A Royal Mile (July 20th)

After yesterday’s absolutely beautiful day of sunny skies and warm temperatures, I woke to rain this morning. A lot of rain. It was actually a full on thunderstorm. For all the rain I’ve seen on this trip, this was the first thunder and lightning.

There were two elements to today’s plan. Exploring Edinburgh and going to yet another bike shop. The squealing brakes that I’ve mentioned on numerous occasions were getting completely out of hand by the end of yesterday’s ride so I thought I’d take it somewhere else to see if they could do what no one else has been able to do – silence my squeal.

I actually wasn’t planning on addressing the brake issue but the topic of bike maintenance came up at dinner last night and Ewan recommended a nearby shop. Ewan was also helpful in recommending places to see on my day of exploration in Edinburgh.

The first stop was at The Bicycle Works. And to make a short story shorter, they fixed my brakes in a matter of minutes. Literally, it took less than five minutes – probably more like two minutes. And there was no charge. Super friendly. Great service. Definitely a great bike shop.

I returned my bike to Ewan’s place as it seemed like a better idea to tour Edinburgh by foot rather than bike – especially since I was guessing I would be spending most of the day in the old part of town.

I made my way up to Edinburgh Castle and the rain accompanied me the whole way. I was soaked again. That certainly didn’t deter the masses from lining up to get inside the castle for a tour. Based on Ewan’s recommendation, I opted not to go into the castle and instead wandered along the Royal Mile. The Royal Mile is the road that leads to/from the castle and is filled with all the touristy shops you can imagine. It’s also a very cool street with beautiful buildings and a seemingly endless number of side streets and alleys that could keep you occupied for days.

The rain continued to fall as I wandered around but then a funny thing happened. It stopped raining. And the sun came out. And I even did some shopping. As in NOT grocery shopping. Okay, it wasn’t anything significant but the fact that I went into a non-grocery, non-sporting good store is rather uncharacteristic. The store was Tastes of Scotland and I came out with a small package of Scottish Butter Tablet and a similarly small package of Chocolate Fudge. I was only going to get the latter but they had a dish with samples of the Scottish Butter Tablet and so I partook of the samples. This too is hardly ground breaking however communal food dishes like that are something of which I tend to steer clear.

By the time I walked down to The World’s End pub the sun was dominating the sky and the street was full of people. With the absence of rain, a handful of buskers also started to appear. Even though I had just walked several blocks, I opted to repeat my route as the sun’s presence really made it feel like an entirely different street.

I spent the next couple of hours wandering around in the sun. It was beautiful. As is Edinburgh. Well, what I saw of it anyway. Most of my day was spent in Old Town and I found it to be more than a little spectacular. As previously mentioned, you could spend days up there wandering down all the side streets and such. Truly stunning.

Eating continues to be something I tend to forget to do – especially when preoccupied with other more interesting activities. That said, I eventually remembered that eating would likely be a good idea (you know, before I pass out or something). There are an abundance of pubs and restaurants in Old Town to cater to the throngs of tourists. And yes, there were throngs. I ended up at one of the less busy pubs and had a very good burger, chips, and a beer. All for less than £9.

In keeping with the food topic, before I headed out this morning Ewan had invited me to join him and Bruce again for dinner. I happily accepted. He then asked me if I’ve had haggis yet. My standard answer to the haggis question has been, “I think haggis scares me.” This answer did not deter Ewan and the official plan for dinner tonight was to be haggis.

After a full day of wandering around Old Town, I eventually made my back to Ewan’s place. Not long after I returned the three of us were once again sitting outside eating dinner. This time it was a traditional Scottish meal of haggis, neeps, and tatties. Despite my self-declared fear of haggis, I have to say that it was very good. I won’t lie, I was more than a little surprised. The sausage casserole (i.e. the haggis alternative) that Ewan had also prepared ended up being unnecessary – although, I did have some and it too was very good.

The rain started to fall just as we finished dinner so we retreated indoors where Ewan and I spent more than a little time reviewing maps and coming up with potential routes that could get me to Amsterdam. Not surprisingly, there are a lot of options. I don’t have nearly as much time as I thought I would and time is slowly becoming a bit of an issue. That said, we seemed to have come up with an entirely new plan. A plan which may in fact have me taking a ferry to Amsterdam … or the vicinity anyway. We’ll see how long that plan lasts.