the food was simply delicious. I ate the chicken/mushroom pie and it was simply amazing!! Plus of course, some great wine from Serbia, coffee, and desert for some. Then we saw Katie on to the 23 bus, which came in to the stop right outside the restaurant almost exactly on time! Ian led us home through a maze of beautiful garden squares surrounded by consisent Georgian architecture back to the Dean, our flat, and very shortly thereafter, bed.

Arrived in Edinburgh - April 24, 25, 26

Arrived in Edinburgh
April 24, 25, 26


We slammed into Heathrow airport around 2:00 p.m. on Thursday, April 25, 2019. On my BA  bumpy flight, the last 20 minutes felt like a cross between a roller coaster ride and bumper cars! When we finally stopped on the runway, the captain announced that the flight had been very windy, especially during the approach to landing and whereas we had hit the ground more heavily than anticipated, the good news was, that we had hit the ground where expected!! Welcome to British humour!!!

The transition from Terminal  3 to Terminal 5 went smoothly, apart from Security where once again I had to empty my back pack for "something" not yet discovered!!!

Meanwhile, Robin and Peter landed in Recyvyk for a short turnover to Glasgow. Five hours later, after numerous messages that they would be leaving in the next hour/30mins/15mins/15min they took off for the hour's flight to Glasgow. They were meeting me at Turnhouse airport and the plan was for them to rent a car, drive to Edinburgh, book into the Airbnb, and scout out a restaurant for a quick dinner. Not to be!! Fortunately, the Airport has free Wifi and we were able to communicate. We did meet around 6:00 p.m. after Peter drove around the airport a few times looking for the "Pick up zone!!"

It was fun driving into Edinburgh from the airport. We passed many of my childhood haunts, and the memories came flooding back! It's hard not to keep saying to Robin and Peter: "This is where I used to ....!" Or, "it didn't look like this when I lived here!" Get the picture!! Boring for them!!!

The rental flat is in the Dean Village. It is very adequate and the view out the windows is over the Water of Leith. The Dean is very pretty: the river winds through a maze of renovated homes in an area that originally housed grain mills in the 1100s. The original buildings standing today, except the obviously more modern ones were probably built late 1700s into the 1800s. It is a truly charming area. We had a quick pub dinner which was delicious, and finally rolled into bed around 11:00 p.m.

We spent Friday roaming Edinburgh on foot. We walked up to the West End, along Princess Street, partly through Princess Street Gardens, up the steep steps to the Royal Mile and the Castle through a narrow close. We spent a couple of hours touring around the castle and enjoying the various amazing city views. Then we walked down the steps to the Grassmarket, famous for its hangings in the 1600s and in later years its markets. We wandered along the set stone (or maybe cobbled) streets and paid our respects to Greyfriars Bobby, the Skye Terrier who is said to have watched over the grave of his master for 14 years in the mid 1800s until the dog also passed away. Total dedication! I also threw a couple of characters in that you might recognize!! Hint: Remember that J. K. Rowlings wrote most of the Harry Potter series while in Edinburgh!!

Once we were back on the Royal Mile we went into St. Giles Cathedral. I had forgotten how stunning it is. Not too large a cathedral it was the site of the feisty Jenny Geddes who in the 1660s threw her stool at the Minister in protest of the use of the first Episcopal book of common prayer, which was aimed at moving the Scotland towards Anglican church services. We also went into the Thistle Chapel which is small and stunning with beautiful wooden carvings and is a chapel for the Order of the Thistle....Scotland's highest chivalry order. One of the other beautiful features in St. Giles are the stained glass windows. The church has been in that position for over 900 years, although the current building originates from the 1400s.

As you can tell, history in Edinburgh consumes the visitor, and I am no historian....so I have only given you the barest of facts of what we have seen.

Shortly after this, I left Robin and Peter to wander down to Holyrood Palace while I headed back to Vodofone to try and sort out my SIM. When I first had installed in the morning, the sales person told me it would be active in 20 minutes max. On this second visit, they told me everything was perfect, but sometimes it takes 24 hours for the SIM to become active! So, I headed back to the flat and WiFi to try and sort out my arrangements for the evening!!

I made it a little late, to Katie's, my house mate from my Foreign Office years in the late '60s. We had a lovely evening, a lovely dinner, good chats, and great doggy licks from her 11 month Cavileir Spaniel, Cody.  Katie's son Gavin very kindly drove me back to the flat in the Dean Village saving me a bus ride and a 15 minute walk in the pouring rain!!

A Trip to Bonnie Scotland - April 24 - May 14 2019

Heilan' Coo

Who could resist a trip to their birth country? With promises of visiting Edinburgh, Elie, Earlsferry, Stirling, Glasgow, Oban, Fort William, and Skye over a three week trip, including an eight day hike on the iconic West Highland Way, my resistance was putty!!

So, I am meeting my Bruce Trail Hiking buddy Robin, and her husband Peter in Edinburgh on April 25, leaving here April 24! Ray decided not to come and to do more of the things he loves!! Can you guess?? You're right, golf!!!

I have no idea what the Internet is going to be like. I hear it might be hard to upload photos as it can be very slow when you leave the large centres. Who knows. I'll do my best. So check back from time to time and see how our adventures are unrolling!! I also set up a separate blog for the hike, If you are interested in following along on this, check out: https://8daysonthewhw.blogspot.com.

London to Vancouver - Back Home to Canada

Thursday June 28

We were up around 6:00 a.m., had breakfast, and caught the shuttle bus over to Gatwick Airport for our 9 ½ hr Air Transat flight to Vancouver. Everything moved perfectly. We checked in, went through security, sat in the lounge waiting for the plane, which loaded on time. We had a smooth flight, and the usual quality of airplane food! I watched two films: “Goodbye Christopher Robbin,” and the 1998 movie “You’ve Got Mail.” I enjoyed both.

We landed in Vancouver just before noon; Alanna picked us up; and we were home by around 4:00 p.m. I am looking forward to a good night’s sleep in my own bed.

I’ll do a “summary” of the trip in a few days, when I have had a few days to reflect on our experiences.

Meanwhile, here is a picture taken in Squamish by someone in our neighbourhood!!

Kefalonia to London

Wednesday, June 27

Our bags packed and loaded into the car, Dusty and Fiona drove us to the little airport just outside Argostoli. Construction. Bedlam! The airport is being enlarged and brought up to date to cope with additional flights from the new airlines that now use the airport. And so with threats of confiscating the car, and throwing Dusty in jail, we said our farewells, gave each other huge hugs, forced back the tears, and set out on our journey back to London.

The 3 ½ hour flight was considerably delayed due to a strike/slowdown by baggage handlers in Gatwick. But otherwise, it was a good and comfortable flight.

When we left London we also left a bag in storage at EasiStore in Crawley. Much cheaper than at the airport! So, arriving about 1.5 hrs late, shortened our time to get through customs, pick up our bags, and get a taxi over to the storage unit. When we went for a taxi, the organisers told us it would be a 45 minute wait. Really!! We couldn’t believe our ears. Gatwick is a big international airport, and they were having trouble servicing travelers. Anyway, we didn’t have any other choice, and so waited. We noticed many people coming to the little window where you ordered the taxi, shrugging their shoulders, throwing their hands, out, eyes bulging, and gasping; then simply turning away to find some alternative…a bus maybe??

We were lucky. A driver called out the name of his passenger, no response! We quickly said we would take the cab, and the dispatcher agreed, and it was only about 20 minutes and we were on our way. So, now we were in the middle of rush hour, and traffic was chock-a-block!!  Fortunately we managed to phone Easistore and warn them of our dilemma. The chap kindly said he could wait until 6:25, then he had to leave. We made it: about 6:05!!! Picked up the bag and then drove over to the hotel. The Airport Inn. Easily the worst hotel of the trip. Old, worn, had to pay for WiFi, food was terrible, minimal bathroom products which were awful, and no bathmat!!!  Just little things, but important to travellers.

We watched Serbia lose to Brazil at the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, ate our lousy dinner, and went to bed.