Day 18: Fort William, Edinburgh

Welcome to day 18, basically where the Scotland part of this trip starts to wind down, with Edinburgh being the last stop.

It kicked off again with waking a little too early, even with the hill the room got bright quite early. Snoozed until it was time to pack and do all the showering things, before heading down to one last attempt by the bnb host to feed me until I exploded. I went with the porridge this morning, because have you really been in Scotland if you haven’t had porridge? Then came the usual cooked goodness and fruit and yogurt, enough to see us through the morning. There was a quick goodbye and we hit the road.

M and P wanted to take the road around Loch Lomond, which I think is the low road. Like all of the highlands, it’s very pretty, hills and water and green. We stopped for lunch and a stroll in Luss, a very beautiful little town on the banks of the loch, full of little craft and tourist shops, and a cafe that sells huge cups of coffee as well as soup and rolls, with all the crockery in Loch Lomond tartan.

Rounding the corner of the loch, it was a case of heading through the centre to Stirling, where we then were able to again experience driving on an actual motorway, with multiple lanes and no little passing places. Or potholes. Scotland may be very beautiful but its roads, especially the ones to get to the most beautiful places, are rustic to say the least. We saw a number of rather expensive cars, Ferraris and Porsches, on the roads, and really wonder how they would go given their rather small amount of ground clearance.

We got to see the Forth Bridge as we crossed the Firth of Forth, it’s a stunning piece of work, though not easy to get a good photo of from the road. A huge and wonderful piece of engineering.

The rest of the afternoon was spent wandering along Princes St, first to check into my hotel, then to see what has changed in the years since I was last here. I’d have to say that it seems the most vibrant and alive I’ve seen it for a while, maybe it’s because the tram lines are finally finished so it doesn’t feel like a construction site. While there are still some vacant shops on Princes St, many of the spaces are filled, and at least one of the side streets also had pop up markets selling all manner of goods. There’s a very shiny Johnny Walker store, that mainly showcases that product but also has a little room to the side of various Diageo single malt releases. While I was there a guy came in and asked the assistant what the most expensive bottle they had was, and once she showed him, remarked that he didn’t really like whisky as it gave him a headache. I tried my best to just give the assistant a friendly smile of understanding, but I’m sure she gets “interesting” visitors like that daily.

There’s still roadworks going on in the city centre, of course, around North and South Bridge. I’ve no idea what they are doing, but they seem to be having fun blocking off chunks of footpaths and bits of road. Otherwise the central city seems good, a fair bit going on, buskers, parks, all the usual things. This would have to be my first time seeing Edinburgh at this time of year, previous visits were in August during festival season, or at hogmanay.

Dinner and drinks was at the Salt Horse on Blackfriars St, just up from the Edinburgh Mortuary (I stopped for a pic just for the whole Ian Rankin/Rebus thing). There was an interesting selection of 12 tap bears, and while I didn;t have all, I did try a pilsner, rustic lager, and pale ale from Newbarns in Edinburgh, a hopped weiss bier from Sureshot in Edinburgh, and a coffee stout from Holy Goat in Dundee, all were very drinkable, with possibly the rustic lager being the preferred for good drinking. For food I went with the very loaded chips, which included some pulled beef, chorizo, caramelised onions, and topped with a fried egg. Along with the beer it means I may need to hibernate.

Then it was time to say some goodbyes, as G and A are heading to Ireland tomorrow, so it will likely be months or years before we’re all back in the same place. We did start talking about plans for our 55th birthdays, and at the moment Canada is the leading option, but we’ve still got time.

Tomorrow will probably be an attempt at an easy day, potentially do washing, maybe a little more wandering, but nothing big planned. Will see how I feel in the morning.