The getting there

Wednesday October 29th 

No one said first class is promised good sleep, I suppose.  Let’s just say I’m not a Virgin fan.  I’d like to say I got no sleep, as that is how it feels right about now, but it also seemed like the flight went by much faster than the 6 hours it turned out to be.  But my Garmin tells me “no discernible sleep” for last night and I have a body battery of 7.  So Virgin has some ‘splaining to do.

I won’t belabor it, as much as that is not like me.  But I told the flight attendant I wanted to sleep.  No meals. No drinks. I laid down the mattress, pulled up the blanket and went horizontal the minute we were at 10,000 feet.  Because the flight was so short (50 minutes shorter than usual) I wanted to hit it hard.  I had no alcohol so I could sleep.  And yet, it did not happen.  Woken once for a meal I didn’t want, again when the sliding door on the pod across from me was stuck shut and they brought the construction team in to loudly deconstruct the whole thing, and again for a breakfast I said I didn’t want.  And it was bumpy pretty much of the fight, so constant ding-dinging of the bell.  So yeah, I was not pleased.  I’m hoping there’s a customer survey at the end of this somewhere.

I then had a 3 1/2 hour layover in Heathrow, and even having to change terminals didn’t eat up that much time at all.  I stopped and had breakfast at the Giraffe Bar in terminal 3; the best avocado toast of my life with poached eggs and iced coffee.  A full flight to Edinburgh loaded fairly quickly and it was 55 minutes in the air.  We landed in full sun and blue skies and it managed to stay that way most of the afternoon.

Since I was hauling a 30 pound duffel, I opted to skip the far less expensive public transport and grabbed a taxi to the tune of $60 (which is really a bargain since my Ubers to Peloton in NYC are regularly over $100!) and I arrived at Apex Grassmarket Hotel by 1:15.  A quick shower and I was out walking the streets by 2:00.

I splurged on a castle view room here and it lives up to its name, with a full on view of Edinburgh Castle right from the bed.  That’s pretty nice.  The Vennel, a steep staircase up from Grassmarket, is right around the corner from the hotel.  It has an Instagram-worthy view of the castle from the top of the steps, so I headed there first while the sun and sky were still behaving.  I then looped back through Grassmarket (down those Vennel steps) and up another very long set up steps to the Royal Mile.  It runs from the castle down to Holyrood Palace.  I popped up to see the castle then walked about 3/4 of the Royal Mile, realizing the further down I went, the more of an uphill slog I’d have on the return.

My next stop was Greggs for the vegan sausage rolls.  My sister turned me on to these ahead of my trip to Brighton last year.  They are essentially pigs in a blanket.  And ridiculously good and ridiculously cheap.  Two vegan sausage rolls and a water was less than 5 pounds.  I then meandered around a bit more, stopping into a bunch of wool/cashmere shops for a scarf (I never decided on one) and LO AND BEHOLD A GIN SHOP!

Yes, I stopped, and yes I got samples.  They are all locally produced so I’ve never had them before.  The owner was willing to keep pouring me samples as long as I stood there.  With jet lag and only two sausage rolls in me since breakfast, I went easy but have earmarked two I’d like to take home if my duffel allows on the back end of this trip.

By 4:00 the skies were growing thick and heavy with clouds and it was getting much colder (I’d estimate it started around 50 but was definitely in the lower 40s and windy once the sun went behind the clouds).  So I headed back towards the hotel.  I finally found an ATM (very hard to find now that almost everything is paid for with card or Apple Pay!) and returned to my room in time to take some photos of the castle at sunset.  My plan is to get up to the Vennel for sunrise tomorrow if the clouds allow for it.

I was trying to stay awake as long as I could, so rather than be tempted by a nap too early in the room, I went downstairs to have a G&T (Edinburgh Raspberry gin) in the hotel lobby bar while I pondered what to have for dinner.

Dinner ended up being in the restaurant at the hotel and it was quite good. I had fish and chips and sticky toffee pudding right in the shadow of the castle.  I also had a Rubi spritz, which was rhubarb and ginger gin with ginger ale and prosecco.  I could have that a few more times!

I got back up to my room and the castle was floodlit now that it was dark (sunset at 4:40!) so I set up my tripod and remote control and took some night shots of the castle.  Might as well make use of the location!

I dozed for a while and woke just before midnight so am flipping through tv and have found a “Safari Live” show and they are in the Mara on game drives and have found one of Nashipae’s daughters Nasieku, and they seem to think she is pregnant!  I’m so excited to see her. Small world…I guess I can try to get away from safari but it’s never far from mind!