Blogs from Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland, United Kingdom, Europe - page 9

We departed last night for a 6 hour flight to Amsterdam. The flight was okay, but very cramped. I've decided the next time I fly more than 5 hours, I'm paying extra to fly upper class and have leg room. The lady in front of me insisted on putting her seat back as far as possible, then got annoyed when she couldn't put it back further. She said excuse me 3 times while shoving the seat into my knees, and I responded each time that she couldn't go back into my knees any further. A pillow crammed between my knees and the chair added a small amount of comfort. We were served dinner at midnight, my pasta was quite tasty but I didn't eat anything else as I had ate in the airport earlier. I ate ... read more

It was cloudy as we started today but not raining. Our bus driver, “Bob” , took us on our last tour today as our tour lady, Kirsten pointed out the main points of her home town of Edinburgh. Edinburgh as it turns out is made up of an old part and a new part. The old part was hemmed in by a wall for protection and that meant people had to build up or into the streets to house the growing population. Soon the buildings were so close to each other that people could shake hands out the window with the person across the street that lived on the same level. Since there were no elevators then the people would not carry their “nasties” bucket all the way downstairs to throw it out, instead they would ... read more

Well!! I've left Edinburgh and driven south after abandoning the job, flat, boat etc.... after stopping in at Pip and Jen's the Godparents in Beadale, I headed to Huntingdon to see gran, and the cousins. The day after I drove to Braintree to see brother Simon's new house.. i spent hours in the real local yocal pub, which was a laugh... the next day we went to Si's work at the SUPERDAIRY which was pretty different and then headed London for a civilised dinner at friends... Since i've been in Eastbourne with Nanny and Dad chilling out trying to prepare for the trip... this is a kind of test first blog...here goes... ... read more

The month of August turned Edinburgh into a mad-house. Despite the, generally acknowledged, poorer than average weather this relatively small European city is certainly a pumping party town for a surprisingly large part of the year. I always thought that it was all the Edinburgh Fringe Festival that really kicked things off, but there are things happening year round: The International Film Festival (We saw a couple movies; Angel's Crest stuck out the most as a heart-wrentcher that really makes you think about perspectives) The Jazz Festival Art Festivals International Festival Book Festival Story Telling Fest Military Tattoo And the Fringe Festival We'll focus on the last two here since they were the main reason we decided to leave our luxurious highland home for the big city. The Tattoo Dan started to not... read more

Edinburgh Long time no see folks! ;-) Après Londres cette ville semble si petite et si coquette!  Tout est beau! Toutes les rues, toutes les ruelles, toutes les maisons..chaque recoin a un cachet particulier..et finalement chaque recoin se ressemble un peu!  Mais avant d'arriver le train...5 heures de train sans  livre ni musique seulement les paysages tranquilles de l'Angleterre et de l'Écosse. On comprend pourquoi ces terres abritent de nombreux contes et legendes. Les paysages tranquilles... sans aucun autre effet que la stimulation de votre imagination... Les moutons des milliers de moutons!  Le tout parfait pour vous plonger dans une autre époque et vous donner l'idée de milliers d'histoires possibles! D'époques ou d'actualité..dans ces champs..ces maisons...ces châteaux, on peut imaginer plein d'histoires et de personnages..... read more

First off, let me apologise, once again for the delay in updating the blog. (and also, for forgetting what we've already posted...oops) OK, Edinburgh! The annual Fringe Festival was on, we had a free weekend, so booked ourselves some cheap bus tickets and jumped on board the 9hr bus ride through England to Edinburgh, Scotland. Of course, when we arrived, it rained. But after that it didn't really rain again, so we were lucky. We checked into our overpriced hostel... which was quite a nice room, but the bed was shocking. imagine springs... and a sheet over it. yeah... we didn't sleep well in Edinburgh, but we had a lovely kitchenette and ensuite, just not a good bed. We used our kitchen to make pasta (thank you local 24hr Tesco) and saved a few bucks there. ... read more

I always thought the Melbourne International Comedy Festival was on par with any in the world, but the Edinburgh Fringe simply leaves Melbourne for dead. Over 2,500 shows, street artists everywhere, spectacular old buildings, huge outdoor temporary bars set up in squares, Edinburgh turned it on, and the locals are so cheery despite the appalling weather! We arrived at Edinburgh on a surprisingly mild Friday night and it was a quick and easy trip before we were on the Royal Mile and amongst the thousands of revellers. The first thing we stumbled upon was a bagpipe player belting out some mainstream tunes you would never hear played on bagpipes, which was quite amusing. Scotland was anything but bleak and the locals were friendly and funny as we queued in a monster queue to see the midnight ... read more