Europe 2019 : Day 16 A Short Hop to Edinburgh

Saturday 24th August

We had an early flight to Edinburgh in the morning so it was up at 5:30 to leave by 6:30 for a car drop off at the airport at 7am. All went pretty well and we there in good time. The airline didn't seem to have any trouble with the bags being a kilo or two overweight so we were good to go.

The original intention has been to fly direct from Belfast to Reykjavik on the Saturday in order to spend an extra day in Iceland before our tour started, but we couldn't find any direct flights that day. That left us with an EasyJet flight to Edinburgh and then a WOW Airlines flight to Reykjavik after a few hours lay-over. All went as expected with the booking, until we received an email a few months later informing us that WOW had gone into receivership and that our flight from Edinburgh no longer existed. First time that had ever happened to us.

We decided pretty quickly that our best bet was to stay the night in Edinburgh and then move on to Iceland on the Sunday. That had two bonuses, we got a chance to have a look around Edinburgh for the first time since 1987, and we might also get to meet up with some old friends who now lived there. Flights booked, dinner arranged and all seemed well.

Then, about three weeks before we were due to take off on the first leg of this jaunt, I was looking through the documentation for the various parts of our holiday and couldn't seem to find anything about our flight from Belfast to Edinburgh, except for the original booking. So I checked with the online booking agency I had used. No, no flight. When the second leg of the flight had been cancelled the whole booking went as well. A quick check for the Saturday in question found the original flight still available. And I think it was cheaper.

We had another early morning flight to Iceland on the Sunday so had picked an airport hotel for our Saturday night stay. But it was Edinburgh Festival time, a Bank Holiday weekend in the UK, and the Saturday night to boot. It wasn't cheap.

Nor, as we found out when we arrived the next morning, exactly across the street from the airport. Five hundred meters of dragging the suitcases later we had deposited our bags with the intention of checking in when we got back later that evening.

Edinburgh streets

Edinburgh was a jumping place that day. Apart from the Festival there was an international Rugby Union Test Match being played in the city between Scotland and France. And the centre of the city was heaving with people. The footpaths were packed and buses were causing traffic jams in the narrow streets..

J. K. Rowling's cafe

First stop was the Elephant House where J. K. Rowling had written the first of the Harry Potter novels. It wasn't a major point of interest for me though Rob wanted to see it, probably to make our daughter Catherine jealous. After that we just wandered around, not really heading anywhere in particular until I stopped outside a whisky store. The offerings in the window looked interesting so I thought I'd take a photo of it and send it to Julian. And just as I taking the photo my phone pinged and there was a text message from the same Julian asking us where we were. Seems he had been tracking us by my posts on Facebook and as he and Lucy were also in the city we arranged to meet up.

The Whisky Shop

Karaoke flash crowds

A few drinks later we took our leave and headed off in the direction of The “Oxford” Bar – the bar that features in the Ian Rankin John Rebus novels. It was a rather long walk and the bar was rather smaller than I had thought. Really small.

Robyn outside the Oxford

We couldn't hang around long as Robyn had booked us in on walking tours: me on a whisky tour, which was okay; and her on an Underground Edinburgh tour which she said was great. And then it was dinner and a few more bevvies with Malcolm and Morag. I'd worked with Malcom in Melbourne back in 1989, just before we left to go live in London. He had also decided to work in London and arrived there a month before us. He later shared our Maida Vale flat for a few months before he hooked with Morag and later moved to Edinburgh in around 1995. They have been there ever since and have no intention of moving anywhere.

Morag, Malcolm, Perry and Robyn

It had been a very long day by the time we got back to the hotel around 10:30. And it was to be another early morning flight the next day, and more tense times.