What the Fog!

There is nothing like an early morning train ride with luggage on the tube to get you into the mood. After saying our farewells to Kim, we headed into London before making the quick across town ride on first the Northern line and then the Victoria line to get to Kings Cross. Once at this station it was onto the train for Edinburgh. Five hours later after travelling the east coast of the UK we reached our second capital city of the day. It was a beautiful day made all the better because Pam and Michael (Mum’s brother) met us at the station. After dumping our luggage it was time to take in a German Christmas Market in the heart of the city. It may have been cold but Edinburgh do cold well. There was plenty to eat and in this environment who could resist some Haggis. Apparently everyone but me, so this is another delicacy I’ve braved alone. I may have conquered my own fear factor, but Maddy had her eyes on a bigger challenge. The Edinburgh Wheel. Unlike the London Eye this is not a permanent feature of the cities skyline. This one appears for Christmas and it was not as stable as the London Eye either. Undeterred by the lack of interest from Joseph, her Mum and myself, Maddy bought her ticket and waited to board the pod. At this point Prue and I became guilty about our poor parenting sending this poor girl up by herself, so after rummaging through our pockets to find the four pounds I joined Maddy just as the pod was ready to leave. The views were wonderful, but the weather was freezing. While up high we also discovered the wonderful feature inside the pod called a steering wheel. On a ferris wheel there should be nowhere to go except round and this was the case. So we big smiles we got a horizontal spin going as the wheel took us around vertically. The attendants not wanting to be left out spun us even more every time we passed by causing great joy for both Maddy and myself. As darkness descended on Edinburgh we decided it was time to head home (4 pm). Once at the Travelodge we were greeted by the biggest hotel room we’d ever seen.

The next morning we were greeted by the foggiest day we’d ever seen. We also had foggy heads as Maddy had been unwell overnight so we made a slow start to the day. Little did we realise at this time that we had experience our final clear view of Edinburgh. In fact the only way we beat the fog was to head to Dunbar to Pam and Michael’s for lunch. We spent an enjoyable afternoon at their house and finally after five months we had cottage pie (my fav meal). Back to Edinburgh we headed and then the next day (foggy again) it was off cross country to Prestwick. Nobody travels to Prestwick without the intention of leaving and we were no different. The next day we were flying out for Faro, but first we spent a pleasant night at the Muirhouse Lodge in Monkton. An old homestead style hotel and at a fraction of the cost of the more known chains we had a wonderful night, although the 4.30am wake up for the trip to the airport put a dampener on proceedings. Just one more note about Scotland, it’s cold! -3.5 as we drove to the airport. Hopefully there is some heat around the corner.