Back in England for a day...
We had to leave Edinburgh today, our 1 week in the apartment had passed quickly and it was time to move on. We had tickets heading south to Newcastle on a 10am train. Why south? It turned out that car hire from Newcastle was significantly cheaper than hiring in Edinburgh or Glasgow and for a saving of several hundred pounds we were prepared to catch a train for 90 minutes.
First a breakfast of whatever we had left in the cupboards - a breakfast of champions - baked beans on toast. Di's Boston, MA, born friend, Bev has sometimes said beans are for lunch or dinner, not breakfast, so here is photo evidence for her that Heinz beans are delicious at 7am too.
We were sad to leave our flat, which we liked so much, but it was great that we only had 5-10 minutes walk to Waverley Station with our luggage
Our East Coast train left right on time at 10am and we were on our way. Hans soon had his favourite licorice all-sorts ready for nibbling.
The train was half full (a little more than half empty?) and the journey was smooth. We used the time to read some Scotland tourist and hiking brochures and made a list of lots of things we wanted to see/do. Very useful. What a hiking heaven Scotland is... There is only one thing though.... The weather.
Newcastle was not our intended destination for the end of today and in fact it looked a bit grim so we were glad we had booked elsewhere. For example, and no kidding, there was a queue of perhaps 50 taxicabs waiting for customers to arrive at the railway station.
We found our Hertz car hire and the lovely people there put us in a nice little Ford Astra Turbo for the next month. A completely different experience to the one with Hertz in Hollywood, CA.
We really liked the seaside feel and also the lack of crowds. Some people were on the beach but no tough souls swimming - just wading.
We checked into our B&B, the Roxburgh - all very casual. We turned up gave them our surname, they said ok and showed us to a room. No checking, no payment yet just chatty. We loved it.
The room had sea views - fantastic - lying in bed you see the sea and hear waves and seagulls.
The room has its own shower. This threw us - no toilet, but a small shower cubicle stuck in a corner and a sink. We share a toilet with the other 3 rooms on our floor.
We loved the mismatched floral designs and the large comfy bed and lots of space. For £50 a night with full English breakfast we think we found a bargain.
The view from the window looking back at where we had our lunch earlier...
A couple of pics from the promenade.
Nobody does signs like the British. A spade is called a spade and none of that restroom / washroom code for toilet that you find in the US and in Canada. No fouling...?
Yep, we understood this message. Somebody got dogsh*t up their nose perhaps...
Hans found a cute girl along the promenade... :-)
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