To Edinburgh & Onward

From the accommodation, we took a taxi to Leuchars Train Station with Susie of Thistle Taxi. This woman is so down to Earth. She retired early (at 50…love it!) from health services some time ago and moved herself near St. Andrews (not in the town, which she considers too busy). She loves driving and had been driving a motorhome to travel Europe before Covid and Brexit hit. Then, she learned there are no female drivers in the area and decided to get her taxi license. Now she seems to have regular international students as clients whom she’s essentially adopted as their “Auntie” and “Granny”. She goes so far as keeping their important belongings at her home during school breaks, including x-boxes and Bonsai trees. She is clearly a local treasure.

In Edinburgh, we had lunch at an Irish pub near our hotel, Biddy Mulligans. It was a cute experience with our workers’ lunch box. Danielle came to meet us there and we then Ubered to Edinburgh’s Royal Botanical Garden. It is wonderful… and free! Danielle was willing to show us more, but Dad was tired, so we Ubered back to the hotel, shopped, rested, and then met with Danielle’s family for pizza. Iain & Danielle then took us to The Blue Blazer, a traditional Scottish pub, for a night cap.

Both Dad and I had our rooms upgraded to a castle view. I had a suite, which I found far too large and I was at risk of leaving things behind. It was noisy, and both Dad and I didn’t sleep well. Both of our Airbnbs were incredibly peaceful and quiet when it came to night time, unlike this hotel, which was in a spectacular location in a beautiful and active city.

We had a taxi collect us at 6:30am, and were dropped at the airport. We flew on the same plane to Amsterdam (though Dad left me with the other riffraff at the Priority check in 😆), and he left for Canada, and I for Norway from Amsterdam.

Another beautiful Scottish walking adventure with Dad has come to a close.