Edinburgh - view of new town

Hello everyone,

Well, after 21 hours of travel we finally made it to Scotland! The glitch at the start of the trip has already become a dim memory in the excitement of exploring a new place!

Our flight was delayed in Kelowna because of an instrument failure in Vancouver which left only one runway operational over there. Consequently, we missed our international connection but were lucky enough to get shifted to a later flight. In the end we arrived in Edinburgh only 4 hours later than expected.

So far so good. Jet lag not a big issue as I managed to catch some sleep on the plane. Charli said I didn’t even snore. She didn’t sleep as much, and being a sleep sucking teenager, has been more tired than I have been.

Edinburgh castle - view from Princes Street

Yesterday, Charli and I got a handle on the bus system (excellent one with buses every 10 min) and explored a couple of the major touristy streets in Edinburgh. Today, although we are having a very leisurely morning, we are hoping to do a couple of tours and revisit a couple of shops. Charli needs a cardigan. We didn’t bring that much in the way of sweaters/jackets as it is supposed to be summer!

Edinburgh - Princes Square

At the moment it is raining even though it started out nice and sunny this morning. The weather is very changeable here so far this month. Like April weather we are told. Yesterday, I don’t know how many times I put my jacket on and then took it off, put the sunglasses on and off, and opened and closed my umbrella. It got downright annoying!

We are in a nice B&B in Corstorphine, about 15 min out of downtown Edinburgh by bus. I constantly mangle the pronunciation of Corstorphine so that it comes out sounding like a Mafia family name. Charli patiently corrects me, although I thought I caught the beginnings of some eye rolling.

The B&B is in a 1904 Edwardian house – 1/2 of the building. Since everything is stone you wouldn’t even know there are neighbours attached. Pretty much all the buildings here are gray stone or brick. No color either unless it is muted creams, beige, or white. Edinburgh does not appear to have any buildings that are over 6-7 floors. Of course, everything is old, old, old. Love it!

The bus system is great here, and most buses are the double deckers. Charli and I both noticed that the bus drivers appear to be pretty aggressive. Pedestrians step lively, even if they are on the crosswalk, when a bus heads their way.

Bicycles, taxis and buses all use the bus lanes. Not a problem for taxis, but cyclists are at a disadvantage. It would appear that to be a cyclist here you need lightning fast reflexes. When that double decker is hovering behind, seemingly about 2 cm away from the bike’s rear tire, those cyclists boot it as soon as the light changes. They peddle like hell to keep in front of the bus hoping the bus gets to its next stop before they get mowed over – or so it seems. Kind of a game, I think.

We were warned by our airport taxi driver to make sure we looked to the right before we crossed the street. He informed us that a lot of North Americans and Europeans get hit because we are used to looking to the left first before crossing. Good advice! A couple of times we nearly got caught. We are honing our scampering technique.

Anyway, that’s it for now. It is 11:25am and I guess we better get our day going! Raining – so no open top bus tour today – at least not right at this hour.

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Cheers!

Anita and Charli

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