A Weekend in Edinburgh

I was unsure whether to write this post as this trip did not turn out the way it was supposed to, but I might as well be honest. I booked it back in July when my sister agreed to come with me. The main thing I wanted to do was see the Edinburgh Royal Botanic Garden Christmas light trail, and Jess wanted to see the Christmas market and the other highlights of this lovely city. We made it a long weekend to give us time to see everything and I booked an AirBnB that wasn't ridiculously expensive, the Chrismtas lights tickets and gave a deposit on dinner at The Dome. I then also splashed out on a ticket for myself on the Alpine Coaster - a new attraction on the outskirts of Edinburgh.

Sadly a week before we were due to go Jess realized she wasn't well enough to make the trip and pulled out. I was determined to go anyway seeing as it had been on my to do list for over a year. I offered to take my parents all expenses paid but they were busy. Then I appealed to the girls and Amber said she could make it - yippee! So, I was looking forward to some mum/daughter time doing something nice and festive. But this was not to be either. She had double booked herself twice over - she was meeting an old friend on Saturday and seeing my parents on Sunday, so I said don't worry.

Suddenly I didn't have the energy for it, plus I'm aware that Lucy the cat is beginning to ail through old age so I worry about leaving her. But, it was too late to cancel now and I was £5

00 down. So, I put my big girl pants on and set off on Saturday morning for the city. The drive was, as usual, a time to reflect on how sad I am to be going anywhere alone and so I was already on the back foot and struggling to find any joy in the trip.

The Alpine Coaster is pretty cool. For about £20 you get three goes around. The cart is on rails and has automatic brakes, although you can slow down using the breaks if you're a sissy - yes, I used the brakes everytime (just a little)! It's just under a kilometre in length, including the ascent pulley and gets up to 28mph so it does blow your hair back.

Next stop was Colinton tunnel. A beautiful display of organised graffiti work by many different groups, and it's really beautifully done. Well lit and busy, it was a delight to walk through and see the hard work of the artists. The Colinton Tunnel was part of the Caledonian Railway Company's Balerno Branch Line, which opened in 1874 to serve the communities and water-powered mills along the Water of Leith. It had a specially-designed railway engine known as the Balerno Pug which was very short and powerful. Passenger services stopped in 1943 because bus and tram services had been established. Freight services continued until 4th December 1967, when the line closed. The mural project was conceived in 2016 and completed in 2020 by local artists. All of the people painted in the mural are real locals. The mural features Robert Louis Stevenson's poem 'From a Train Carriage' along one side and painted scenes from the poem on the other side. RLS spent much of his childhood in Colinton so it seems fitting.

From there I made my way into the city centre and found a car park a mile from the Christmas market and walked along part of the Royal Mile to get there. I called in at The Chocolatarium on the way to see if they had anything interesting in the gift shop. I bought two small bars, of which the creme brulee flavour was lovely but the lemon and cardamom tasted of neither lemon nor cardamom, or even chocolate come to think of it!

Next was the Museum of Childhood which was free to enter and really cool. Many core memories were unlocked as I wandered round. I'm starting to think that there just weren't that many toys to choose from back in the day. We didn't have a lot of things, but we did seem to have lots of what was on display in the museum (and reels I've seen on social media). There were Fisher Price toys, Barbie's whose outfits were very familiar and a book called Strewwelpeter which I only recognised becasue the picture on the cover is of a boy with wild hair and really long pointy finger nails. I had to Google that later as I had no memory of the book itself, but it's hard to forget such a creepy image. A book of stories for children aged 3-6 which includes one about a boy who has his thumbs cut off by a roving tailor to stop him sucking them. All the other short stories are in a similar vain - disturbing!

When I came out it had begun to drizzle and the wind was getting up. It was only a short walk from there to the Christmas market, and this is where the disillusionment really set in. It was quite small with about a 50/50 split between food and retail, plus the big wheel and swing chair ride and, whilst it wasn't crowded, I was continually knocked and bumped by people. I had a nice box of salt and chilli chicken and chips but because you're eating outdoors it goes cold very quickly whilst trying to navigate the hair whipping my face . The atmosphere was nice but I wasn't there to buy and window shopping was not very fulfilling. On the way back to the car my back started to hurt and I tried two shortcuts only to find it made the walk even longer. At least the car park only cost me £13.50...

I got to the AirBnB at about 5.30pm and the place was bloody freezing! 13.5 degrees to be exact. I turned the heating up and waited. I closed all window coverings and waited some more. I retrieved my Dryrobe from the car and sat swaddled in that until it finally reached the required 20 degrees at 10.30pm. I was tired and bored and my back was still hurting so I went to bed early.

The next day I had nothing really planned and no desire to go back into town straight away so I headed out to see the Kelpies - something I had wanted to do since they were erected in 2013. It was an hour each way but it passed the time. Kelpies are shape shifting creatures that lure people to their deaths in water. But, they were chosen to represent the lineage of the heavy horse of Scottish industry and economy, pulling the wagons, ploughs, barges, and coalships that shaped the geographical layout of the Falkirk area. Apart from that the sculptures stand 30m high (or 98ft for boomers!) In the first year nearly a million people visited the sculptures!

I had booked 5pm tickets for the Christmas lights at Royal Botanic Garden and I still had time to kill, so I parked the car on the north-western edge of the city and caught the bus into the centre to get lunch at Tattu. It was far cheaper than a car park, involved less walking, the bus route included the restaurant and the gardens AND meant the car was on the right side of town for a more timely getaway at the end of the day. Having done everything I wanted to do I could go home early, where I feel less alone.

Lunch at Tattu was as good as I expected, including a bubbling cocktail and an amazing candy floss, chocolate and cherry dessert involving dry ice and little popping balls of fruity liquid. Half way through dessert I got a text to say the Christmas lights event was cancelled due to the high winds, which just rounded the weekend off perfectly. I paid for my totally unnecessary £80 lunch and got the totally unnecessary bus back to the car and drove home.

The cats were pleased to see me which made me feel instantly better. And then one of John's old colleagues sent me a beautiful photo of John from 6 years ago, big grin on his face, and it completely undid me - proper sobbing. Lucy is very emotionally intelligent and she stood on my lap putting her paw on my arm, purring and nuzzling my face. Then mum and dad called, which was good timing.

And now you'll have to excuse me while I go and curl up in a little ball and feel EXTRA sorry for myself tonight.