"Trainspotting" territory, Royal Yacht Britannia and rock climbing in a church...
Hans woke up early at around 5.30am and got up for a cup of tea. There was a steady stream of drunk and loud young people (and some not so young) wandering or staggering down Leith Street this Saturday morning. Many revelers in short sleeved t-shirts and hands in pockets looking worn, cold and torn. Hmmm... Interesting...
Today's mission was to explore the waterfront north of Edinburgh New Town. It ended up being quite a distance that we walked, close to 15km but we did see a lot.
We started around 9am and headed down our street. The north end of Leith Walk is definitely not an affluent area and the suburb of Leith has a bit of a reputation as a tough spot. Leith is the birthplace of the author of "Trainspotting", Irvine Welsh, and also the area that influenced the book (although the movie is set in Glasgow).
Yep, we could see some remants of a rough past (and present). There are a lot of buildings looking like housing commission and mortgage businesses, betting shops, roller shutters and cheap chain stores.
The Proclaimers twins were also born in Leith and wrote a song called "Sunshine on Leith" but were more famous for "500 miles", which we then hummed as we were "on our way" towards 500 miles...
The cheap chain stores though are travellers friends, like Poundland. We found Lidl and bought 2 pastries for 80 pence total, then went to a clothes shop that looked like Lowes and we both bought replacement t-shirts and other items. We were soon carrying at least 4 new clothing items each - stuffed into our backpacks but thankfully lightweight.
Closer to the port area, Leith was showing signs of gentrification. Footpaths were being widened and al fresco coffee shops were present. We stopped at a nice coffee shop for tea and coffee and to eat our Lidl pastries, which were delicious and fresh.
We reached the end of the port area, east of a place called Ocean Terminal. This was clearly the working end of the port although some equipment had been retired - Hans likes these kind of environments...
These retired cranes had real character and looked good against the sky.
We headed west along the Port, which turned out to be a "lock" Harbour and not impacted by the huge variations in tides here. We found this lovely yacht sitting amongst the grotto port workings. The mismatch was striking.
Across the road we saw a residential area that was partly new and partly improved, but blended nicely with some older features. Very nice.
This looked like an old rail bridge from the port but was no longer in use except for pedestrians and cyclists.
One weird feature - perhaps they got planning approval but with a caveat to retain this old cottage. So they did - wedging it between 2 new buildings. Odd!
As we approached Ocean Terminal an almighty engine roared into life. We had to investigate and are really glad we did - it was a Monster Truck being tuned up and tested for an Extreme Stunt Show on this weekend.
Definitely a Fringe activity for us - the 3pm show tomorrow sounded perfect. One of the drivers told Di the show times and said he would "look for her in the crowd and wave". We'll see.
The Extreme Stunt Show had all the right elements - squashed little cars and ramps. Yep - perfect for us.
The end of Ocean Termimal faced out towards the sea wall and the lock on the right and beyond to the Firth of Forth, the body of water north of Edinburgh. Some artist put a great sculpture at the end of this disused pier. Don't jump...
We could see for miles - looking north
North west - the large orange ship appeared to be a rescue vessel from a Norway.
Looking back where we came from...
As expected we had great views also of the Royal Yacht Britannia. Hans checked it out.
Di's half British ancestry was showing through...
It never ceases to fascinate us that they pay mooring fees for this.
Interesting and we liked the little blue boat - at a distance it looked almost like a toy.
A Motor Boat Club? Definitely not to Newport, Rhode Island standards.
Again the predominant colour of the area is grey but lots of varying shades depending on age and weathering. We don't think the grey pebbly waters edge is a beach but you can't be sure with these tough Scots.
This church caught our eye - Alien Rock???
Just in case you weren't sure which way to go...
The rock climbing seemed popular with the kids and a few seemed fearless.
Onwards westwards young man (yep, Hans counts as that...) but to Malmo? That can't be right. Malmo is a city in Sweden, across the bridge from Denmark, and is where a reasonable football player called Zlatan Ibraminovic came from.
The shoreline is definitely not resort-worthy but attractive in its own way. We learned yesterday that this part of Scotland sits on ancient volcanos which were worn down to smaller hills by glaciers. The rock is very different to Sydney sandstone.
We reached the end of the port area and doubled back, heading uphill a little to get back near the centre of town. We found ourselves in nicer residential area for a while, some with nice views.
The top of these stairs were a bit of a worry - did Di dare walk through?
Well of course she did because a pub lunch was waiting - somewhere...
The one downside of walking through residential areas on a Saturday is that we kept finding restaurants closed at lunchtime and a strange shortage of pubs. We thought we had found one good contender and walked in the door to be told they were closing as some workmen in the street were about to turn off their power! Hans was laughing his head off, but Di didn't think it was that funny.
It was after 2pm when we found "The Other Place", which turned out to be a nice lunch spot and worth the search. We got a great set of comfy chairs by the windows.
Last night we had seen a restaurant's dinner menu item called "Cullen Skink with Arbroath Smokie" and had no clue what it was. Today Di ordered it for lunch. Brave move? Nope - turns out it is a thick creamy chowder with potatoes, leek and smoked kipper. Absolutely delicious, washed down with a nice dry cider. Hans, having tasted Di's lunch about 5 times, requested that Di work out the recipe to ensure she can recreate it back home. Whilst in Scotland it could become our regular order.
Walking homewards we passed a butcher on Broughton Street with the most amazing array of wursts visible from the outside. A quick rethink in dinner plans and we went in and purchased 3 x 2 sausages for the night's feed. A wurst with a name of "One o Clock Banger" just had to be tested, in addition to "Pork, leek and ginger" and their best seller "Special Pork". All for just over £3. Bargain. Note their wurst in the picture below called "Pork, whiskey and marmalade"... what..?
What you see below is just a small subsection of their merchandise on display.
We wandered back home about 4ish and the meal and alcohol caught up with us. A nice nana nap was perfect and well deserved after our longish walk.
Outside turned quite cold by 7pm and everyone seemed to be wearing thick jackets so we rethought our outing plans - dinner and a quiet night at home instead. Our wurst dinner was fantastic. Each sausage type was very different but the "One o Clock Banger" won - with a few chilli seeds and pepper.
Plenty of tea, some cookies and a relax should have us ready for another big day tomorrow. Good night.
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