This week was spent on having a Roman experience in Bath on Saturday, and Lord's and Wimbledon on Sunday. But let me finish what I have left incomplete.
So it was my second day in Edinburgh ! After a tired day's sleep with no supper, I got up by 7. A very good, and filling breakfast - cornflakes+muesli and bread with baked beans and half done egg- at the hotel which comes along with the rent( it is B&B-Bed and Breakfast). Started my day out by 10. I had to vacate my room and placed my luggage with the reception so that I could pick it up later. The normal check out time is 11am.
It was a sunny day. Again, an hour long walk to the centre, crossed the Bridge to the new Town, walked to Calton hill which has some construct like Roman circus and a tall Nelson monument. Climbed the steep roads and steps to reach the top of the hill by 10. It was perfect silence ! One side of the hill has nothing but some hills at distance and greenery in between, and the other three sides are occupied by the township with sea at one end. I don't know how long I stood there alone with the water on the rock in small pits have become ice, no intention to melt even with the Sun shining on it. I woke up from my dreams when a bell rang in some church below. It was 11 ! I agree to the fact that to experience this peace, for getting a feel of being a part of the Universe, you don't need to come this long. But what I wanted to say was, this is what you find common in any part of the World. You don't need language to experience it, rather language can't convey this experience !
Climbed down and walked to the next bus stop and my aim was to see the seashore. Took bus 22 and with a day pass again, reached the shore area. There was an old luxury Royal ship parked namely, Royal Yacht Britannia - used by the Royal family for cruises. Again, an entry fee of £7 feels not worth it ! The shopping complex from where you get the view of the sea, the ship, was constructed like a ship. A lot of kids playing around, full of joy and fun ! And there was a kid sitting on the 'bishop' of a giant chess board thinking where to move it to, playing with her sister :) !
Back in bus on my way back, again kids were ruling the World. Landed back in the town by 1. Walked around the new part of the town, went down the gardens which come just below the Castle on the other side. Again, back to Royal Mile after a lunch at McD. I have really fallen love with this place - the pipes, the smiles, the hills.......
Visited the Whisky heritage centre. I told the salesman,' I don't drink. So I need a souvenir, it should have whisky, but a memorable piece of something to remember'. He showed me a small barrel, with a small bottle inside with 14 years old Whisky ! It looks a piece worth a souvenir for £10.
Winded up my walks, took a bus back to B& B and took my bag and back in Royal mile again by 4:45. Walked through it for the last time ! I have to leave it. Back to the station by 5:15. And the return journey started by 5:30. Again, the same phases, the sea along with us, snow appears after 20mins, and it is dark by 6:30. The train leaves me at Kings X by 10:20 and am walking back home at 11:30 getting down from the tube at East ham.
It was a good trip with lot of memories. I think the Scots resemble me of the Sikhs. They love to enjoy, they are proud and famous being brave, and they keep their tradition and make their mark. Seeing the cartoon postcards of Scotts in Edinburgh confirmed the last one too, they make good jokes out themselves !I think I will have to write for one more month after coming back to India, to finish off my backlog
People don't care how much you know; they want to know how much you care !
Monday, March 15, 2004
Monday, March 08, 2004
LONDON WEEKENDER 8
Scotland - the land of Bagpipes, and Scotch Whisky ! The land of Scottish the Braves ! The birthplace of Golf ! The land of castles ! But I had no idea where to start and what problem are waiting for me when I landed in Edinburgh at 11:33. Just went to the information centre in the rail station and asked for anything can be done for getting an accommodation. they should me to another counter open for accommodation. They charge you £5 ( I am sorry for using £ sometimes and saying 'pounds' sometimes. My funny keyboard doesn't show up £ sometimes.) for each booking you make from the counter. But luckily, they had only hi-fi hotel infos and my budget can't exceed £30. As already lost £46.10( for missing the train), I have to compensate it somewhere else. Here again, I took my trump card, the printout from net and showed them and asked them where this Mayfield gardens is.I had taken some 6 addresses and 3 of them were in Mayfield Gardens. So I was sure that this place is full of B&Bs. The first half of the answer was disappointing, but the second half was good. They said, "it is out of the town, about 30mins walk from here" !!! So I am in the heart of the Town and the town ends in 30mins walk :)) ! Good for me ! She tried two three places with the number I gave, but none had vacancies( I know I will burn my hands if I do make a call). She, then, gave me a rough map. Came out of the station, through a wrong exit and asked the first person I met, the nearest bus stop which can take me to Mayfield gardens. It was amazing ! The place was lonely and this guy was painting a wall standing on a ladder.He came down and came to show me the way to the bus stand and he walked until the stop was in sight and then, went back ! Now, it looks like you are not in a strange place ! See the people ! The whole perspective changes ! I walked to the bus stop and there were two people, asked one of them. He explained, " You can get in to 5 or 33. Better take a day pass, it will cost you £1.80 and keep the change and the machine in the bus will not give back change if you put £2 or something like that !" The other guy added, "just count for some 3-4 stops and you will reach a place where the bus will take a turn, if it is 33. Get down there. I think we have a 33 now." I am talking about a bus stop in the middle of the Town, Capital of Scotland ! Unbelievable ! If you have landed in another European country's capital and you feel so homely, like you are in Thrissur or Kozhikode, it is incredible ! Took 33, took a day pass, and got down at the place where the bus took a deviation from main road. Just walked a bit forward and the next junction glanced at the left side cut road and saw a B&B board. Just gave a try. They had vacancies, and got single rooms and for rent £29. I really got it right when the room was attached and had coffee kettle and other accessories like cups and saucers other than the basic heaters, towels, soaps, shampoo and all. The time was 12:50 by then. Left the luggage and started immediately.Walked back to the Royal Mile. Royal Mile is the main road in Edinburgh old town. Old Town and new town is separated by a bridge with the rail line making the partition. The Royal Mile starts from the Castle and ends in the Palace. It looks it is a mile in length. My road from the hotel cuts the Royal Mile in the middle and it goes on to the bridge and to the new town. On my left side, I have to walk up to the Castle and if I go down the road on my right side, it will take my to the Palace. It was 1:15 when I entered the Royal Mile - a road made of stone, gives you a feeling that you have gone back a century ! Except for the taxis passing thru the road rarely, the road is full of pedestrians, and the air, air is full of music of bagpipe ! May be because Bagpipe has been one of my favorite instruments, I am biased ! But I will really call it an experience ! With both sides on the roads, either souvenir shops or restaurants, passed the Cathedral, and walked to the Castle. The air was full of the bag pipe music due to the piper here and there standing on the corner playing it with the box open for donations. Anyway, you get the music free and it is worth putting 20p or 50p in ! A queue for some 15 mins to enter the Castle. The view of the city from the castle was good, with the sea on one side and snow-filled hills on the other, both at distance. The war museum inside the castle conveyed me the message that the Scotts are proud for being brave and they boast a lot of their military history. I was amazed to find Haider Ali's sword in Castle of Edinburgh. The Scotts also were so much excited about their victory over Tippu. This is the only person I see, featured as a brave man in Windsor castle, British museum and now, here in Edinburgh also ! In Windsor castle, his small machine of a tiger killing an English man , his golden tiger head, and clothes were on display. I have seen his sword and helmets in British museum ! Bought some mementos and done with the castle by 4. One of the main things I bought was a CD of the pipe band. As usual, things are unnecessarily costly. Walked down the Royal Mile to the other end getting in to almost all souvenir shops and mostly coming out empty-handed after using my 80's table !
Reached the other end of the road, the palace- the Palace of Holyroodhouse. Walked past it to the right, I had no idea what is there. I ended up in an open area with the freeway passing through. On my left was a golf course, and in front a hill which has some pedestrian steep path to climb. Climbed half way, and looked back ! The evening Sun shining with his golden cloth and the meadow of the golf course, the houses, and the sea, all looks like a beautiful girl dressed up for a party :) ! Just stood there till the Sun vanished. Then climbed down, walked back to my hotel, had my missed lunch by 7pm - a falafel from a Syrian shop on the way.
I realised how tired I am once back in my room. Just fell flat to wake up only on next morning 7 ! I think I have one more day to go, but don't want to be lengthier than this.
Reached the other end of the road, the palace- the Palace of Holyroodhouse. Walked past it to the right, I had no idea what is there. I ended up in an open area with the freeway passing through. On my left was a golf course, and in front a hill which has some pedestrian steep path to climb. Climbed half way, and looked back ! The evening Sun shining with his golden cloth and the meadow of the golf course, the houses, and the sea, all looks like a beautiful girl dressed up for a party :) ! Just stood there till the Sun vanished. Then climbed down, walked back to my hotel, had my missed lunch by 7pm - a falafel from a Syrian shop on the way.
I realised how tired I am once back in my room. Just fell flat to wake up only on next morning 7 ! I think I have one more day to go, but don't want to be lengthier than this.
Monday, March 01, 2004
LONDON WEEKENDER 7
Destination : Edinburgh, Capital of Scotland
Onward trip : 28-Feb-2004, Saturday ; 5:55 AM from London Kings X (read as Kings Cross)
Return trip : 01-Mar-2004, Sunday ; 9AM arriving from Edinburgh Waverly
So the plan was to reach the city by 11 and then, finish the visits and stay there for the night( as there was no night trains)
You notice something wrong with the plan? Unfortunately, I didn't. I didn't see that March 1st is Monday and this year Feb. has 29! I realised it on Thursday night! Got a permission from the office comfortably to come late to office on Monday. The problem now is that, I am already lost. I have two choices: Either to cancel the reservations and change the plan, or stay there for two nights instead of one. Anyway I will loose money! If I cancel, I have to pay almost the same amount extra! That is the rule with railways here.
But my sleep took care of making the choice! I slept till 5 and literally ran to get hold of all the buses and tubes I could get, to catch the train. But tubes behave funny on weekends. They cut down the service, close stations, and all that sort of funny things happens! So not to tell more, I missed the train and it was 6:15 by the time I reach the station! I went to the reservation counter to ask what next. The clerk advised me that I can carry on with the journey paying 46 pounds more! So I ended up paying 46 pounds extra for over the original 53 pounds! The only advantage was, I can go in any train and come back in any train. The start was not good, not good at all!
6:45AM: The train for Glasgow via Edinburgh starts with me in coach F, in a left side seat with no one in my aisle seat( till the end of the journey). There is no crowd as usual. The reservation only saves you money, it has nothing to do with availability during these times. This train is supposed to be faster than the one I missed and is expected to reach my destination by 11:33, calling at Peterborough, Durham, York, Newcastle, Berwick-Upon-Tweed etc.( 'calling at' means 'stopping at'). Nearly an hour after the journey started, I could see snowflakes on the way and it starts increasing and when we reached Newcastle, it was some 5-6 inches of snow! The journey has started badly, and now snow is going to complete the episode! But from inside the train, it is a dream scenery with both sides full of snow and snowfall still continuing! You could see all in black and white( because roads are still black and all the rest is white :) ) !
To my surprise, the snow started decreasing and by the time I reached Berwick-upon-Tweed, it was a new Earth and new Sky! I have North sea on my right, and road with meadows and rocks in between the rail and the sea, it was another phase of the beautiful journey, and the sky is clear and it is sunny! The sea continues to be there till Edinburgh.
I was making my plans for making up my loss in the morning. The journey was worth spending that money, but still I need some more to make sure it happened for good. So decided to change my plan. I will start the return journey by Sunday evening, will take train at 5:30 and will be back in London by 10:20. That will save me one day's rent in B&B (Bed & Breakfast). Also, I will be fresh to be back in office after a good sleep than peeping in after a long journey in the middle of the day. The balance sheet matches with the saving in B&B itself will be 30 pound and for the rest 16, I got a memorable journey and with a good sunny day, I can write it off as a bad debt!
The train reached Edinburgh in time. I landed in Edinburgh, no idea what it looks like, how the people will be, where to stay..... the list of issues are still in front of me. All I had was a list of places to be visited, taken from net and some hotels listed in net. The weather forecast report taken from net was positive with sunny days, but may be the temperature will drop to negatives at night. But no snow was predicted.
With all those issues in front of me, I will stop for this week.
Onward trip : 28-Feb-2004, Saturday ; 5:55 AM from London Kings X (read as Kings Cross)
Return trip : 01-Mar-2004, Sunday ; 9AM arriving from Edinburgh Waverly
So the plan was to reach the city by 11 and then, finish the visits and stay there for the night( as there was no night trains)
You notice something wrong with the plan? Unfortunately, I didn't. I didn't see that March 1st is Monday and this year Feb. has 29! I realised it on Thursday night! Got a permission from the office comfortably to come late to office on Monday. The problem now is that, I am already lost. I have two choices: Either to cancel the reservations and change the plan, or stay there for two nights instead of one. Anyway I will loose money! If I cancel, I have to pay almost the same amount extra! That is the rule with railways here.
But my sleep took care of making the choice! I slept till 5 and literally ran to get hold of all the buses and tubes I could get, to catch the train. But tubes behave funny on weekends. They cut down the service, close stations, and all that sort of funny things happens! So not to tell more, I missed the train and it was 6:15 by the time I reach the station! I went to the reservation counter to ask what next. The clerk advised me that I can carry on with the journey paying 46 pounds more! So I ended up paying 46 pounds extra for over the original 53 pounds! The only advantage was, I can go in any train and come back in any train. The start was not good, not good at all!
6:45AM: The train for Glasgow via Edinburgh starts with me in coach F, in a left side seat with no one in my aisle seat( till the end of the journey). There is no crowd as usual. The reservation only saves you money, it has nothing to do with availability during these times. This train is supposed to be faster than the one I missed and is expected to reach my destination by 11:33, calling at Peterborough, Durham, York, Newcastle, Berwick-Upon-Tweed etc.( 'calling at' means 'stopping at'). Nearly an hour after the journey started, I could see snowflakes on the way and it starts increasing and when we reached Newcastle, it was some 5-6 inches of snow! The journey has started badly, and now snow is going to complete the episode! But from inside the train, it is a dream scenery with both sides full of snow and snowfall still continuing! You could see all in black and white( because roads are still black and all the rest is white :) ) !
To my surprise, the snow started decreasing and by the time I reached Berwick-upon-Tweed, it was a new Earth and new Sky! I have North sea on my right, and road with meadows and rocks in between the rail and the sea, it was another phase of the beautiful journey, and the sky is clear and it is sunny! The sea continues to be there till Edinburgh.
I was making my plans for making up my loss in the morning. The journey was worth spending that money, but still I need some more to make sure it happened for good. So decided to change my plan. I will start the return journey by Sunday evening, will take train at 5:30 and will be back in London by 10:20. That will save me one day's rent in B&B (Bed & Breakfast). Also, I will be fresh to be back in office after a good sleep than peeping in after a long journey in the middle of the day. The balance sheet matches with the saving in B&B itself will be 30 pound and for the rest 16, I got a memorable journey and with a good sunny day, I can write it off as a bad debt!
The train reached Edinburgh in time. I landed in Edinburgh, no idea what it looks like, how the people will be, where to stay..... the list of issues are still in front of me. All I had was a list of places to be visited, taken from net and some hotels listed in net. The weather forecast report taken from net was positive with sunny days, but may be the temperature will drop to negatives at night. But no snow was predicted.
With all those issues in front of me, I will stop for this week.