Calton Hill

Today I walked up Calton Hill. It's a steep hill with multiple walking paths to the top, which sits just to the side of the Edinburgh city centre. Not unlike Mount Victoria in Wellington, except it's not quite as high.

The hill is mostly grass covered, with paths to multiple lookouts across various parts of the city.

Looking north, over where we live, to Leith and the Firth of Forth...


Looking south, over Arthur's Seat (the big hill), and the lower end of Royal Mile...


Looking west, over towards Princes Street and Edinburgh Castle...



Calton Hill seems to have become a "dumping ground" for various monuments during the early 1800's, to various famous people and events. They're scattered somewhat randomly across the hill, seemingly with little planning. It's interesting all the same, if a little bewildering.

It's worth a walk up the hill the the views, and to see up close the monuments that are usually seen from afar. The walk up is steep, but short and doesn't take long.

National Monument (1822) which was never completed...


Dugald Stewart Monument (1831)...


Nelson's Monument (1805)...

Berwick Upon Tweed

Today we visited Berwick Upon Tweed. It’s an hour from Edinburgh by train, on the East Coast.

I first saw the town when I caught the train to London last year. It was early morning, the sun was just rising over the town, and I saw a photo worthy of a postcard that became etched in my mind. The town is right next to the sea, and has a river with a wide mouth, which is spanned by three bridges. I’ve wanted to visit ever since.

Berwick Upon Tweed is in England, just across the border, although over the centuries the border has moved back-and-forth many times. Are we actually in England or not? The people here have a Scottish accent, the butchers sell haggis, and it’s the first place I’ve been in England where people have accepted Scottish bank notes without screwing their face up or questioning its validity (although with the recently announced record RBS & HBOS losses, who can blame them?). Anyway, I digress.


The town is small, and full of old people. And there’s not really much happening. The town markets were on, but there wasn’t too much on offer, but we did buy a few cheap hats (as I’ve got into a habit of leaving my hat on the bus never to be seen again).

Oh and of course I must not forget to mention that Helen purchased three Lilliput Lane models that were on special at a local shop.


Berwick Upon Tweed has a town wall, a little like York, but not as impressive. We walked almost all of it within an hour. And of course we walked over the bridges which really do add character to the town.




Helen won’t quite admit it yet, but she’s becoming a trainspotter :-) She can tell you what company a train belongs to, and possibly where it’s going or where it’s been. She knows every carriage has a number (did you know that?) And she actually mixes with fellow trainspotters at railway stations! So she enjoyed watching the trains crossing the rail bridge quite regularly.


In the end though, there wasn’t that much to do in this cute but quiet little town, and it was very cold, so we visited a local pub for lunch then caught the train back to Edinburgh mid afternoon.

It's snowing

Well has some of you may have heard already, it is Snowing big time here in the UK. For me it was really the first time I got to see it pretty heavy. Mike's work seems to get a lot more snow that where I work, but not today.

Andrew had blown our snow man up again from our Christmas decorations, we thought it was pretty fitting.

At lunch time I managed to get some really good shots from the building windows







By the time Mike and I got home from work it was rather too late to by making our own snowman. We are hoping that it will snow like this over the coming weekends.

London Day Seven

The cold weather that was forecast hit the UK today as predicted. Well done weatherman! We caught the train out to Hampton Court Palace to get away from the London crowds and see some history. It was freezing cold, literally, with light snow falling occasionally throughout the day.




Hampton Court is amazing, and I can’t help but compare to Château de Versailles in France. Although not as opulent, it is still equally impressive and made for an interesting and enjoyable day. Unfortunately I was told off for taking photographs inside the most impressive sections, so enjoy the couple I did get…



We braved the cold to walk through some of the gardens, which are groomed immaculately.






We found our way to the middle of the hedge maze. It didn’t look that big, but once inside it’s easy to get lost.


By mid afternoon we had to make our way to the hotel to collect our luggage, then off to Luton airport for the return home. This was a long journey, and our flight was delayed due to snow and ice as the conditions worsened. We made it home late, touching down in Edinburgh about 11pm.

We did well though, leaving just in time, as the following day the whole of Britian was snowed in, and all flights in and out of all London airports were grounded.

We have reached the conclusion that a 5 hour train ride from the centre of Edinburgh to the centre of London, is quicker than a “one hour” flight, which actually consists of the total time of airport shuttle, checking in, security, boarding time, taxiing time, flight, landing, taxiing, waiting for luggage, airport shuttle. Next time we stay on terra firma.

So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, goodbye, London!

London Day Six

The London Motorcycle Show is on, so we head there first. It’s in the Excel exhibition centre which is way out east past Canary Wharf. It takes a good 2 hours to get there by underground and DLR. The DLR is a total contrast to the underground, as it's confusing and unintuitive. How did London get that one so wrong after decades of experience with the successful tubes?

The Excel centre is huge, and housing multiple exhibitions simultaneously. The motorcycle show is certainly big, although disappointingly the bike displays make up perhaps 10% of the show. The rest is selling gear; helmets, leathers, etc. If I wanted gear, this certainly was the place to be. The selection was so huge it’s hard to describe, and most vendors had show specials on. Alas, I wasn’t in the market.


We got around the bike stands and I tried all the bikes that tickle my fancy, mostly sport tourers. Surprisingly, Harley Davidson weren’t there at all although I wasn't upset. Victory were there, although I didn’t linger long :-) There were quite a few bikes on the BMW and Honda stands that I wouldn’t mind finding under the Christmas tree.

Mr Honda still doesn’t have a Blackbird replacement for me. I think BMW have the best selection for me at present. Probably the K1300S is my favourite, as it’s really the closest in overall design and comfort to my Blackbird but with shaft drive and ABS.


We got to see BMW’s new S1000RR superbike, they had the unpainted carbon fibre prototype on display.


Although Honda doesn't have a bike for me this year, Helen seemed quite comfortable on this scooter. I'll be in BIG trouble for posting this picture.


There was also a collection of historical bikes, including Freddie Spencer’s Honda. Great to see in the flesh after all these years, and certainly it’s still an amazing bike.


The MCN Babes were strutting their stuff, which created quite a gathering of lads. I have to share them with you, right? Here you are then.


After the bike show, we head back into London, where the remainder of the day was burned up visiting the London Eye (which we decided not to go on as the queues were too long) looking for show tickets, and visiting a fabric shop Helen’s Mum asked us to check out.

By evening, we had found tickets to see The Sound of Music at the London Palladium. I had never seen the movie or play before, although Helen had, and thoroughly enjoyed it. Not to take anything away from the adult cast, but the younger children did really well on stage. Once that was over, it was time to head back to the hotel.