November is shaping up to be a busy travel month. We just finished All Saint’s day, which is a federal holiday in Belgium. Because we can’t get enough of rainy locations, we decided to take the long weekend in Edinburgh, Scotland. This time of the year, Edinburgh can be a real weather gamble, but against all odds, we had excellent weather two of the three days.
The castle in Edinburgh really sits on top of the city. It seems that everywhere you go there is a different view of the castle. Because it is compact, the city is very walkable, which is not the same thing as easy to walk. The elevation changes had our legs and feet hurting by the end of the weekend. At least the exercise helped to burn off the less than healthy Scottish food.
We really enjoyed the Scottish people. Everyone was really friendly and we met a couple of genuine characters. One of whom has written a book about Scottish history and promoting secession from the UK. He has nothing against the English, mind you…
Saturday was…wet. The rain was persistent and it was cold and windy. So naturally, it lent itself well to pub hopping. It seems that much of the city had the same idea, which wasn't apparent until later that evening when we were heading out to dinner. The number of people who were absolutely pissed (to use the local vernacular) at 7PM was impressive.
On Saturday we (meaning me) did a couple of Scotch tastings. One lesson learned from this is that if you tell the scotch purveyor that you don’t really have a budget in mind and that you are interested in something rare, they will pull out some scary expensive bottles of scotch for you to taste. As in all trade-offs in life, you get to taste some amazing Scotches but the flip side is that you will be purchasing one of these beauties as well. At least it didn’t break on the trip back to Brussels.
Our next trip should be drier and warmer. Next weekend we head to Phoenix. One of the biggest conferences for my work will be there next week and it gives us a great opportunity to visit the Sun Devil.
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