Edinburgh

After finishing the Scotland C2C we had a rest day in Edinburgh before flying out to Austria and so off we went on a wander around. A great bus system started us off right and we were at Waverly Station between Princess Street and the Royal Mile in a few minutes. 
We knew that August in Edinburgh would be hectic but we had no idea of how much so. The Military Tattoo occurs at that time at Edinburgh Castle and the Fringe Festival occurs all over the city but centrally on the Royal Mile. Packed with people we salmon-ed our way up to the Castle to start our wanderings.

     Heading down the Mile we weaved in and out of people, actors and plays. Celtic singers and Halloween dressed festive participants were liberally sprinkled between the visitors, inviting you to participate in their own little part of the Fringe. Working on down we stopped off into a pub for a respite of cold beer where the manager gave us a souvenir beer glass.
We were on a little mission to go the the Wells o' Weary, or St. Margaret's Wells for as the story goes if one drinks from them you will always return to Scotland. With my little flask in hand, the search was on having visited them some 25 years previously.

Down to Holyroodhouse Palace and around the back, things had noticeably changed in all those years, in particular a new Congress building being added. But with some direction from local security there in the hillside of Arthur's Seat were the wells that I had been searching for. Fenced and grated the only water you could access was the fetid pool of algae filled water in a basin. They say that being a flexible traveler is the best traveler and so then and there we decided that in the changing world the new water of Scotland would be a good Scotch and off in search of our New Well's o' Weary we went.
Not too far either I might add as right behind Holyroodhouse Palace and across from the Wells was a Fring Fest Food Festival and we wandered in. Right past security we went, right through the entrance, right past the ticket booth selling the entrance tickets we wandered. Directly to the free Scotch tasting booth, unbeknownst until we were tasting our new water of Scotland that we should uh..probably uh.. have stopped and paid. However we took our free entrance directly to the new Wells as a welcoming sign from Scotland and proceeded to avail ourselves.

     Thoroughly refreshed we headed off to wander more through Edinburg old town and happened upon a favorite and famous pub, the Cafe Royal. Fabulously decorated and with a large assortment of ales and scotch we each began our own tastings and after much standing in the after-work packed pub acquired a table.
Long and leisurely we enjoyed our choices but notice some tired standers and since we were near the end of our drinks offered up our coveted by many table. It was a great choice as it introduced us to two wonderful couples and we engaged in conversation, sharing stories and laughs, exchanging cultural notes. Admittedly, the small moment in time that resulted from the sharing of a table was the best pub experience one could wish for and with that we ended our tour of Edinburgh and headed out. Unfortunately we had some file corruption and lost photos but we would like to send a grand hello out to our new friends..Margaret, Sandra, Terry and "El Georgio", George. If you happen to see this we would love to get a photo of you folks!

      Finally I would like to say thanks to Martin and the staff at the Quality Inn, Edinburgh Airport. We chose the Quality Inn as it would save us paying for shuttles to the airport and made our drop off with Trailbrakes easy. What we didn't know when we chose them was how wonderful we were going to be treated. They stored our hard shell bike boxes for us while on the trip, they provided an area inside because it was raining to break our bikes down in, their maintenance department provided us with a tool for our bicycles when ours broke. Breakfast was included but they cooked a special vegetarian full breakfast for Lowell and of course free WiFi and the shuttle for us and our bikes picked us up at the front door and cost 1.50 gbp! It was a fabulous stay and Martin was especially helpful and kind. Thanks!