Edinburgh Odyssey; 2-5 Jun 10

Wednesday 2 Jun 10: the cat arrived at 0815. Not the one which teases my dog by staring through the patio doors but the Cambridge taxi service which takes me to the station. The driver was keen to talk which we did. We started with David Laws and finished on electoral reform. He was a tad to the right of me but we had plenty of common ground. Such is the political mood today.

The cross-country journey to Peterborough can be a pleasure. Today it was. Plenty of room on the train, smart modern carriages and a brilliant June morning with the sun just starting to burn off the early morning mist. The mist had cleared by the time we were into Fenland and the colours were splendid: from the rich, black soil, the green grass and the yellow of the rape to the blue sky softened by white wispy clouds.

Peterborough itself is more of as place to pass through than a destination in its own right (cue justified angry letters from Peterborough residents). The station isn’t in the York league and its saving grace used to be the Great Northern Hotel which closed last year. I used to have breakfast there when I had work in the North East and took the train to Newcastle. But the good news it’s now reopened. Check out www.thegreatnorthernhotel.co.uk. I suspect that it won’t have the same 50s style but it served an excellent coffee, in a cup, in very relaxing surroundings. And when I asked I was assured that breakfast was available from 0700.

I took the train north to Edinburgh courtesy East Coast. Thanks to early booking on-line and the generosity of a Senior Railcard I travel first class. Pleasant enough with free if intermittent wifi, free but undrinkable coffee and biscuits. The route north starts off rather bland although the country side was in good shape following recent rains. However it hotted up as we got further north with a fine view of Durham cathedral, the Angel of the North and Newcastle. Beyond Newcastle the train takes you close to the coast where there appear to be very pleasant beaches starting at Alnmouth. This is also where the track does a ridiculous right hand turn as it leads into Berwick-upon-Tweed affording a view first of the viaduct over the river and then the river itself as it bisects the town.

As a tourist in Edinburgh you start with the Royal Mile. As befits its status it’s heavily populated with knitwear, kilt and whisky shops, historical buildings and more than its fair share of pubs. Strangely though there are several tattoo piercing parlours which goes some way to explaining why so many are that way adorned.

Dinner was at the Outsider on George IV Bridge. I met up with ex colleague Nicole who pushes back the barriers of science at Herriot Watt University. The guidebook warned that ‘it’s probably not the best choice for grumpy old men (or women)’. Well we found it just fine so maybe I’m not grumpy; certainly Nicole isn’t old. It was full and noisy, but not too noisy that you couldn’t talk, and the menu was simple but interesting. Starters are ‘twin skewers’ to share and we had salmon, prawn, scallop and chilli. Main courses were straight forward, a rib-eye steak and a roast sea bream, perfectly OK but nothing special. We shared chocolate mousse for desert which had a nice bite before the palette was calmed down by a proper espresso. The wine list is fine and need not break the bank and there was a fair selection by the glass.

Edinburgh is far enough north that on a fine June evening it’s still light at 11pm and it’s the sort of city that feels safe, at least in the centre. There were lots of people about and I noticed what seemed to be plenty of buses heading in all directions supporting such an evening and even late night culture. In Cambridge by contrast the evening bus service is rather sparse. Edinburgh seems nicely laid out for a night-time city with the castle proudly illuminated and easily visible from across Prince’s Gardens.

Thursday 3 Jun 10: it’s a nice compact city with most of the action in just two districts: the old and new towns. The old town is where I was yesterday. It’s compact, irregular and riddled with narrow alleys; and it’s old. The new town is spread out, there’s a rectilinear street plan and it’s rather elegant; it’s also old. Between the two is the station and railway line, the Prince’s Gardens and the twin buildings of the National Gallery of Scotland and the Royal Scottish Academy. The former is admirably free of charge and well worth a visit. And on the edge of the Gardens is the Scott (as in Sir Walter not polar) Memorial which is open to the public and its viewing galleries command an excellent view of the City. You have to pay £3 but it’s worth the expenditure and the effort.

I had lunch at the Garden Cafe on Rose Street. The cafe is in the back garden of the Dome (www.thedomeedinburgh.com) which is a rather fine restaurant on George Street. The Dome is in the banking hall of a former bank and has a splendid hallowed feel. It’s the third such converted bank I’ve seen. The first was Bank Square in Wilmslow which was a nice idea but a corner NatWest is a long way from the Dome. The other was in Philadelphia which was certainly comparable. Anyway in the summer they open up the garden as a cafe which is perfectly fine. It faces south so it’s a sun trap and it seemed to be to be frequented by ‘ladies who lunch’.

There seems to be a piper on every street corner in Edinburgh. Given that this is Scotland I guess that’s OK given that bagpipes are the national musical instrument. Although Scotland seems to share them with several other countries with which it has no obvious connection. Most bizarrely though there was piper on Calton Hill entertaining about 40 Germans who were tucking into a buffet lunch. I’ve no idea what they were up to but they were deadly serious and paid due respect to the piper. The hill itself is one of supposed 7 in Edinburgh which gives it some sort of equivalence to Rome.

Before dinner I went I made a quick pilgrimage to the Oxford Bar (www.oxfordbar.com). I’ve read most of the Rebus’ novels and it was only right that I went. It disappointed though because the Edinburgh of the books is much darker than the one I saw. I can’t imagine Rebus enjoying a sunny day in the city, sitting at a table on the pavement along George Street drinking a coffee or, of course, approving of no-smoking establishments.

Dinner was at the Iris (www.irisedinburgh.co.uk) on Thistle Street. Without being in any way special it was excellent. The menu was limited but I could return and still find something different and it did pass the ultimate test: a good choice of wines by the glass. I started with chilli and garlic king prawns, which hit the spot but more infant prince than king, followed by monkfish in a red wine sauce. The sauce had the colour of beetroot but mercifully that was just coincidence.

Friday 4 Jun 10: this morning I took a walk up Arthur’s Seat. It’s a fairly strenuous walk because it takes you up 250m to the top of an extinct volcano from which you get the most excellent 360 degree view across Edinburgh and its surroundings. You get to look down into the courtyard of Holyrood Palace from which, amazingly, I could hear the sound of bagpipes. The Palace is normally open to the public but not this week because the Duke of Rothsay, aka Prince Charles is in residence. Not sure that I approve of this given that it’s the public purse and all that. Anyway the bagpipes were probably part of his morning ritual.

However the Queens’ Gallery was open, at a price, as also was the café with accent proudly on display. There were yummy cakes to go with my coffee so at least someone had been up early and hard at it in the kitchen.

And finally: I had lunch at the Edinburgh Larder (www.edinburghlader.co.uk) before returning south. From the outside it looks like a health food café, simple IKEA style furniture, a shortage of brand names and specials of the day including carrot cake, and of course there’s nothing wrong with that. We should all eat healthy food but an obsessive healthy diet is pretty boring. So it was good to see that the Larder focuses on good local food which is incidentally pretty healthy. It complements this with a decent choice of wines by the glass, coffee from a real espresso machine and the sort of crisps that really crunch. I had a smoked salmon sandwich with a green salad comprising all manner of strange leaves, but they were all green.

So that was it. 3 days/2 nights in the UK’s number 2 financial city as the tour guide on the open top bus told us. The weather was just right and my hotel conveniently central. Lasting impressions? Not cheap but classy, convenient and worth a visit. Edinburgh was not harmed by the redevelopments of the 50s and 60s which blighted many otherwise fine cities and did not suffer in the war so there’s still a coherence to its look and feel albeit with the distinction between the old and new towns. What modern buildings there are either blend in or are sufficiently apart not to matter. Perhaps surprisingly I felt that it was more of a city of buildings and culture than of history but maybe I’m too familiar with the latter.