Edinburgh - And In Transit

After packing up or stuff we said goodbye to Simon and his flatmates and headed to the King's Cross Station to catch our train to Edinburgh. The GNER was impressively quiet and fast. The only drawback being this made taking photos extremely tricky! You'll just have to take our word that the scenery was lovely! It felt good to get a glimpse of the sea once we got into Scotland. There was some exciting moments when we passed an oncoming train as there would be a sudden slam of pressure and a rush of air for the few seconds it took the other train to pass.

Four and a half hours later we arrived in Edinburgh at Waverly Station and made our way to The Thistle in Leith Street. This was quite a hike as Edinburgh has a lot of ups and downs especially compared to London.

We checked in around 3pm and headed off for a walk along Princes Street, cutting across into the Old Town by the National Gallery. Edinburgh is quite breathtaking with its beautiful old buildings and streets. There are lots of tiny narrow alleys, called Closes, running up and down the hills between the main streets with great names like 'Fleshmarket Close'. A big park sits in the gully between the Old and New Town areas which is also where the trains run into the huge Waverly Station.

Although the sun was shining in the clear blue sky, the wind was bone chillingly cold! But we braved the chill and wandered down the Royal Mile looking for a place to eat. We knew it was a sign when we spotted a pub called The Tass, (Amelia's Grandpa's name) and sure enough they had the best prices we had seen with £6 Monday night dinners. We both chose the steak mince pies with chips, beans and gravy ( and you were worried we'd eat at McDonalds Megan!). Even better the pubs in Scotland are smoke-free so the meal was undisturbed by smoke.

After dinner we walked back up the Royal mile and over the North Bridge back to our hotel for an early night.