Rest Day 14

Jul 8, 2010Week 9

Edinburgh

A fter last night’s efforts to chill out I awoke this morning feeling a little on the foggy side. Even though I’d not reached that wobbly state I ended up so desperately trying to reach, the after effects were just as bad. Oh well, it was a good night and the day ahead wasn’t looking as though it was going to be too hectic.

I made it to breakfast, which was nice if not a little on the peculiar side as I’ve never had a full cooked breakfast with cucumber and strips of pepper daintily placed on around the plate. Oh, and in case you were wondering the sausage was great – hurrah!

Having ignored yesterday’s write-up in favour of drinking beer and having a good evening out, I set to and tried my hardest to work through the fog in my head to remember what happened on my way in to Edinburgh. This took a little longer than I’d hoped but I got there in the end.

With that done and my stomach telling me it was getting near lunch time, I headed out the door in to the fresh air and sunshine to see what Edinburgh had to offer me for the day.

I knew I had some bits to pick up so I headed to the shops first, replacing the forgotten battery charger and picking up a new water bladder for my pack, well two actually as they were buy one get one free. I had to replace the old one that’s done me proud for the last 755 miles as it was beginning to get a little on the grubby side, even with regular rinsing.

Those important bits out of the way I picked up some bits from Boots, including my lunch, and headed over the road to Princes Street Gardens to have a bite to eat. There were lots of people out and about enjoying the sunshine and lots more sitting on the grass making the most of the lunch breaks from the office.

Feeling a little bit better for some food I headed up the path – the steep one – making my way up to the Royal Mile. As I was walking up I had the life scared out of me by the cannon firing at 1pm; I happened to be directly underneath it as it fired.

I was originally planning on having a look round the castle but decided to leave that until tomorrow, opting to walking down the Royal Mile and then back round to Princes Street.

Having walked about far too much for a day off I headed back to my room to chill out for a bit. I had a dinner date with my very dear friend Kate so I wanted to make sure I wasn’t too tired as we don’t get to see each other very often and I’d been looking forward to tonight for quite a while now.

Before relaxing though I had some serious work sorting out accommodation for the upcoming days. Matt’s been a real star sending me lists of places to try so it’s been a lot easier than trying to find places from scratch – thanks mate, very much appreciated. I managed to sort out places to stay for the next four days which made me a little more at ease, including a rest at the Youth Hostel on Lock Lomond.

Shaved, showered and spruced up as best as I could get with the limited means of the contents of my pack, I headed to the Black Rose Tavern to meet Kate. We had a few drinks there before heading off to find somewhere to eat. We tried a couple of places with no luck and eventually ended up at the Sea Dogs restaurant on Rose Street.

I’d planned on popping the cork on a bottle of champagne to celebrate walking to Scotland but I was a little disappointed to find that they only had some sparkling wines. I got a bottle of the Brut Cava which was nice but I would have much preferred a bottle of champagne. Another time!

The food was pretty good, sharing a seafood platter between us, getting all messy trying to get all the crab meat out of the claws. And desert, well, I couldn’t resist the deep fried chocolate cake with ice cream – it wasn’t bad at all and certainly not all oily as you might think it would be.

It was a great evening even if we did talk about me pretty much the entire time. That’s something I really don’t like doing but I guess I should be getting used to it a bit more by now?

It was a good day, topped by a fantastic evening out. I’ve loved Edinburgh every time I’ve visited and nothing has changed my opinion that this is a great city.

One more day off to relax before hitting the trail again. There are some long days ahead so I’d better not push it too hard tomorrow.

Photos

I f you want to find out more about this day you can see the photos I took.

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