Scotland - Day Twenty Seven - Edinburgh to London

Day 27 - and finally we leave Bonnie Scotland.

We had a lovely dinner at The Ivy last night. So good that we were going to go back for our last night, but in the end we decided to just go to the pub instead. Our endless pot of gold turned out not to actually be endless, despite my protestations.

We are “leaving on a jet … train.” We are on the Caledonian Sleeper tonight so we’ve had to do meticulous planning around packing, checking out, storing luggage, needing to do shopping, repacking etc. By “meticulous planning” what I mean is …

I’d take us 15 minutes in the opposite direction to the luggage storage first thing, thus making an 8 minute walk a nearly 30 minute walk. Only made worse by the fact that our luggage has now doubled in size with the addition of an extra suitcase each … so by the time we’d dropped all 4 bags off we were grumpy, sweaty and in a state of disarray. We used Bounce for our luggage storage which was all done through their App and was very straightforward. Once restored by coffee we spent the morning buying presents for the grown-up kids. Which they won’t appreciate or use, but it makes us feel kind and caring, so that’s novel.

Then we shopped for ourselves. Or I did. The Favourite Husband was chief boss of the bags. I’ve banned him from coming into shops with me. He sucks the joy out of shopping by asking silly questions; like “how much is that?” And “do you need a fourth Christmas jumper for summer?”

After shopping we had a few drinks and dinner whilst we continued to kill time until our train boarded at 10.30 pm. We had hoped to do two final things today in Edinburgh the Real Mary’s Close and cocktails at The Dome. Neither of which we booked ahead so neither of which we got to do. Learn from our mistakes. Because of my failed itinerary it made for a long day killing time.

That said, it was lovely to wander round Edinburgh again. We went to the National Gallery which was really good. We went to all the fancy shops and a massive shopping mall - St James Quarter I think. It felt different as we were more relaxed as we’d seen so much that we’d wanted to at that start. We just got to enjoy hanging out with no need to rush or cram stuff in.

The left luggage is a great idea, the waiting all day for the sleeper train I’m not so sure. In hindsight we might have been better to fly to London where we could be happily tucked up in bed somewhere by 9pm. But I’m of the opinion that the sleeper train would be fun goddammit. It might be like the Orient Express. Potentially complete with a murder. How exciting …

It is a lot of hanging around and towards the end we were tired and had eaten enough to sink a ship so it was a good job we weren’t going by sea.

Having been reunited with our luggage we then lugged all 4 bags to completely the wrong platform. Some of the communication around the sleeper train was a bit casual, but they do have 24 hour real people on the live chat, which was a god send.

And finally, it was there and we were in the right place. It’s a manual check in on the platform, but it was friendly and efficient.

There was much laughter and swearing trying to get ourselves plus 4 suitcases into our cabin complete with ensuite, but that’s part of the fun. (The answer is you can’t and 2 of them ended up in the luggage carriage.) I firmly instructed the Favourite Husband that anything odorous must not occur in the ensuite … and then we were brushing our teeth and clamouring, slowly and stiffly, over each other to get to bed.

As soon as the train left the station, I was duly terrified and could feel every bump and jolt underneath me. But I got used to it surprisingly quickly. Before you could say “all aboard” they were telling us we were about to arrive at Euston station. We had ordered breakfast which is delivered to your cabin as a takeaway. A bacon roll and a hot drink. Disappointingly neither the lounge in Edinburgh, nor the lounge in London, were open. So, we sat watching the world go by eating our breakfast before we dropped the bags off using Bounce again for a few days with family before heading back to New Zealand.

Scotland has exceeded our expectations in every way. We believe we chose the most perfect time of year to visit, the Autumn colour was spectacular and there weren’t too many tourists so we didn’t feel crowded or rushed.

Everyone always asks “what was your favourite … city/castle/activity?” Which is impossible to answer. But here would be my Top 5 takeaways;

Ø Don’t miss Glasgow, it’s awesome

Ø Don’t discount ruined castles

Ø Try the haggis, the Cullen skink, the whisky

Ø Schedule some downtime to just do nothing or to wander off the beaten track

Ø Be brave, explore, be adventurous

And that is our Scotland adventure over and out …