On to Edinbugh

Travelling is great but we are coming to realise that it can be quite stressful staying in hotels and being caught up with the timetables they impose.  We are in Edinburgh and for the first time we are feeling truly relaxed. This is mainly due to the fact that we can live for the next week slightly more normally as we have our own flat! It’s a spacious two bedroom place (come on Sophie get up here..), with a kitchen, full washing facilities, a bathroom with a bath and shower and we are paying a very reasonable price for the privilege. We’re also appreciating the fact we have a living room with a couch each we can stretch out on. Thanks to crashpadder.com (now airbnb) and especially Ron (the owner) who was there yesterday afternoon at Waverley Bridge with his car to pick us up after we had dropped our rental car off, had a bite to eat, picked up Fringe Festival tickets and organised our bus passes for the week.

Our drive down from Stirling was, as expected, very slow and not to plan. There’s a rule in Scotland, and probably throughout Britain, that all petrol stations now need a form of gutter for spillage. Consequently, we were not completely surprised, after navigating the current major road works around central Edinburgh, to find the station we had selected on the satnav had closed. People who live here are quick to point out that a new tram system has taken four years so far to build, the original contractors stopped work for a long period of time to renegotiate their contract, and now it’s costing many times more than budgeted.  Also, Waverley Railway Station is being remodelled and that is a long term, messy and a major disruption. As a consequence, the address where we to drop the car off didn’t exist and it was only by chance we found the small information booth where we were redirected by a rather frazzled woman with a map showing us where we were actually meant to go. I guess the biggest disappointment, when we finally were able to drop the car off, was discovering that our deposit will not be refunded for another 10 days. I can’t understand why a company with such a huge turnover of cars can’t just sort themselves out.

Anyhow, the rest of the day has been spent walking to the nearest supermarket and greengrocer and collecting food supplies for the next few days, cooking a meal, and watching the dramas of the Olympics unfold before our eyes using the choice of 17 live feeds through Sky Sport which has been provided to us as part of this accommodation package. If you ever want to come to Edinburgh, ask me how to get in touch with Ron. This is one of my good finds online.