Day 19 – Landrillo – Wolverhampton – Edinburgh

A day of three countries. Started with another fine breakfast at TL, more laverbread, bacon, black pudding and other breakfasty goodness. Overall the food has been pretty good here, possibly slightly below other Michelin-starred experiences but still very fine.

Packing up the car we caught a good sight of many of our fellow guests, shooters up for a bit of peasant/pheasant or grouse. Apparently they had a very poor day yesterday with the rain, no matter what the beaters did the birds weren’t moving. I’m no fan of bloodsport, but if they eat what they shoot that’s fine with me. They all looked pretty funny all dressed up in their best tweed and plaid, piling into their land rovers off to take their upper middleclass frustrations out on some local wildlife. Tally ho and all that. There’s half a chance that a grouse would see them and die laughing.

Then it was off, driving north east to drop the car at Wolverhampton. Along the way I pondered whay I should do with the container that held Mum’s ashes. It seems a little weird just to throw it away, but I don’t really want to carry it with me everywhere. I think I’ll find a church and ask a vicar if they can dispose of it respectfully, beyond that I don’t know what to do with it.

Dropped the car off at Wolverhampton without any hassle. Had a brief chat with the guy at Thrifty about W’hampton as a tourist destination, and it turns out that once or twice a year groups of Swedes/Norwegians descend upon the town en masse to watch Wolves play. Apparently in the 1970s Wolves had a couple of  awesome Scandanavian players, and from that have maintained a decent following in those countries. L tends to laugh at me when I insist that knowing about local sporting interests (usually fitba) is an essential part of travel research. It’s handy knowledge to have.

Had quite an animated taxi driver to the train station, talked about travel and hiring vans. Some folks are amazed at how far away Australia is, and how big a country it is.

Made it to the station with plenty of time to catch the train to Edinburgh, an uneventful journey. Had  another happy, chatty cabby take us to the hotel — he was heading off work and had the weekend off to head out of town for some peace and quiet.

Got to the hotel, we’re in a part of town I’m not so familiar with, near Calton Hill, opposite the Playhouse. In some ways it’s good to be able to check in to a nameless, faceless hotel chain after b&bs and the like. There’s a sense of just being able to use the place as a drop-in centre, and that any gripes about the lodgings won’t be taken as a personal affront to anyone.

Room has a lovely view of Calton Hill, so while getting settled we were treated to fireworks and a huge blazing bonfire atop the hill as part of Hogmanay. Quite cool to be able to look at fireworks out of the hotel window that almost seemed to be going off right above. Along with the bonfire came lots of folks carrying torches around hill.

For dinner we decided a change was due, so found a local Chinese restaurant. Much as all the wonderful British fare has been, some variety is always good. Something a bit lighter, with different flavours. We found the No 1 Chinese Restaurant. Had a good bowl of the hot and sour soup, which must have been the first chilli I’ve had since some harissa in Morocco. Also went for the satay king prawns and the combination chop suey. L pointed out these were the first cruncky veggies we’d had for some time, as both the British and Moroccan cuisines tended to the soft side of things (to be fair to the British, crunchy parsnips or sprouts, or non wilted spinach, would not be great, it’s just not the rightc time of year for crunchy veggies).

Picked up some Irn Bru on the way back, then had a fairly early night.