Quick visit to Edinburgh

I had a trip to one of my favourite cities in Europe, Edinburh, planned for all week. Unfortunately, I had a bit of an accident installing a Japanese-style toilet cistern during the weekend, and did my back in. Result: 2 days bed-bound which felt a bit like a nagging reminder about the fact that I ain't no youngster no more. Darn...

Anyway, I did finally get off to Edinburgh Wednesday evening - even if my back wasn't completely sorted out (but my doctor assumed me there was no danger in travelling). So after a rather painful trip (which included a rather long stopover in Brussels), I eventually arrived in Edinburgh, checking into my hotel (which due to the last minute travel arrangements was rather far from the city centre, unfortunately...) around midnight.

After checking out (and of course, as you can see, photographing) a rather stunning sunrise, it was time to have a breakfast (of the Scottish variant, with a bit of haggis on the side!) and then head over to the office. After a somewhat frustrating day at the office (as the first day of these sort of trips often are, as we try to set everything up to work properly), 'twas time to head to the pub! I started off with dinner at the Queen's Arms in Frederic Street with my colleagues Sandeep and Etienne (had chicken stuffed with haggis, pretty good actually!).

From there, I headed off to the Guildford Arms (where else?) for my rendez-vous with Andy and Jenni. After some nice catching up (about the recent referendum about Scottish independence, amongst other things!) during which a couple of beers were consumed, we carried on to Whistle Binkies.

Now that just proves how some things NEVER change over the years - Whistle Binkies was where I used to come drinking with the mountaineering club chaps during my student year in Edinburgh (predictably, we ran into Iain there - and equally predictably he was, erm, slightly tipsy, let's say).

So a real nostalgia trip then! The next day was a little bit difficult, with a full day at the office followed by a rather laborious trip back to Nice (changeover in Frankfurt this time).

Back in Edinbrurgh!

The name of the game was business againBack in Edinburgh again, almost exactly one year since my last visit. I was quite happy to visit my old student haunt again (although naturally I was very serious about the job assignment I was here to complete!).

Following some recommendations from Edinburgh colleagues, I decided to stay at the Parliament House, conveniently located just crawling distance from the pubs of Princes Street, at the foot of Carlton Hill. It's one of those historic British hotels full of character - which is mostly a positive, but not only, a positive thing. I certainly prefer a hotel like this to your average chain business hotel (like the Holiday Inn - or Horrible Inn as my colleagues refer to it as - just across the street form our office on Corstophine Road) - but there are some inconveniences (the fact that they converted the elevator to a phone booth is the most strikingly odd feature of the hotel - who needs a phone booth these days??).

After breakfast with Benoit, my colleague from Grenoble, we foolishly decided to try to take the bus to work - in theory an easy task - in practice it took as about an hour to get into the office. Still, we decided to take a bus back to the hotel after work - went better this time. My plan was to meet up with Athol & Colin at the Guildford Arms - unfortunately our poor planning was executed on Facebook, which I didn't have time to check before going to the pub. Naturally I didn't have their phone numbers either - so to cut a long story short, I spent about an hour in the pub alone, drinking beer, waiting in vain...

I eventually managed to figure out Athol wanted to postpone for Tuesday, and Colin wanted to meet later on - so I decided to trek up Carlton Hill for a bit of tourism instead. It's probably the best place in Edinburgh as far as panoramic views are concerned - there are great views towards both the old town, new town and Leith as well. Pretty cool place to take in the views - good thing I brought my camera!

Afterwards, I met up with Benoit for dinner (nice sea food in Thrift street), after which we joined Colin and a couple of mates of his in the Royal Mile in the Old Town at the World's End pub (which takes its name from the adjacent World's End Close, whimsically so named because this was in former times the last close in Edinburgh before entering the Canongate). After a pint there we headed back to the New Town (since I'd rather inconveniently left my camera at the restaurant), where we had a couple of pints more in a nice pub on Thrift Street. All in all, quite an excellent night out - good to see Colin again!

The next day, we decided to get all bold again, and decided to try out the newly completed Tramway for getting into work. Bad mistake again - we ended up taking a bus again, this time taking even longer to get into the office than the day before. The way back into town from the office wasn't easy either - the traffic jams were a real nightmare due to the One Direction gig at Murrayfield (it was quite fascinating observing the crowds querying for the concert - 99% of the audience must've been girls between the ages of 11-17, the rest being girls above 17 years old...  ).

So I ended up rather late for my rendez-vous with Athol, but didn't feel too bad about given that he'd stood me up the night before! Spent a couple of hours with him, first having a quick drink in a burger place, then having a walk around Princes Street (amazingly enough, enjoying a second sunny evening in a row - not a drop of rain yet!), and finally ending up in a pub. Then our ways parted, Athol had a hot date, and I was meeting up my colleagues Benoit and Sheena (here all the way from Noida in India) for dinner in a curry house on Shandwick Place, towards Haymarket. We had a pretty good meal - nice to try some hot curry, it's been a while since the last time! After the meal I had a nice walk back to the hotel, taking some "Edinburgh by night" shots... (especially the Old Town gets pretty atmospheric come night time).

All in all, a pretty good couple of days then, nice to check out some of the old student haunts. Edinburgh really is one of the coolest places in the UK, no make that all of Europe!

Back in Edinburgh!

I have some very happy memories from Edinburgh, where I spent a year studying very hard (yeah right ;-) a looong time ago (1998-1999). So I was quite happy to accept the opportunity to go there for a couple of days with the new job.

I arrived Wednesday noon, somewhat surprised (positively) to observe some rays of sunshine on a typically cloudy sky... After a short taxi drive, I arrived at our office, nicely located just off Costophine Road. Since the temperature was above 10 degrees, most of my colleagues were naturally wearing shorts ;-).

After a rather efficient day at the office, I dropped off my bags at the hotel, and headed downtown, eager to "rediscover" Ediburgh. Unfortunately the sunshine was gone by the time I arrived, but at least it didn't rain... I spent a good hour or so walking around this fascinating town, starting in the new town, crossing Prince's street and heading into the old town, where I walked up to the castle, and then down the Royal Mile to the Palace of Hollyrood house (which is the official resident of the Regent of the United Kingdom in Scotland).

The touristy bit done, I made my way back into the new town, for my rendez-vous at an old haunt of mine, The Guildford Arms. As you may have guessed, it's a pub (where the mountaineering club, which I was a proud member of, used to meet up each week). Quite appropriate choice, since most of the folks I was meeting up with were members of that esteemed club. Jenni and Andy made it, as well as our former president, Iain. I was also happy that Julia, my niece, could make it (she is working there), as well as my former crazy Scottish colleague from my Nokia years, Colin. It goes without saying that it was an excellent night out, almost emotional... ;)

I got up relatively early the next morning, surprisingly without a pounding headache. After another most efficient day at the office, it was time to hit town again, this time for an "official team meal". Before the meal, I naturally had a couple of pints with my colleagues Stewart and Andrew, a kind of Scottish aperitif if you will. (I did actually manage to squeeze in a bit of sightseeing as well - the sun was out so the conditions were just perfect for a few piccies). A couple of pubs, quite a few beers and an excellent steak later, I got the taxi back to the hotel...

After another day at the office (interrupted by a pub lunch - a tradition I was happy to observe is still well and live...), it was time to head back to Nice. Nice to have been back - the couple of days spent there confirmed my impression of Edinburgh being my favourite city in the UK overall!