My Wet Weekend in Edinburgh (Edinburgh in General)

Member Name: Nozz

Product:	Edinburgh in General
Date:	25/10/02 (611 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Culture and history, Good food, Shopping

Disadvantages: Wet, Windy, Cold

I have recently quit my nasty, stinky, hateful job, and left behind my evil David Brent-style boss. I've started a new job - no David Brents in evidence yet, but in between the two I had some time off and was in need of a break. I didn't want any big hassle with flying out of the UK just for a few days, so I decided to go for the tried and tested city-break. I've done Brighton. I've done Birmingham. I've even done Lyme Regis - so it was high time I looked further north, so it was to Edinburgh that I turned my weary eyes. A bit of atmospheric Scottish mist, some culture and of course some shopping was what I needed to recharge my batteries.

First of all, trains. I was booking at the last minute, so I knew I was going to have to pay through the nose, but having checked out the train times online, I called GNER on 08457 225 225 and spoke to a friendly man in their Newcastle call centre (honestly the nicest call centre person I've ever spoken to, so he gets a big thumbs up from me) who booked me two return tickets costing £83 each. I'm sure I could have got a much better deal by booking in advance, but there you go. The tickets were flexible but I decided to reserve seats on specific trains just to be sure.

I decided it was a bit short notice to find a decent hotel, so thought I'd rather be in a really good B&B than a second-rate hotel, so I found one for £95 per night via a website called aboutscotland.com.

The train, typically, ran late by about 35 minutes - they claimed it was due to track problems at York but we left London 10 minutes late, so I say 'Hmmph' to that. However, the trials of the first part of the journey were compensated for by the last bit, as we travelled through some spectacular scenery, first of all Durham Cathedral and castle perched on their hill-top, a glimpse (to my delight) of the Angel of the North, then Newcastle city centre with its famous old bridge, the new 'winking e
ye' footbridge (it tilts up to let boats under, looking like an eye winking, apparently) and Gateshead's new Baltic Arts Centre. After Newcastle, the train takes you along the coast, past Lindisfarne (Holy Island) and in our case, as it was a windy autumn day, past dramatic waves crashing on the shore a few metres away. If the coast is eroding I hope they move the train line in land a bit!

Finally as we pulled into Edinburgh, we had a perfect view of the hill which dominates the city's skyline, Arthur's Seat. They call Edinburgh Auld Reekie - Old Smokey - and although the smog from a thousand coal fires doesn't settle over the city like it used to, you can see how it got the name. On one side of Edinburgh is an estuary - the Firth of Forth - and there are hills on every other side, so when the fog rolls in off the sea, it seems to hang ominously low over the city, but in a good, atmospheric way, not a bad way, you understand.

Edinburgh is a town of two halves. The ancient city is focused on the Castle, perched on a hill with the famous street, the Royal Mile, stretching down to Holyroodhouse Palace at the other end. The Old Town (and the university) are to the south of the Castle, and the New Town to the north. Before the New Town was built, there used to be a loch north of the castle, which was used as the city's sewer (nice), but it was drained and turned into what is now Princes Street Gardens (much nicer). The New Town was laid out on a grid system beyond it, with classical Georgian terraces around squares, crescents and circuses, and this is where we were staying, in a beautiful apartment on Heriot Row.

Most B&Bs I've stayed in were a bit crummy, but we were in clover. Our room was a Victorian dream, painted dark red with a brass bed, sash windows with panelled shutters, and instead of the usual impersonal nick-nacks, we found fascinating books about Scottish writers and history, and little antique items i
ncluding a tiny pair of binoculars and a desk set with inkwells and pens. In terms of mod cons, we were equipped with an ensuite shower room, but not the usual accessories you expect in a B&B - kettle, TV, etc. It was more like staying in a friend's spare room (but a friend with exquisite taste in antiques) than a conventional B&B. We'd brought a tiny portable TV with us, just in case, but we planned not to be sitting in glued to the box for very long.

Our B&B looked fairly close to Waverley Station on the map, but actually it was a good 15 minutes walk, or 20 minutes when you?re carrying bags. Plus as all the streets are so wide in the New Town, you have to be careful crossing - it's not like London where you can just nip over the road. In Edinburgh the cars come charging down the lovely cobbled streets that were designed with horse and carriage in mind, so it's best to be sensible and wait for the lights to change.

After dropping off our bags and having a rest we took Frederick Street back into town, and walked into the first restaurant we found, French, called La P'tite Folie. It was a lovely little place, complete with accordion player and decent wine list. It was full of rowdy students celebrating the start of term, but we didn't mind, it added to the lively atmosphere and we were impressed that students could afford to eat in such a pricey restaurant, full stop. The pudding list was particularly yummy, being full of French classics - I wanted tarte tatin, one of my favourites, but as I felt rather full I went for something a bit lighter, crème caramel, only to find it came with cream, drizzled chocolate and fruit! C'est la vie!

That night we were too tired to stay out late, so we slipped back to bed, and awoke the next morning - to grey clouds, wind and rain. Well, what did we expect? We had come well prepared with warm things and umbrellas, and were fortified by a breakfast of scrambled
egg and brio
che (the breakfasts were delicious, if rather egg-dominated), so we figured we could cope with a bit of wetness. We headed for the castle, and climbed up to it on a gentle zig-zag path from the Princes Street Gardens (yes, that old sewer) - of course when the loch was full, there was no path, and it was the presence of deep water on that side of the castles crag which added to its impregnability.

I had visited the castle on a previous visit ten years before, and remembered it largely as a rather dull military museum, but things seemed to have improved greatly. To begin with, we were impressed by the extremely smart toilets near the entrance, and then discovered they were plastered with awards: 'Best Toilet in the UK 1997' and so on. Not quite like the one in Trainspotting, then!

We paid £8 each to get into the castle, and climbed up to the outer defensive area in time to see the one o'clock gun - not surprisingly, a gun that is fired at one o'clock, a signal to tell the whole city the exact time, a bit like the pink ball on top of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich. However, this wasn't just a rifle, it was a proper big gun sticking out over the battlements and it made a proper big bang with plenty of smoke - I jumped out of my skin!

From reading the display boards we learnt that the castles crag has been inhabited since prehistoric times, and has been the scene of some of Scotland's most infamous events. After Mary, Queen of Scots, abdicated in 1567 and left Scotland, her infant son James became King. Nobles loyal to Mary shut themselves in the castle, and a siege lasted for several years between the mothers supporters and the sons. Eventually part of the castle was destroyed, and the people loyal to the Queen put to death.

We then climbed up to the inner castle - it's built a bit like a giant spiral curving upwards - and saw the royal apartments. There is plenty of interpretative information about
Scotland's monarchy, and heroes such as William Wallace and Robert the Bruce. It was all rather over-dramatic, with stirring music piped in and clumsy mannequins dressed up in costume, but it's great for kids and much better than I remember. The highlights are the crown jewels of Scotland, known as the Honours, and of course the famous Stone of Destiny (the Stone of Scone to you and me), the throne of Scottish kings which used to be in Westminster Abbey but was returned to Scotland a few years ago. Quite right too, says I, and what about the Elgin Marbles next, eh?

The rest of the Royal Apartments have been restored beautifully to within an inch of their lives, but rather empty and soulless, apart from the tiny room with its original painted walls and panelling which was Mary Queen of Scots private room. From its little window she would have looked down towards the city, and the room really does evoke a feeling of its tragic, romantic former inhabitant. There's also a Great Hall with a fantastic hammerbeam roof. I like a nice hammerbeam roof, me.

Near the Royal Apartments is Scotland's war memorial. It has the standards and crests of all the Scottish batallions, and the names of all the WWI and WWII battles around the walls, and books with the names of the fallen. Why is there nothing like this in London, I wondered, as I stood there with tears in my eyes. It was beautiful, and unbearably moving.

It was still raining when we left the castle, so we dodged in and out of shops on the Royal Mile - whisky, tartan and cigars seemed to be a strong theme, but it's a lovely street for window-shopping. It rained even harder that evening so we wanted to find somewhere warm to shelter - we fancied seeing a film, but after trekking across town to get to a cinema, we found there was nothing on for hours. We ate dinner in the expensive, but very swish, Blue bar at the Traverse Theatre, and then found we were too full (yet again) to
stay awake through a film, so headed off for a drink. We found a nice candle-lit pub on the pedestrianised Rose Street, where I had a Gaelic coffee (with Scottish whisky instead of Irish whiskey, of course) which came with a Flake!

Even though the rain eased off that evening, it was still bucketing down the next morning, so we shelved the dry-weather plans, and headed to the National Gallery, which is in the centre of town next to the Gothic pile of the (Sir Walter) Scott Memorial. The building is currently covered in scaffolding, but inside is a real old-style gallery, all gilt chairs and curly gold frames. The collection of Scottish art was a lot more varied than I anticipated - portraits and pastoral scenes as well as images of rugged Highland glens.

My favourite things, however, were the room of Impressionists and a wonderful portait of Lady Somebody by John Singer Sargent. If it had been drier, we would have gone to the Modern Art gallery, which is further out of town, and can be reached by a free bus, or by walking alongside the Water of Leith. If we wanted to see portraits of Scotland's Kings and Queens, and Sean Connery, we could have gone to the National Portrait Gallery, but we were all galleried out.

There's also a newly-opened National Museum of Scotland in the Old Town, but we didn't make it that far. The other thing we missed out on was the notorious Mary King's Close, a street which was sealed up after most of the inhabitants died of the plague, and which became hidden when other buildings were built directly on top of it. Rumours of hauntings and ghostly sightings grew up, and the underground street can now be visited by guided tours - except it was closed for refurbishment. So, probably when I next go back it will have a gift shop and café...oh well. We could have gone for ghost walks or a tour of other underground vaults, but it was Mary King's Close we had really wanted to see.

Just off th
e Royal Mile, we found an excellent street for shopping, Cockburn Street, which is evidently popular with students, as there are shops selling trendy clothes and the kind of kitsch/retro things which young folk are so fond of. (hem hem). There's also a fascinating antique shop, and a very cheap music/DVD/bookshop called Fopp where I got a copy of 'Amelie' on DVD for only a tenner. Thoroughly recommended.

The rain seemed to be easing - at last - so we took the opportunity to see a bit more of the city, and climbed Calton Hill, another hill in the city centre. It is topped by Edinburgh's Observatory, and a couple of monuments, a tower in honour of Nelson, and a half-finished dark stone copy of the Acropolis, which is apparently Scotland's National Monument. We could see across to the docks at Leith, and a lighthouse flashing out on the island of Inchkeith in the Firth. We couldn?t see the famous Forth road or rail bridge, as they were lost in the fog, but we could spot Fettes College, alma mater of our glorious leader Mr Blair.

That night, with the rain properly gone, we ate in an Italian restaurant in Hanover Street, but it wasn't quite up to the standard of the previous two nights (my pizza was too salty).

The following day we had to catch a train at 3pm, so we spent the morning visiting another attraction on the Royal Mile, a camera obscura in a tower near the castle. It was, at last, sunny, so we had lovely views from the top of the tower, but as ever, the fog was rolling in from all sides, giving the city the impression of being trapped in a white fluffy box. The camera obscura is a live image of the city projected from a lens onto a round table in a dark room, where you can zoom in on individuals wandering round in the street below - a Victorian webcam, if you like.

In addition to the camera were other exhibits relating to photography and light - holograms, 3-D images and optical illusions. All very di
verting, especially the morphing tool where you can see what you would look like as a baby, or a monkey - very cute, in my case.

We had just time to do a bit more shopping, and suddenly the tourist in me took over, forcing me to purchase whisky and shortbread, much against my will, you understand. At least I didn't buy anything tartan - much of the goods on sale appear to me to be entirely created for Americans of Scottish descent who want to wear a baseball cap/tie/scarf with their family tartan on, for that authentic Scottish feel when they are back in Tennessee, or wherever. Having said that, I saw several men in kilts over the course of the weekend - I always imagined the kilt was just for weddings and bagpipe players, but it seems to be fairly common evening wear.

There was engineering work on the train line that afternoon, and we were on one of the few direct Edinburgh-London trains, so it got hideously overcrowded, and yet again ran 35 minutes late. I was too full of happy memories, and shortbread, to mind too much. I've just looked on the GNER site, and discovered that a landslip has currently suspended the line between Berwick and Edinburgh, so my fears about erosion it seems were well founded!

As Edinburgh is hilly, with cobbled streets and steep stairs, it is maybe not suitable for those who can't get around so easily, but for everyone else it is well worth the journey. Maybe I'll make my next trip in the spring or summer next time, though, so I can climb Arthur's Seat and enjoy more of the outdoor sights as well as the indoor ones.

My weekend gets 4 stars, minus 1 for the weather and the dreadful state of GNER, but Edinburgh is a 5 star city.

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