A sad goodbye to our lovely Renault Scenic at Edinburgh airport
It was a very early morning - Mikeal catches up on some shuteye
Cait and Sniffly on the train to Greenwich
Our house in Combedale Road
Lauriston Place in Edinburgh, where my several greats aunt Campbell Thompson lived
Cait and Mikeal in the museum
Cait and I in the Scottish tea house
Robyn writes: A very early start to the day today! I (unfortunately) woke up at 4.30am and was not impressed by this - I dozed off and on and had really just gone back to sleep when the alarm went at quarter to 6. Blah! We were quickly all up and dressed and got ourselves organised and the flat cleaned out ready to leave by quarter to seven. The trip to the airport went well, as there wasn't much traffic at that time, and we got there at quarter past seven to return the hire car, then head over to the terminal (in Edinburgh it's so close you just walk there - not like Heathrow where they have to have a shuttle!)
Once there we weighed our bags - much to my horror, mine weighed 28 kilos! (23 is the limit for Virgin Atlantic - the nice lady at the desk said that 25 would be okay but otherwise the excess baggage would be 40 pounds! So there was a quick reshuffle of stuff into Cait's and Mikeal's bags, then a re-weigh, then a re-reshuffle until we thought it was all okay. Then we crossed our fingers and headed to the desk, where we all checked in fine. Phew! Once that was done we went up to our boarding area and soon it was time to board our Airbus A320.
We had a quick flight into Heathrow - it took just over an hour and before we knew it we were ready for landing. Once in Heathrow, we headed for the Underground, where Cait and Mikeal bought themselves Oyster Cards, then we embarked on our train trip to Greenwich, which took much longer than the flight from Edinburgh had! We had two trips on the tube, one on the DLR and the last one on the overground rail system. Thankfully our little house is only a 5 minute walk from Westcombe Park Station, so very convenient once we got here.
It's a little Victorian mid-terrace house - we have the top two floors (no back door - a bit weird!). On the ground floor is the big kitchen and living area and the top has two bedrooms and a bathroom. It's old but in quite good condition and plenty of room for us all. The kitchen especially is a great size, and it has a washing machine and a drier. It also has windows which can actually open a bit - unusual in England and very necessary today as it was HOT - 26 degrees! When we arrived, our landlady Lily was still cleaning, so we left our bags and headed off following her directions in search of lunch and food for the week.
Less than 5 minutes' walk away, we found a Nando's where we had a lovely lunch, then went next door to the Sainsbury's to get groceries for the next few days. All very convenient! We were back home by just after 3 and have had a relaxing afternoon settling in and basically lazing around, researching trains, buses etc. Lex went for a walk to check out the O2 for tomorrow's Python concert and then he and Mikeal adjourned to the hotel on the corner to test the local ales. A nice, lazy afternoon!
We've had tea (Mikeal cooked up Scottish mussels in a wine sauce for himself and Lex - they were most impressed with them. Cait and I had Sainsbury's seven pound curry meal deal) and it's been a lazy evening in front of the telly. Hopefully we'll all sleep well tonight. Being further south, it's now half past 10 and IT'S DARK. Amazing! This part of London is much noisier than our lovely quiet flats in Inverness and Edinburgh, so let's hope the locals are quiet tonight!
Monday 14th July Edinburgh
Robyn writes: A late start to the day today - Cait and Mikeal slept in until half past 9 and we all took ages to get ourselves organised! Finally, about half past ten, we made it out the door and caught the Number 10 bus into town. Once again, the Edinburgh weather played its malicious tricks on us - it was a beautifully sunny morning so we headed off in summer clothes (having sweltered in jeans etc the day before) and Cait even forgot her umbrella! Of course, by the time we were in the city it had clouded over and started raining soon after, with a cold wind blowing....
Once in the city, Cait and Mikeal went off to explore the Royal Mile while Lex and I found a post office and posted off several parcels. Then he went to walk around the city while I found Lauriston Place, where my great-great-grandfather's aunt, Campbell Thompson lived in the 1840s. A lot of it is modern buildings, but there are still a lot of the beautiful old sandstone houses left.
After that, I met up with Cait and Mikeal at the Museum of Scotland - it was half past one so we decided to look for some lunch first - we had a lovely lunch special (2 courses for ten pounds) at "The Cellar Door", a Scottish restaurant around the corner from the museum. We all had Cranachan, a traditional Scottish dessert with raspberries, cream, whiskey and rolled oats - strangely addictive but a bit weird...rather like an alcoholic Bircher muesli, if the truth be told!
Then we headed back to the museum and had an enjoyable time checking out the Scottish history section - it was a wonderful display and we didn't have nearly enough time to do it all justice, but by 4 we thought we'd better head back to the city centre to find Lex. He had been in the Art Gallery so I went to look for him there and enjoyed a short wander through - they have some amazing paintings and again I wished I'd had more time. Then Lex rang to say they were all across the street at a cafe there, so we had an enjoyable cuppa before heading back to the bus stop (in the rain) to wait (a longish wait this time) for our bus. Finally it came and we were home around 5.30.
Cait and I ventured out to Asda in search of plastic bags to put clean washing in (we'd had a busy time washing everything they owned over the last few days - bed bugs are horrid little things that can be transported in luggage, so we've frantically done everything we could to ensure that none travel with Cait or Mikeal!) then it was home to cook tea and PACK. This took several hours, as usual, but by 11 we were done and ready to collapse! Tomorrow, London!
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