Bastille Day revisited

Oops. Forgot that we were in the right place at the right time. Apparently videos don't work in blogger.

Driving in Scotland

It's always the most stressful day of the holiday when I pick up the car. I drive in Sydney, so I really should have nothing to worry about.

We picked up the VW Golf a bit after 10am, did a tetris with the luggage and headed out with Jeremy to Cramond Beach and South Queensferry,

before heading back to Edinburgh to drop him off, before heading north to Inverness. I only stalled once when I forgot I was driving a manual and not an automatic. We did manage to get an upgrade so we have a gps. The female voice is so polite and asks me to "please take the second exit".

The only food on the way was Maccas, which was quite sad, as was my choice of the McPlant. 

Next stop was a green lake (or loch), apparently that colour due to pixies washing their clothes in it. There was a walk involved, but on this holiday,  there always is. On the way back we stumbled upon a tree that had a face in it.  Possibly a left over from one of the Lord of the Rings trees. Please see the picture below. Now I'm being polite.

The weather has finally started turning into what I packed for, so over the next week, all of the long sleeved shirts will be worn, just because I packed them. Dinner was at the Waterfront with the best gravy ever. The meat and Yorkshire pudding were notbthe heroes, but they were very good. 

Sunset on Leith

By the end of the day I think I had walked 500 miles and then walked another 500 more.

So good to get to sleep in, but I guess we needed it.

To the Edinburgh Castle we walked. While my front path at home is falling apart, they somehow built this castle on an old volcano. Three hours of walking, seeing the 1pm cannon get fired and we were off to lunch. 

 Maccas was too full so KFC it had to be. 

That gave us enough time to make our way up the stairs we had run up on our first day.123 of them. 

We arrived to our 2.30pm St Giles Church tour on time and I still can't figure out the politics and religious stuff that's been going on forever.

No holiday should be without a trip to a second hand cd store. Did they have what I was looking for? Did I buy cds that I really didn't need? Of course. I finally made it back. We threw all our left over food together to make meatballs, and then headed off for Arthur's Seat to see sunset. Of course sunset was 9.41pm. The walk up got harder and harder as we went, but we made it, took our photos and headed back. The rocky part at the top was navigated by me on my arse as it seemed the safest way. Gravity was our friend and it was amusing watching idiot people in inappropriate footwear still going up while we descended as the sky grew slowly darker.

Home by 10.30pm was just enough time to watch Oceans 13, having watched 11 and 12 the previous night. I'm still not sure who made up the 13, but I will worry about it after holidays.

Footnote. We stayed on Leith St, and The Proclaimers had an album named Sunshine on Leith.

My body clock just quit

I had the worst sleep last night. I keep dreaming I have Covid. It doesn't get dark until 11 at night and I'm up before 6am and it's bright. I'm filling myself with coffee. If I'm awake, I might as well be really awake. I have heard rumours of a walk today. After only 17,000 steps yesterday, I am feeling guilty.

Scotland is as old as the hills. Today in Edinburgh we walked up all of those hills. First stop was Calton Hill, followed by more places I don't know the name of. I did go to the Scottish National Gallery. This is a place where they hang paintings on the wall. I know art goodly.

On our travels, we stopped at the Wittard shop and sampled pina colada hot chocolate and cookies and cream. We may have purchased 4 different flavours. We also checked out the flavoured tea. They have a shop in Wimbledon. We will be there in around 10 days.

In Scotland today, the all time hottest temperature was reached. It got to 31 degrees here with rain trying but failing to eventuate.

We then popped into TK Maxx.They sell leftover designer stuff. It was here that we met Stephen Baird. He was very Scottish, very drunk, very talkative and wanted Jeremy and Annette's views on his planned shoe purchase of Adidas runners. He wanted to wear them with shorts. They assured him they looked good. Many fist pumps later and having adopted Jeremy as his son and Annette as his mother he was on his way.......but I noticed a phone on the table. We called him back and we got to see photos of his wee daughter. He explained that wee meant small. He showed us his Facebook page, gave us more fist pumps, told us he loved Australia and was eventually on his way.

After a meal deal in the park

Annette then hit the Scottish National Portrait Gallery while we headed home to do a 10km run....but got sidetracked by The Tour for 90 minutes. 

Just as Annette arrived home, we headed out on our Portobello Beach run. It was 30 degrees. We are stupid. We did it.

We dragged our sorry legs to the shop for food, cooked dinner, and having watched Oceans 11 are now half way through Oceans 12. 

31,500 steps today. Everything hurts and I suspect more pain tomorrow. 

Why we train harder

We slept long, packed as well as we could, pigged out at breakfast,  (because we could) and made our way to the tram. All was well until we hit the city, buses pushed in, time passed and the conversation turned to how we would make it to the tour (starting at midday) on time, with the need to store our luggage the first priority. Annette and Jeremy came up with this. 

Mark and Jeremy run to the baggage drop off, estimated at 400m, then sprint back to the start of the Tour, estimated at 1km away. It has been hot in Scotland and today was no exception. We started our run at 11.47 and after the fastest bag drop ever, had 8 minutes to do the estimated 1km. It was uphill with lots and lots of stairs at the end. We arrived at the place Google maps told us, right on 12.00. It was not the right place. We looked for Annette, rang her and finally found her 150m down the road.  One last sprint and we arrived dripping in sweat and a kind employee let us in another door to start the tour. The tour of The Real Mary King's Close itself was ok, not worth the 20 pounds, but we did make it. Annette did manage to get into trouble for taking photos. Apparently the five minutes we missed if the tour contained the "no photos " info.

We ran into Riley and Tabitha outside a pub, watched a woman run down a bag snatcher, went to a second hand store and wandered over to the Museum, until it closed at 5pm. (Editor: they had a great historical fashion section)

We hadn't managed lunch and attempted to get a cheap nachos from Subway, only to be informed  that they had run out of salsa after he had opened the corn chips. I won that bet, as I predicted a nacho problem. The 20 minute wait to find this out in a boiling little shop made me sad. We needed food though, so a shared footlong sub with Pepsi and a cookie for Jeremy was still required. 

Bags collected and a 20 minute-ish walk to our AirBnB.  It looked ominous from the outside and inside the front door looked old and damp and kind of middle 18th century. Of course there were narrow stairs twisting upwards. However inside was awesome and modern. Home made pizza for dinner  after a trip to the local shop and much confusion on how to turn on the oven. We decided against the haggis in batter and purchased some actual fresh food for the first time in a week with Pepsi Max Lime (gotta love the UK).

Annette has gone to sleep with her light on and I can't be bothered turning it off. It's 11.02pm,and I think it's finally dark outside. 

Why we train hard

Let's start at the end of the day. Air France had advised us to arrive at the airport 2 hours before our 9.59pm flight. Do not arrive earlier. We printed our baggage tags at a machine, unlike a lot of other people. The woman in front of us had lined up for an hour before being told she was in the wrong line for Mexico. The guy in front of her found out 10 minutes later that the reason his tags didn't print was because his flight had already departed. Perhaps these two people out of our line would ultimately save us. After lining up forever to drop our bags, then being told that my bag was too long and would need to go in as large baggage, then being told that the tag was not working.....sigh. Bags checked in. Will we see them again? Not sure.

To passport control we went. The sign said less than 30 minutes. Our boarding time arrived. We were still in line. Woohoo, we made it through. Then our hand luggage needed to go through security. Boarding closed at 9.30pm. It was now 9.27pm I think. The sprint from gate 39 to 30 was hard. I had Annette's bag and my stuff, and I hoped she had picked up my phone from the security tray. I made it by 9.29pm and the airline staff was nice enough to ID her from 100m away. 

We were given cups of water on boarding. I think they knew.

Today I bought new shoes, ate a brioche sausage roll, had cheeseburger and chips. After 2 attempts to use a public toilet failed, as they were out of order, we finally hit the jackpot. 

I will leave the rest to Annette. We are landing in Edinburgh. I also won husband of the year by attending the antique markets again, with Annette.

Now let's go back to the beginning. 

Checkout time was 10am, when we would head to the no. 96 bus to take us to luggage storage for the day. 6 people, 8 bags and a loaded bus (my new sitcom). BO was everywhere. There was a coughing lady, and anybody trying to get off the bus had to do the obstacle course of suitcases. Somehow we managed, dumped our bags and headed off for our last day in Paris.

Here is where Annette takes over until we get from the hamburger place to the airport. Editor: Claire took us by the Notre Dame and the River Seine. 

We had a lovely walk in the Luxemburg Gardens in beautiful sunshine (not so much of the oppressive heat of this week), with lunch from a nearby bakery. 

Editor: After lunch, I had time to go back to the antique markets of the first day, with success! Two brooches purchased.

We needed food after our day and before our flight. I chose wisely, cheeseburger and fries (French Fries are better in France). Annette tried to cram in one last French crepe and it made her a bit queasy.

Jeremy called to warn us; there may be stairs, was the message. Yes indeed. Such a great underground metro with no elevators or escalators. Annette with 2 and me with 1 (my hand luggage had been packed in my luggage) managed to let gravity work for us without killing ourselves or anybody who stood in our way - or indeed sat in our way, as the longest set of stairs had people sitting on both sides from top to bottom. We got to the airport in plenty of time????,

Ok, we made it to Edinburgh. Passport was checked quickly after our bags arrived in world record time. We waited there a while for Jeremy who was on a different flight. Then Passport control closed and we went in search of Jeremy. Whether you had something to declare or not didn't matter. The staff has all bailed and gone home.

Onto the bus we went and after getting off, had a walk up the highway, through a carpark, over the grass, before arriving at the Ibis to stay in the smallest 3 share room in history..a double with a single bunk on top and enough floor space for luggage. Heads hit on bed frame equalled 2.

Up Montmartre

Started off the day with a 7km run, just in case we don't get our steps up to 25,000 today. For a change, breakfast was from the local bakery. I'm not a fan of croissants but it seems I'm in the minority. So instead, I'm  eating some sort of footlong chocolate chip pastry instead. I persist with trying to make coffee from the coffee machine that results in a brown liquid tasting nothing like coffee. Tabitha has finally trained the guy in the bakery how to make coffee that is not full of milk and lukewarm. I can't pay the equivalent of $8 for coffee. I have other things I can waste my money on.

To the Metro we went. Our weekly ticket cost around 25 Euros. We are getting our money's worth. Via train and funicular we went to Montmartre and up to Sacre Cœur....Us and a million other people.  This seems to be the Saturday thing to do. I think its Saturday. I don't know anymore. Into a massive church we went where a service was taking place. I managed to get separated from the others by an evil man with a rope cordoning off half the church, whose desire to let me pass was zero. I doubled back and found the others. 

We weaved our way through the crowds, being careful not to be robbed in this notorious pick pocket area.We finished our walk going through the seedy part if town.

Claire tour-guided us up and down hills and stairs until our walk was done.

It was then free time. I chose the wise option of watching The Tour live on TV instead of visiting fabric shops. (Editor: there were about 10 fabric shops in one area - I only managed to visit 3, however they were multi-level. I  also purchased 2 pieces of fabric) I picked up a hamburger and chips for lunch on the way. The chips were spectacular. This is the reason I came to Paris. 

Claire had booked a lovely little restaurant to celebrate me getting my Seniors card. From the moment I walked in and staff started pointing at me, I feared I was in for a Happy Birthday ambush. It came at dessert, with a giant sparkler and the singing. The dinner was spectacular. I managed to steer away from Creme Brulee and chocolate mousse and had spicy pineapple. (Editor: I had the Creme Brulee and it was divine!)

I'm not sure how my bags got unpacked and contents strewn around the room but it was time to pack up and get ready for Scotland.