Somehow, after our lengthy Fourth of July celebration, we managed to get up and out the door early enough to catch a 7:05 from Crewe to Edinburgh. I don't know how Colin, our host, does it, but he was up and bright eyed and cheery and he drove us all to the station. Perhaps it's the British accent that makes him sound less miserable?
Anyway, our two friends from Delaware had traveled in for the wedding and the four of us were driven to the train station. Where Nantwich is lovely, Crewe, from what I saw, was a bit more urban and dingy. The station was typical of a train station too, but the train inself was neat and functional, if expensive. Janet bought the tickets very early online at 32 pounds. The price goes up the closer you get to the departure date. She then simply retrieved the tickets by inserting her credit card in a kiosk. It was all very efficient.
Getting to our respective hotels was less efficient. Edinburgh was a busy gritty place with traffic rumbling everywhere and old stone buildings and a castle magically soaring out of the rock on one side of the station and people of every country weaving past and men in kilts playing bagpipes and cars not willing to yield to pedestrians and if your bearings aren't right you're hiking about in the wrong direction and all the time it's uphill. After the genteel days of Nantwich this was a sock in the teeth. Signs everywhere cautioned against pickpockets and there was angst in our steps as we wound our way around Waverley train station towards our respective hotels on Royal Terrace. It took awhile to get to this quiet cobblestoned street and we started headed down Waterloo Place on the other side of Calton Hill which proved to be the wrong way. But then a burly driver of a tourist van realized our plight and got out a map for us. He was sitting in his empty van waiting for his charges to return when he saw us scratching our collective heads and huffing up the hill. Our view of Edinburgh and Scotland softened right then. The broad shouldered fellow happily shouted out the directions with his deeply chiseled features beaming saying most of the way was downhill at this point.
Evidently the American Embassy is also on Royal Terrace. It was thankfully a very quiet street and there is a park across from the row of hotels and private homes. Our friends were staying at the aptly named Royal Terrace hotel, which was far too much money to spend for the VFH team. We settled for the Abbey Hotel just a few doors down. At 95 lbs for the night it was good enough. It may have lacked amenities like a swimming pool, but it was clean and offered a full Scottish breakfast. Because we got in too early to check in to the room, we left our bags with the couple running the place. They were cheery and smiling and helpful and made our stay very pleasant. We left our bags and then visited our friends in their hotel. They were intent on sitting in the hotel lobby to wait for their room and were going to visit the castle afterwards. Janet and I decided to make our way to Glenkinchie, dubbed the Edinburgh distillery. We like our single malts and this distillery is the closest one to the city. Originally we were going to travel much more around Scotland to sample scotches and whiskies, but decided Belgian beer held more allure. The trip to Glenkinchie proved to be a perfect trip for us.
I had actually never heard of Glenkinchie before, but while researching how to visit different distilleries I happened upon Classic Malts. This marketing group was very helpful and sent to me a "passport" that allowed me and a guest free entry to several distilleries they represented. A lot of the distilleries charge a fee, including Glenkinchie. It was all working out well. We figured we'd visit Glenkinchie and drink their malts and hit a couple of places on the Royal Mile, the street that runs from the castle in Edinburgh to the palace at the bottom of the hill. It is a touristed area with lots of shops and bars. Then I realized I had left my "passport" at home! Horrors! I contacted Classic Malts and they told me not to worry....just talk my way in to avoid the 6 lb fee.
http://www.malts.com/index.php/Gateway-en
After some difficulty with figuring out the bus schedule we boarded the 44B to Pentcaitland. It drove through Edinburgh and skirted the North Sea by Musselburgh, past homes though still austere still boasted neat gardens in the front yards and through other nameless towns each with its own Celtic cross and finally into leafy country roads and cultivated fields until we came to a small clutch of buildings gathered around a corner. This was Pentaitland. We barely saw the sign for Glenkinchie and asked the driver to stop after we had passed. He apologized and pulled over and we hiked up to the square again and Janet made a call to a local taxi for a ride to the distillery, roughly a mile and a half away. While she phoned an elderly lady was getting into her car and I asked her how long a walk was to the distillery. She told us and then offered to drive us there! The VFH mooch crew struck again. She was going to just drive us by the turn off and we'd have to walk the rest, but she drove us to the entrance.
Yes, we also talked our way into the distillery, but it wasn't much of a challenge. Even before the words were completely out of mouth the enthusiastic host at Glenkinchie gathered I had left my Classic Malts "passport" home. No worries she said and she handed us each a 5lb voucher for a purchase of a bottle. It was a slow day at the distillery anyway and the effervescent Austrian woman (think Terri Garr in Young Frankstein) walked us around the distillery. We got to smell the malty wash of the brewing barley and then she led us into the locked warehouse where the "viskee est sleeping." The tour ended with viskee sampling. Our first was Glenkinchie. As it was slow we were allowed to linger for quite awhile and the more we asked about different malts the more she poured another for us. She also offered tastes of whiskies from all over Scotland, not just Glenkinchie. She showed us how to plop in a few drops of water to further release the smells and tastes of the malts and we ooed and aahed appropriately. She then called us a cab and while waiting got into a conversation with another of the guides and he poured us more whisky! When the driver arrived to take us back to Pencaitland and the bus we were spinning with ideas. The driver charged us 7 lbs for the short ride. We gave him another pound as a tip. Janet said, “This one’s is for you.” Yes, your Vacations From Home team may be cheap, but we are not rude.
We got to sit in the front seat on the top floor of a double-decker bus for the hour ride back to Edinburgh which was an added plus to the day because of the different perspective. Altogether the bus ride cost us 6,40 lbs round trip. It is said that Edinburgh is not Scotland though it is the capital and this little trip showed us both worlds.
Later we met our friends for dinner at the Royal Crown. It was an ornate pub with huge paintings of different inventors.on the walls We each had a drink and traditional meals like meat pies and plates of sausages. It was crowded and the food was very good, but rather than lingering over drinks we prodded our friends into walking over to the Bow Bar.
http://www.caferoyal.org.uk/
The tour guide at Glenkinchie told us about this great place just off the Royal Mile. She termed it a proper whisky bar. After some hemming by our compadres they decided to come for the walk. Janet and I quite happy with the find. The bartender listened to our interests, in this case peaty tasting malts. He pulled down four bottles for us to sniff and we picked two. We retired to a corner seating area with our friends and their Jack Daniels, and we savored these two fine malts for a very long time, allowing them to warm. Sadly we failed to take notes on the two so we're unsure what exactly we had, but, we twirled the malts in the glass, sniffed repeatedly, sniffed some more, sipped and twirled and sniffed and throughout our friends crinkled their noses at our ardore and the rest of the crowd at the Bow Bar was oblivous to our epiphany. The world was spinning just as it should. And altogether our drinks cost us 8,40 lbs. It was the end of a lovely day.
http://www.beerintheevening.com/pubs/s/55/5512/Bow_Bar/Edinburgh
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