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Day 5: Glasgow
Now where were we? Then it was walk, kebab, sleep, hangover. Welcome to Glasgow. Ah, I remember now. It was a rather slow morning, doing as little as possible while my liver and kidneys did what I brought them along to do, and the paracetamol kicked in to help some. I was upright and mostly human by around 11.30am, just a little too late to get the breakfast menu at the nearby Smile Cafe, but in time for the lunch menu including some amazing pizza by the slice. And when I say slice, they say 1/4 of a whole pizza. With this amount of salami and zucchini pizza, plus a…
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Days 4: Frankfurt-London-Glasgow
Early start in Frankfurt, as my flight to London was a 7am departure. I figured if I got to Frankfurt Hbf a little after 5am I’d be fine. It took me a little while longer than expected to get everything together, not helped by a crap night attempting to sleep while my brain kept poking me to make sure I didn’t oversleep and miss the flight, so I got the the station around 5.15am, still a comfortable amount of time in theory. I hadn’t accounted for the happens-more-often-than-expected thing that German trains sometimes do run late. Germans will joke about this, crazy as the concept seems. So I board the…
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Day 22 – Edinburgh
Today was a designated shopping day, looking for interesting shiny things as well as tacky souvenirs for all you folks brainwashed by capitalism to expect more from out travels than the experience of reading our journals. Fortunately, another thing Scotland does well is its ability to stick some tartan or a St Andrew’s Cross on almost anythingand flog it off to tourists, so you can rest assured we’ve found the tackiest pressies for you. Breakfast was a fruit and yogurt smoothie, almost a shock to the system. From here we hit Princes St, getting a good dose of Edinburgh weather, bright sunlight and bitterly cold wind probably express from the…
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Day 21 – Edinburgh, 2012
Woke up stiff and sore, joints aching, as if we’d spent the night before partying in slippery mud and rain. Funny that. We gave the hotel breakfast a miss, as it wasn’t very good, and wandered over the road to the COnan Doyle for a full breakfast. Haggis, bacon, black pudding, all the usual suspects except the potato scone that is often to be found in these parts. Full of tea and beans, we had a quiet morningg. Our digestions are starting to rebel a little, complaining about having three large meals each day. Even with the walking, we’re still eating a lot of really good but really rich food.…
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Day 20 (part 2) – Edinburgh
Spent the last morning of 2011 wandering around Edinburgh with L, checking out the Old Town and Royal Mile. Wandered up to the castle, and as always stunned by the view. The Scots certainly knew where to build castles: find the biggest piece of fuck-off rock, completely inaccessible from 3 sides with a fair incline on the fourth, and stick a big-ass fortification on top. And then say the equivalent of go ahead, make my day. A for attitude. The legs got a good workout, wandering up and down the Mile. Popped down to Holyrood to see the Queen, but she was off in Norfolk. Went instead into my favourite…
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Day 20 (part 1) – Edinburgh
The last day off 2011 is upon us. As I write, it has just ticked over into 2012 in Perth (Australia, not Perth in Scotland). Kind of a weird feeling, as the only other time I’ve been out of WA at New Year’s was in Melbourne, where we were 3 hours ahead. So being behind seems weird. I’m not unhappy to say goodbye to 2011. As years go, it has been far too interesting for my liking. The big minus was losing Mum, in many ways too soon but in others the relief that she’s no longer in pain. Then losing Sara Douglass, also to cancer, and also much too…
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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…
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Departure –2 days
It’s exciting to be able to say that in 3 weeks time, we’ll be in Scotland.
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Say it slowly tour Day 8: Edinburgh, Irn Bru and defying gravity
Woke up feeling better that I probably should have, but maybe it’s one of those things: whisky drunk in Edinburgh during the festival doesn’t give hangovers. it’s a theory anyway. Head a little fuzzy, but nothing that a full breakfast and Irn Bru at the Whiski Bar on the Royal Mile couldn’t fix. Full breakfast wasn’t really full, no black or white pudding, but the bacon was perfect. Admired the whisky menu, too. Then I went off and climbed the Scott monument, all 270 steps or whatever. Rankin calls it a gothic phallic symbol, or something similar. It’s a fair description. Having climbed the Wallace monument, built around the same…
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Say it slowly tour Day 7: Edinburgh, Bobby, Whoosky n Folk
(Posting after a couple of days so please forgive gaps in the old memory.) For research, i bought Ian Rankin’s Knots and Crosses at Birmingham airport. I figured it would be as good a refresher on Edinburgh as anything. It’s a fine read too, a little rough around the edges, but that’s to be expected for an early book. Flew intae Edinburgh, got the shuttle bus into Waverley Station. Things started to look familiar, probably a little more than London did (Parts of London did look familiar, but those were the landmarks that have been put into my head from an early age watching the BBC. Edinburgh’s streets seemed familiar,…
