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.