Edinburgh Day 1 – train from Birmingham to Edinburgh

11/11/2014

Not much to say today except we took the noon train from Birmingham to Edinburgh. We really lucked out with the rain in Birmingham. We’d woken up early to eat breakfast and take a last walk around Birmingham to take pictures (which we really should’ve done the first day but it was too darn cold for my fingers to operate properly with the camera).

Birmingham is coming alive with preparations underway for the Frankfurt Christmas Fair. Victoria Square has been transformed into a Christmas wonderland, and all down New Street, there are cute wooden booths being erected for the fair. There’s carousels and other kiddie rides, booths that sell gingerbread men (Der Nussknacker—Angel always gets a kick out of pronouncing this), crepes, stuff animals, advent calendars. You can’t help but get excited about what it must look like when everything’s operational. Too bad we won’t be here.

The train to Edinburgh (pronounced "eh-din-borough." We've been pronouncing it "ee-din-burg," and nearly all Brits would say, "Oh, you mean Eh-din-borough.") takes 4 hours and it was seriously like riding in the Hogswart Express up north. It was alternating raining and stormy clouds, with the sky turning progressively darker as we went north. But oddly enough, when we arrived at the train station, it was to find that Edinburgh is not as cold as Birmingham and Bath! Birmingham being the coldest…*brrrrr!*

After situating ourselves in our hotel, we went trawling around Edinburgh. Edinburgh Castle lights up at night, which is stunning. We went to Marks & Spencer, Tesco and Sainsbury’s, just looking for shortbread and whiskey stuff to bring home. Alas, either regular Scots don’t eat shortbread or they have another source to buy them from, because the 3 big grocery chains are sadly lacking in shortbread varieties. I couldn’t find too much of specialty whiskies either, so I guess I’ll have to hunt some more tomorrow. :T

I can’t believe I’m here in Scotland though. The land of Harry Potter and Hogswart (hehe completely dorky, I know), Highland adventures and the tales of the Black Dinner. *sigh* I’m so happy right now!

We bought haggis-flavored potato chips (or “crisps,” as they’re known here in the UK). Didn’t taste much like sheep heart, and the pepper was pretty strong, but the texture is amazing. I’ve never had a potato chip so perfectly crisp yet thick before.