Mama’s British Birthday Bash – Last day in Edinburgh

“There’s no leaving Edinburgh, No shifting it around: it stays with you, always.” – Alan Bold

On June 4th, a day after I turned 55, I woke up from my bed at our rental in Edinburgh with a strange backache. I attributed it to soft bed. We had to hurry as we planned to reach Burns Monument to catch our tour bus to drive out to see Stirling Castle and some other sights. Sahana wrote some funny phrases about this day and I am going to quote them in this blog as reading them made me laugh out loud.

“mom wakes w achey back. this is 55. we vamoose up and down and up to burns monument for hairy coo bus and arrive 30 mins early – what can u expect from the two of us.
hairy coo bus arrives (bruce guide and ross driver) and we embark!”

What, indeed, can you expect from the two of us? I am extremely anal about time and punctual to the dot. It was such a joy to travel with Sahana because I seemed to have raised a mini me in this regard. We discussed a time when we wanted to leave. Both of us were ready with our shoes on and bags on our shoulders right on time. Then we looked at each other and beamed. So yes, we left early, grabbed something to eat, went up and down the steep roads of Edinburgh to join the line to board our bus for the day. The bus was supposed to leave at 8:30 sharp and so it did. A jovial man, red faced and happy, and wearing a kilt, introduced himself and the driver – Bruce and Ross. Bruce was going to be our guide and Ross was our driver. We heard about the day ahead of us as we left Edinburgh. First stop was the Kelpies. The Kelpies are a pair of huge horse heads made of steel. I will be honest, while they were impressive and the area was beautiful, I did not love them as much as I loved some of the other sites. I could easily have given this a pass. And now I will insert some of Sahana’s note because they are funny and they are true.

“we visit: kelpies – baron and duke (then mom naps), balloch and loch lomond + cruise with chatty alaskans (then sahana and mom nap), then aberfoyle for lunch (then both nap), hairy coo sighting and feeding of honey and hamish (baxter uninterested), then stirling castle to round us out (both nap and miss bridge explanation), bridges (then probably more napping otw to edinburgh). sahana drank very little water all day (stupid). ramen for dinner (fortifying and delicious).”

There you have it. That is what we did. But while we were visiting the Kelpies, Baron and Duke, we also saw mama swan and fuzzy baby swans swimming towards the horse heads. That was pretty.

Our next stop was Balloch. We decided to get boat tickets and take a cruise in the loch. As you read in Sahana’s notes, a very chatty lady from Alaska sat next to us. She wanted to know everything about us, what we were doing, if we will go shopping (NO!) and then proceeded to tell us all about her trip, her daughter’s plans, their home in Alaska, their other travels. Both Sahana and I nodded politely, trying to look at the beautiful nature around us. I doubt if the lady paid any attention to the hills and the lush green around the loch.

Then it was lunch time at Aberfoyle. We went to a cute restaurant where the server asked us how much time did we have before the bus left. We told her, she considered what we had ordered, nodded her head and said, “Ok, we can get this in time.” While we waited for our food, we enjoyed watching the antics of a puppy at our next table. I want to write these little moments down because they are such integral parts of our joy of traveling. We both loved the fact that dogs are allowed inside restaurants, not just service dogs.

After lunch (steak and ale pie for me and something with bacon for Sahana), we went to see hairy coos. Honey and Hamish were interested in us and the food that we held to feed them. Baxter, however, could care less. He was doing his own thing, and did not give us the time of the day. Honey and Hamish made up for it with their cuteness. We could stand there all day, except Honey decided to take a dump. The smell was so intense that it broke the magic charm and we quickly walked away and embarked on our bus again to head to Stirling Castle.

Bruce was doing his best to tell us about the history of all the places we visited. But here is the thing though. I kept falling asleep! And missing a lot of the information. As you may have read in Sahana’s notes – mom kept dozing off. And Sahana then kept dozing. Poor Bruce. I made sure I gave both of them good tip after we came back to Edinburgh. The bus was so comfortable and we were very tired after 4 days of non stop walking.

Sahana was feeling dehydrated, we both were exhausted and in dire need of sustenance. We ate the best ramen of our lives in Edinburgh. I don’t know if the ramen was the best or if it was our hungry and tired soul that found the ramen fortifying and nourishing. No matter, our food loving souls were satiated.

With renewed energy, we trudged back to our apartment and crashed. The following day we were headed to Stratford-Upon-Avon. It was a day of pain and adventure. Stay tuned.

Mama’s Birthday Bash – Edinburgh (on my birthday!)

“Half a capital and half a country town, the whole city leads a double existence; it has long trances of the one and flashes of the other; like the king of the Black Isles, it is half alive and half a monumental marble.” – Robert Louise Stevenson

Edinburgh News informs us that “Despite being set in London, Stevenson’s famous tale of Jekyll and Hyde is thought to be heavily inspired by Edinburgh because of this ‘double existence.”

We did not have to wake up at the crack of dawn on my birthday because our first activity – historic tour of the Royal Mile by Mercat tours was not till 10 am. I woke up to lovely birthday wish from Sahana, got dressed for the day and left our apartment for a full Scottish breakfast at Edinburgh Larder. We had heard the restaurant was popular and often, there were lines to get in. Fortunately, we had arrived early enough and found 2 seats right away. We shared a full Scottish breakfast between the two of us, complete with haggis (savory pudding made with sheep’s heart, liver, lungs, oatmeal), blood sausage, toast, eggs, mushrooms etc. Neither haggis nor blood sausage tasted good but at least we can claim we had Scottish breakfast. It was a gastronomic experience. After breakfast we had time to kill before our tour (and also needed a bathroom) so we bought a coffee at Starbucks and waited.

The walking tour was truly informative and also entertaining. Our guide, Veni, was witty and knowledgeable. We learned a lot about the history of Scotland, and especially, the Royal Mile which extends between the Palace of Holyroodhouse at the bottom to the Edinburgh Castle at the top. Don’t let the name fool you. Scottish Mile is longer than a regular mile. We were told the Royal Mile in reality is 1.13 mile which is supposedly old Scots mile, different from English mile.

Our tour ended at the Edinburgh Castle. Veni took us inside the castle, told us about the history of Scotland and the castle’s significance in its history and left us to our own devices. The weather was funky that day. There was constant interplay of rain and sunshine. The wind, however, was constant. Sahana wrote in their note that it was ‘windy af’ and I will include that to make you understand how windy the day was. We got wet and then the sun came out to dry us up till the rains came back to wet us again. Anyway, we took our time enjoying the views of Edinburgh from the ramparts of the castle. We stayed to watch the 1 pm gun shot that is quite a spectacle at the castle. We went in to the csstle’s cafe for some nourishment and found a table with a fabulous view.

From the castle, we meandered down looking for the Writer’s Museum which has exhibits of the three famous literary figures from Scotland – Robert Burns, Sir Walter Scott, and Robert Louise Stevenson. We looked at books, manuscripts, portraits and personal items of the three stalwarts of literature who hailed from Scotland.

Towards the end of our tour of the museum we both were getting very hungry. Instead of a birthday dinner, we decided to go for a sumptuous meal that worked as both lunch and dinner at an Indian restaurant called Dishoom where we got authentic Kolkata style chicken roll. I was elated! Although I had my doubts as we entered the restaurant as all the staff appeared to be white but the food was so good that I forgot all my doubts. It was indeed a delightful birthday meal. Sahana assured me that the people making the food must be desi.

After a good meal our spirits were high. We had to check out the Burns monument since we were supposed to catch our Hairy Coo tour bus next day from there for our day trip. We walked over to the Burns Monument and then to Old Calton Cemetery where we saw David Hume mausoleum.

We continued our walk to the new Calton cemetery. Since we were halfway there, we decided to see the Palace of Holyroodhouse where the Royal family still stays when they visit Scotland. On a whim, we decided to buy tickets (yet another treat from Sahana for my birthday) for the palace and explore the royal palace where English monarchs have stayed for generations since 12th century. The impressive front of the palace was bathed by sunlight when we visited and the limestone structure looked like it was glowing. We took an audio tour of the building and was amazed and awed by the history that we were witnessing.

When we came out of the palace, we looked up in the distance, we saw the famed volcanic peak, Arthur’s Seat. Not only was it majestic, it was also mind boggling that the stone and flint tools found there reveal human activity as far back as 5000 BC. When we had our fill of seeing and photographing Arthur’s Seat, we slowly made our way up the Royal Mile to go back to our apartment to rest for an hour before another Mercat walking tour. This time it was going to be an adult only ghost tour of the Royal Mile – Dead, Doomed, and Buried. This was another birthday gift from Sahana. I have asked for Ghost tours from my family as birthday gifts for the last two years. I am not sure what says that about me….

That rest was vital since both of us were so tired from walking all day. We saluted the Edinburgh castle visible from our balcony and plopped on the bed for an hour. With restored spirits and tired legs, we headed out to meet Shannon from Mercat Tours to hear about all the spooky tales of the historic Royal Mile. Decked in a black cape and adorned with fascinating orange and black eye make up, Shannon was an excellent guide who took us all the way down the Royal Mile regaling us with tales of murder and mayhem and ghost sighting (some in our group felt a presence. Alas, we didn’t). Then we went down the vaults of South Bridge and things started getting creepy with ghostly lights and confined passages. But this is what I love about ghost tours. Scarier the better.

We were really exhausted after the tour ended. We found ourselves again at the bottom of the Royal Mile and had to trudge uphill to get to our apartment. I believe we went up and down the Royal Mile at least 3 times that day. But we had to stop by yet another cemetery – Greyfriars Kirk and Greyfriars cemetery, since it was on our way.

I must say the light was fading and the cemetery started looking really empty and spooky,, especially after listening to incidents of paranormal activity from Shannon, so we slowly strolled out of it and continued on our way back. Sahana got hungry and Sainsbury, a popular supermarket chain all over UK, saved the day. As a final birthday gift, Sahana bought me my favorite – Cadbury Fruit and Nut chocolate.

With food and chocolate in hand, we climbed the Royal Mile again, came back to the apartment and ended our day and my very fulfilling birthday.

I think people should celebrate their birthdays exactly the way they want to – party, quiet time, spending quality time with loved ones, eating food of their choice. This year, I spent my birthday exactly the way I wanted to. I saw, I learned, I laughed, I experienced, I ate. And I shared all of that with one of my most loved ones.

Mama’s British Birthday Bash – Edinburgh

Into no other city does the sight of the country enter so far; if you do not meet a butterfly, you shall certainly catch a glimpse of far-away trees upon your walk; and the place is full of theatre tricks in the way of scenery. You peep under an arch, you descend stairs that look as if they would land you in a cellar, you turn to the back-window of a grimy tenement in a lane:—and behold! you are face-to-face with distant and bright prospects. You turn a corner, and there is the sun going down into the Highland hills. You look down an alley, and see ships tacking for the Baltic.

Robert Louis Stevenson

We packed up relatively early and checked out of Tavistock hotel in London to go to Charing Cross Railway Station to catch our train to Edinburgh. We arrived at the station early because we wanted to see the famous platform 9 ¾ from where Harry Potter boarded the train to Hogwarts. Boy, was that a disappointment! Disney has commercialized it to the extent that they are charging 20 pounds for pictures. And people were lining up to shell out the money. Not us. We went and got bad coffee instead and boarded our train. The train ride was everything that we had envisioned. Lush English countryside, cottages, ugly apartment buildings as we neared big cities, people and dogs walking along meadows, plump sheep, and healthy looking cows – we saw all these as the train thundered along. We read some, dozed a little, and looked out the window, taking in the scenery. The vista changed as the train neared Edinburgh. From lush green flat land to rocky hilly areas and the ocean in the distance. We had sunny weather in London but the sky turned grey as the train brought us to Edinburgh.

We finally arrived, dragged our luggage out of the train station and were confronted with steep steps to go up to our AirBnb. We looked up in dismay, took a deep breath, and picked up our suitcases.

My months of work at gym paid off. I was able to conquer the steps and arrived close to the magnificent St. Giles Cathedral.

Since our rental wouldn’t be ready for another hour, we found a pub to get a drink and some food while we waited. Sahana ordered a Loch Lomond stout while I ate a bland chicken pie and people watched. When it was time, we found or rental, dropped our luggage, arranged our stuff and cleaned up. The best part of our rental was the breathtaking view of the Edinburgh Castle from our balcony, spread out in all its Gothic splendor atop a high cliff. Every time we caught a glimpse of that imposing structure, we stopped in our tracks.

After an hour or so in the apartment, we headed out to explore Edinburgh. Sahana had booked a History Walk of Royal Mile walking tour and a ghost tour of the Old Town for the next day so we decided to explore the part of Edinburgh which were off the beaten track. Thanks to an influencer in TikTok, Sahana found out about an area called Dean Village which, on our phones, looked simply beautiful. When we navigated our way there, the village we realized that the pictures did not do the village justice. Dean Village is a green oasis amidst the city of Edinburgh. It was originally called The Water of Leith village, a bustling milling village found in the 12th century. We came across some stone plaques with bread and pies depicted on them. As we looked down on to the residential buildings in the village, it looked like a town from a fairy tale; pretty, neat, picturesque, and sleepy. Situated next to the Water of Leith, the quiet walkways along the gently flowing river could easily make one forget that this tranquil space is actually within the heart of a bustling city. We walked the pathways, protected by dark green foliage above us, listening to the sweet rustle of the running water next to us and boisterous bird song around us.

From Dean Village we walked to Stockbridge, admiring its dark Georgian architecture and quaint cobble stoned streets flanked on both sides by cute, mostly independently owned shops. We strolled towards pretty Circus Lane and took pictures of the fronts of daintily painted houses decorated with flowering bushes. The sun was hitting it just right for us to admire the prettiness of the whole neighborhood.

At this point, both of us were getting tired and hungry. We stopped at Rosa’s Cafe for some delicious Thai food before slowly making our way back to our apartment. Sahana tested my navigation skills to take us back to our rental. I failed. I was so busy looking at the sights around me that I did not pay attention to the road that led us back to our temporary abode. Fortunately Sahana knew exactly where we were headed.

Before wrapping up this blog I want to mention one (of the many) joy of traveling with Sahana. One of the commonality we had was our mutual love for food and our lack of discernment in a good way. This is important, especially for me, because my husband is a vegan who doesn’t eat most vegetables. We are great travel partners except when it comes to food. We are limited to the number of restaurants that we can go to when Sean and I travel. With Sahana, it was such a delight to ask “Do you want _____ food?” “Yes, let’s go.”

During the span of two weeks, we shared and experienced some wonderful memories and sights. We also ate some amazing food. And it would be remiss of me if I don’t include them in my blogs.

June 3rd was my birthday. Sahana had planned some special activities for that day, so we read for a few minutes and went to sleep to be up and ready for birthday adventure.

Mama’s British Birthday Bash – London

“London opens to you like a novel itself… It is divided into chapters, the chapters into scenes, the scenes into sentences; it opens to you like a series of rooms, doors and passages. Mayfair to Piccadilly to Soho to the Strand.”– Anna Quindlen

“How about we go to England for your birthday?” Sahana asked me some months back. And I said, “Yes! Let’s go!”

It all started long time ago when Sahana was 2 or 3 years old. Every day after they came back home from preschool, we snuggled together and read three books. I am not sure who decided on that number but that is what we did. A life long love for stories and books sprung in their heart which culminated in a degree in English literature, a flair for reading, writing, and appreciating literature. I have always loved literature too. This year I decided to give myself the gift of a literary tour with my daughter to celebrate my birthday. And what a trip it turned out to be!

Sahana finished their work at 4:30 pm on a Friday and we started our journey at 5:00. Both of us were bursting with excitement and couldn’t wait for the plane to take off. The plane, however, stood at the tarmac for close to 3 hours due to bad weather. Sahana and I looked at each other and laughed nervously. We both hoped that this delay was not a precursor to what was to come in our travels. Since we had booked a direct flight and since nothing was in our control anymore, we both decided to take the delay in our strides and watch a movie while we waited for the plane to move. It did finally take off and we landed safely on the other side of the pond seven tiresome hours later.

Sahana had bought an eSIM from Vodaphone which refused to work when they tried to activate it at Heathrow airport. Fortunately, they were able to trouble shoot and it did finally work so we could navigate our way from Heathrow to our hotel Tavistock in the Bloomsbury neighborhood. Here is a public service announcement, readers. Do not activate your eSIM till you arrive in the country where you want it to work. Once the eSIM started working, Sahana expertly navigated us to the right platform from where we took a train heading towards Cockfosters. Cockfosters? Really? We both looked at each other and laughed. We found our hotel and were thrilled to discover that Virginia Woolf and Leonard Woolf lived at the premise of our hotel from 1924 till 1939. Our literary tour started with a bang.

We checked in, dropped our bags, splashed some water on our faces and ran out to explore the British Museum. It was already late afternoon and the museum closed within a few hours. It was just a few blocks from the hotel but the line to enter the museum was long. Would we make it in time? We joined the queue anyway. We made it.

What can I write about the British museum and what it houses? It was fascinating, mind boggling, anger provoking (for someone who belongs to a former colony of England and whose treasures were forcefully taken and now are exhibited in this foreign museum)……I am honestly running out of words to express how we felt as we stood in front of exhibits that have survived thousands of years. Our first stop was the Rosetta Stone. We stood there in silence for a while, unable to fathom the reality that we were truly in front of the object that unlocked the mystery of an ancient civilization and through which we could glean so much information about the ancient Egyptians.

We made our way to the Indian exhibits, Roman, Grecian, and of course, Egyptian.

As the guards started telling the visitors that it was time to close, we made our way out of the museum – speechless, sated, and also dazed.

And then started our endless walks. We walked all the way to Soho, ate delicious fish and chips, steak and ale pie, and sticky toffee pudding. Walked back to the hotel and crashed.

The next morning we left early and took the tube to a station close to the Tower of London. But we needed food to fortify us so we could spend hours touring the Tower. It was very early on a Sunday morning, and none of the restaurants or cafes were open so we had to make do with a very ordinary breakfast at a hotel and then walked the entire length of the Tower bridge. The Tower of London was not open yet.

We toured the Tower of London for over 4 hours. We spent the first hour listening to the fascinating albeit horrifying and gory history of the Tower told by a witty Yeoman Warder.

The Yeoman Warders have guarded the Tower since its construction and they guard the Tower still. After spending so many hours at the Tower, both of us were depleted of energy and needed sustenance pronto, which came in the form of delicious crepes sold right in front of the Tower. With crepes in hand we started walking towards the City of London or Londinium. Londinium or Roman London is believed to be the capital of Roman Britain during Roman rule. We sat in front of the Guildhall for a while to rest our legs and then went in the Guildhall where we saw the ruins of a Roman amphitheater which existed beneath the Guildhall. The number of centuries buried beneath the city is fascinating. We took our time exploring the area till our jetlagged bodies needed some spurt of energy to continue going. And strong coffee from a nearby Pret a Manger provided just that.

After a coffee break and a water break, we continued to walk till we found ourselves in front of St. Paul’s Cathedral. While we took in the beauty of the magnificent church, both Sahana and I paid close attention to the Bengali spoken by a family walking near us. We both looked at each other with joy. We heard Bangla! That would become quite commonplace during the entirety of our travel as many people from our part of the world travel to England to tour (or live) and we would hear Bengali, Hindi, Urdu and other Indian languages a lot. From St. Paul’s we walked to Leadenhall market (which failed to impress us), the Monument to the Great Fire of London. Then we slowly meandered across the (unimpressive) London Bridge and found a great Chinese restaurant for some very satisfying noodles.

The final act of the day was watching a performance of Romeo and Juliet at Shakespeare’s Globe Theater. We walked through Borough Market as we made our way to Globe Theater. Unfortunately, the market was closed. We would have loved to explore this open air market. It seemed fun.

The performance at Globe Theater and the Globe Theater itself were everything that we had hoped for. The theater and the way it is set up did give us an idea how audience enjoyed theater at the time of Shakespeare. Romeo and Juliet is one of my least favorite among Shakespeare’s plays, but the performance gave me goosebumps. The environment, the iconic theater, the bard’s words, and the expertise of the actors – everything was superb. Sahana and I left the theater starry eyed and completely mesmerized. As we walked to a train station through the quiet Borough market, we animatedly discussed the play and the theater till we saw a fox stealing food from a rubbish bin right in front of us. A fox! In the middle of the city of London!

We came back to our hotel completely exhausted, completely satisfied, and so very happy that we were on this journey together. Mother and daughter discovering a new country where many of their idols in literature lived, experienced, felt, wrote.

We were leaving for Edinburgh next morning. I will write about our Edinburgh experience in the next blog. I will end this blog with our step count because we had fun looking at our steps and the number of miles we walked.

Average steps in London: 69,894

Miles: 27.94