Edinburgh Dispatches: Kildonan, Longniddry and meals

Greetings from Edinburgh.  Sylvia and I arrived a few days ago and have enjoyed seeing the familiar sights of the city where I have lived and made many visits.  Our days have been fairly quiet with some catching up with old faces and enjoying the Scottish food.  Here are a few photos and reflections.

 

Loved being greeted by an Irn Bru vending machine at the airport and then driven to our accommodation at Kildonan Lodge Hotel by a local taxi driver who told us Edinburgh is the city of road works!  Felt like nothing had changed.

Our room wasn't ready upon our morning arrival so we walked down to Cameron Toll to get our essentials: a cheese and onion pastie from Greggs, new frames for Sylvia's glasses (after they snapped during our flights), a 30 day sim card (was impressed O2 sold us 7GB and European roaming for 10 pounds - much cheaper than an e-sim), and then shopping in Sainsburys supermarket.  At Sainsburys we got a new coat, haggis crisps, branston baked beans and muellers corners.  It is always fun to look around foreign supermarkets.  There was so much I would have loved to have bought such as these packets of Christmas Pudding flavoured crisps.

Then back to our hotel to check in to our (petit) four poster bedroom.  We were so tired that we were asleep about 6pm and didn't mind sharing the bed.  It is a rather impressive bed after all.  A few days on we are still feeling a bit combobulated after travelling for about 29 hours plus time at five airports.  I usually am quite a night owl but am still going to bed ridiculously early and waking hours before sunrise.

On my first morning I woke at about 5am and had baked beans and a bread roll for breakfast.  A few hours later on the way to Edinburgh Waverley train Station, I stopped for a very nice cauliflower cheese and broccoli pastie from Mor Bakehouse.  It kept me going.

I walked down Cockburn Street and Fleshmarket Close to the station.  There are many familiar shops and cafes and some new ones.  It seems since my last visit that there has been a proliferation of pretty cafes decorated with artificial flowers.  I was particularly impressed by the facade of Arcade haggis and whiskey house on Cockburn Street.  I could not see vegan haggis on the menu in the window but a website says they have it.

On to the train station.  The ticket office at Waverley is reached through a spectacular waiting room.  It really is a beautiful train station and I loved all the quote from Walter Scott who wrote the novel Waverley..  According to the signs, it is the only train station in the world to be named after a novel.

 

We haven't seen much of the iconic Edinburgh Castle, other than as a hulking shadow looming over Princes Street.  I really liked the castle photo with this flower display at Marks and Spencer Food in Waverley Station.

I took the train to Longniddry to visit friends Clare and Martin.  They very kindly made me a vegetable and lentil soup. served with huge cheese scones.  It was lovely to catch up with them on the covid years, health and family.  I always love chatting to them about politics in our respective countries: Boris, Rishi, Scomo, Albo, Robodebt, the British Post Office scandal, and Palestine, among other things.

We had time for a quick walk at Longniddry beach.  They advised I steer clear of the dead bird on the path in case of Avian Flu, and the told me about how they had to ring the police when they found a dead body on the beach recently.  That is a change from stories of sharks and rips on Australian beaches.

In the evening we walked up the High Street to Makar's Mash Bar for haggis neeps and tatties.  More on that later!  I was quite shocked at the unsightly barriers on the High Street section of Royal Mile.  It is such a beautiful street that it does not deserve this.  Others are also unhappy about these barriers.  Apparently they are there to prevent terrorist attacks of driving vehicles into crowds.

I was even less forgiving of the shabbiness of these iconic red telephone boxes on the High Street.  They have always been so clean and great for photos.  But they are now covered in stickers and look like they have seen better times.  The North Bridge is also covered in scaffolding but at least the repairs are necessary.  

However it is still such a beautiful city.  The top photo (by Sylvia) of the Scott Memorial and the Old Town shows how lovely it can be.

Yesterday we had a quiet day with a cuppa at Costa Coffee in Cameron Toll with Sylvia's aunt and exchanged late Christmas gifts.  It was great to see HH.  Less great for Sylvia to leave her phone in the black cab but the driver was a gentleman who returned it within 15 minutes.

 

Later in the day we went to Marks and Spencer where we had a late lunch.  I had mac and cheese and Sylvia had a baked bean jacket potato with rainbow slaw.  I also enjoyed a warming pot of berry tea and Sylvia had apple juice.  While we have unfamiliar cities ahead of us, it is very comforting to visit some familiar places in Edinburgh.

We are up early this morning thanks to our jetlag.  I spent a bit of time in the charming lounge at the Kildonan before breakfast.  The furniture is slightly different to our last visit but still feels like stepping into another world where people have more time and money than us.

And here is our breakfast at the Kildonan.  Unlike last time, we had to order it the night before.  There was a misunderstanding and we got our order wrong but it was fixed with a smile (a genuine one - not a Basil Fawlty smile) this morning.  Sylvia had 2 poached eggs, beans, mushrooms, tomato and tatiie scone with toast.  I had some fruit salad with small pancakes drizzled in what was called maple syrup on the order form but seemed more like golden syrup.  We were the only guests in the breakfast room who were foreigners.  It felt very British with the woman at the next table asking for marmalade for her toast.  It is good to be back!