Early start again this morning, and after another waffle and English standard breakfast we got a bus to the city and then a short walk to Lime street. As were on our way Vern said to me ‘look where we’ are and it dawned on me that we were on the street that Erlymore road goes off. I wiped condensation off the window and there within seconds we passed her. I was gutted that I didn’t have my camera out but lived in the moment with a rush of excitement and said a silent ‘hello Grandma’. I felt a lovely peaceful hello back and smiling the rest of the journey passed quickly with feelings of belonging and a fond goodbye to Liverpool.
Leaving Lime street was a bit of a relief as in large public areas like this the security is tight and you can feel a sense of on guard or nervousness. Perhaps this is my own, as I figure London twice, Manchester once – Liverpool could well be next? Our mainly express northern line required a change at Wigam North West and about a 20 minute lay over. It is an older small station with a tiny lounge offering free wifi, and spotless fragrant toilets which are always appreciated. We had first class tickets with allocated seats for the balance of the journey and were on a facing seat to another couple who Vern quickly started a conversation with. I tried to be polite but took the opportunity to catch up on blogging. They were a Scottish couple over similar age and he worked on an oil rig. They had just come back from Jamaica and had boarded at Manchester, entering about 23 hours of being awake. Don’t I know that feeling! Unfortunately the view was obscured most of the way being rainy and about 13 degrees! What I did manage to see as I glanced up from my keyboard was pretty green land, canals, some locks and in particular when we passed through Cumbria region the rolling hills and farmland were very scenic.
Waverly station is right in the centre of Edinburgh city in what was once an old river bed. You have the imposing medieval grey stone city proclaiming her proud Scottish independence and heritage on a hill to one side and monuments and grand city buildings on the other – dating 1800’s onwards. Despite the rain and the cold – it is still a spectacular sight and feeling standing in Edinburgh. In some ways I think the weather adds to the whole Scottish feel and the heartiness of the people. We put our mac’s on and popped the umbrella and made our way a short distance to an upmarket department store the cold causing condensation to precede us from under our hoods like dragons breathing smoke. Last time we were here we had a delicious toasted haggis sandwhich with cheese and relish and we were looking forward to that to warm us up before our drive to Pitlochry. We were so disappointed to find that they did not have it this time, so settled for cold baked salmon open sandwich with dill, lemon, cucumber and cream cheese and Vern had egg salad and cress.
Our car rental pick up was a couple of km away so it was not really possible to walk in the weather with our bags that far, so we got a taxi from back across the road by the station and were there cheaply and in no time. We got another Peugeot – booked from NZ this time and put the GPS to work to navigate us out of the city. Boy oh boy, from this side – which was the opposite to the side we stayed on last time, it took about 35 minutes to get out of city. It was crazy busy, being around 3pm and despite the side of the road being familiar, they have some scary roundabouts in the city with unfamiliar rules. Never mind, smile and wave is a good response to toots.
Once you hit the bridge north over the Firth of Forth the A90 is a good road ranging from one to two lane motorway. There are a few changes but its an easy 1.5hrs north of Edinburgh to Pitlochry usually. We hit a few slow downs due to road maintenance, but the traffic coming inwards on the other side had some huge bank ups – looked like Auckland roads!
We are staying in a lovely Victorian guesthouse (1800-1900s) with award winning gardens right on the edge of the main shopping street. Graeme our host is warm and humorous and made us feel very welcome with his easy yet professional manner. We love guest houses or small owner operated hotels for the genuine service and local aspect. Graeme gave us a couple of recommendations for dinner, the first being an easy 3 minute walk down the road to ‘The Aule Smitty’ a converted blacksmiths building dating around 1800’s. There was still a light rain but that made it all the more romantic and olde world feel on entering the dimly lit cosy traditional pub – eatery. It had lovely chunky wooden furniture and white washed walls lined with historical photos and tasteful accents of Scottish patterned fabrics and nic-nacs. The staff were very friendly and we were soon settled in with a nice tap Scottish stout and ‘red’ beer; both nice and smooth. The best was yet to come as we saw the size and quality of the meals that were being brought out. We chose to share an entree of house made hot scotch egg encased in a sausage and black pudding meat, and served with hollandaise style sauce with capers. It was delicious. Vern then had a mother of a burger which included a big slab of house made black haggis (like a cross between black pudding and haggis) and ginormous onion rings and the fattest hand cut chips I have ever seen. I had slow cooked pork belly with mustard gravy and black pudding potato mash. We ordered a side of veges as we are missing them, and got a generous serve of slightly over cooked but still nice mixed fresh carrots, cabbage, beans, courgettes, snow peas and broccoli.
We really did not need the entree as well – as we could not finish the meal … and that is saying something! Never mind, I would not have missed the scotch egg for anything – it may have been a humble food but it was Michelin Star quality. The beer must have had a good kick or maybe it was the cosy heating and atmosphere and full bellies but we were in a liquid relaxed mode as we waddled home in the northern summer evening which doesn’t get dark till about midnight. The rain had lifted with a promise of better weather tomorrow. Ah well, this is Scotland – and liquid sunshine is to be expected all year round however, temperatures of 12-13 degrees is hard for me to reconcile that it is Summer!
Travels with Valrock 