When we first planned the UK trip as always we wanted to have it all! So against popular advice we planned for 2 countries - England and Scotland! With Scotland being what we were fondly looking forward to! I had booked these wonderful Inns and Bed and Breakfast across Scotland and put together this monumental road trip around the Highlands and Skye! But as you know by now luck intervened in the form of Covid and a missing wallet! And the car rental company saw an opportunity and seized it! Demanding 1000 pounds for the upgrade to automatic (for 3 day rental)! So we canceled everything and headed on to Edinburgh!
For lunch the kids were craving Pizza! So we went looking for a Pizza express (a chain) right next door to us! In this setting with a little canal (Paddington Basin) was a really nice little area to have lunch! A little reminiscent of Venice the Paddington canal flows through central London from Hayes in Little Venice to Limehouse Basin. It is the same canal we saw a couple of days ago at the Paddington station. It ends at Paddington Basin right next door to where we stayed! Had I known we would have explored a little boat ride to the Rembrandt Gardens in Little Venice! But too late now, we needed to head off to the station to catch our train to Scotland!
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The veterans that we were, we were all set to lug our luggage through the underground train and head to Kings cross for our express train to Scotland! But in the end after a look at M, I decided to be kind and call an Uber! Not to mention I had also made a mess of our Oyster cards by swiping the wrong card and 2 of our cards now had a negative balance! However London traffic is crazy! So it took us 40 mins and a circuitous route to get to Kings cross that otherwise would have taken 10-15 mins!
However M perked up when we passed by this neat little surprise! His cricket genes kicked in and he immediately was excited!
But no time to stop! Onwards to Kings cross to get on our LNER express train to Edinburgh! I had booked ahead in first class and had got some great prices! Look online on nationalrail.co.uk for some great deals! Unlimited beverages/ drinks and a meal was provided on the train.
 | | The first class lounge |
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 | | All aboard! |
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The train ride itself was 4.5 hrs long and was uneventful! It took us through some very picturesque locations in Northern England! Some of the towns in England-Scotland border looked heavenly! Here are some pictures from our fast moving train!
The train journey through the English country side is picturesque! M is always curious about the crops that are grown! Apparently oilseed rape is the most common (besides Wheat and Barley). We saw a lot of the bright yellow of the oilseed or canola! A vegetable oil that is also used as bio diesel! I found that fascinating, you can either put it into your vehicle and drive or use it to fry your food! How versatile!
After the scenic train ride, we arrived at Edinburgh! I was of course very excited to be there and even though it was almost 9 PM and everyone was exhausted and giving me the glares I was trying to breathe in Scotland as I walked to the apartment we had in Old town!
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| Dad and daughter lead the way at the Edinburgh waverley station! We are starting to feel the chill of Scotland already! |
I know our Scotland trip will be limited to Edinburgh! But that never curbed my enthusiasm to discover a new place! The sun doesn't set here till 10 PM and with all this beauty around me its hard to contain my excitement to get out and explore in the morning!
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