A Solitary Edinburgh Lith
Walking along Princes Street in the rain, I came across this solitary lith called an Edinburgh Navigator.
A Solitary Edinburgh Lith
They are described here on the website of the company that designed them. For systems like this to be truly useful, there needs to be lots of them and they need to be all over a city and not just in the places, where visitors go. This is the opening paragraph from the web page.
Although Edinburgh has a number of renowned landmarks, research revealed that visitors still found some difficulty finding their way around. Our review of existing visitor navigation illustrated a lack of clear and integrated signage. The solution was to develop an entirely new visitor orientation system – Edinburgh Navigator.
It could be said of so many cities, all over the world.
Coeliac Or Just Gluten Free?
I was asked this question in Jamie’s Italian in Edinburgh.
How professional is that?
I had a very nice rabbit pasta.
Buses In Edinburgh
Whilst in Edinburgh, I travelled several times on Edinburgh’s buses. They may be understandable to those, who live in the city, but they don’t have the bus maps everywhere, that Londoners and most tourists like in London. So if you’re not with a guide, it can be difficult to find the bus and the appropriate stop for where you want to go.
I was staying with a friend, just outside the city centre, and she can take buses from two companies to get home. So, although you can buy a 24-hour ticket for each company, you can’t buy one for all of the buses that use Edinburgh. And of course, I can’t use my English bus pass in Scotland. I have wondered how many English, who fancy a weekend away, don’t go to Scotland, as their bus passes are not valid. Surely, every UK bus pass, should be valid all over the UK, to encourage tourism.
But the fact that there is no 24-hour pass for the whole of Edinburgh, was a total surprise to me. Many cities in England and of course London, have systems to give 24-hour travel to everybody, who wants it. Surely, this problem will be solved, when every city in the world follows London and allows a bank or credit card to be used as a ticket. There’s a lot here on contactless ticketing with bank cards.
Talking of tickets, will you need a third 24-hour ticket, for the trams in Edinburgh?
Edinburgh has the silly single door buses, that don’t announce their stops, that still persist outside London. Was this why on my several trips on Edinburgh’s buses, I never saw a mother with a baby in a buggy or anybody carrying anything heavy?
What summed up the badly planned nature of Edinburgh’s buses, was this timetable on a stop.
How Not To Do Bus Information
Note how to text to find the next bus, you have to type in an eight-digit number and then use a full mobile number. In London, which appears to be a much bigger city than Edinburgh, all stops are covered by codes that are just five digits and you text the same short number of 87287 at every stop.
I also think that as you can get the buses of two companies from the stop I was using, you actually have to use a different system to get the times for the other company. London,which has several bus companies, merges all the routes and companies together.
An Improved Waverley Station
Trying to improve Waverley station in Edinburgh, must be one of those jobs that architects find challenging to say the least. The site is in a cutting and very cramped and making an attractive station with all the facilities and decent entry and exit for passengers is probably the stuff of nightmares. They had a lot of similar issues at Birmingham New Street station, but seem to have solved them, by virtually demolishing the old station and starting again. But as these pictures show, a new clean roof and escalators can bring about improvements.
One thing that I found rather strange, was that the road opposite the station seems to be reserved for tour buses, which in my view should not be blocking up access to the station. I am surprised that the new trams won’t be crossing that bridge. Surely like Kings Cross, London Bridge and Euston stations in London, interchange with the local buses, should be just a short walk. At least the escalators up to Princes Street, make one entrance to Waverley station a lot easier.
East Coast Didn’t Impress
It had been a long time, since I travelled all the way up from London to Edinburgh in one go. Once a few years ago in the days of GNER, I did a trip from Peterborough to Edinburgh and back in a day. That must have been after I had been diagnosed as a coeliac, and I can remember discussing my meals with the on-board chef.
As it was I didn’t get any breakfast on the way up, as they had nothing that was gluten-free. So I might as well have saved money and travelled in Standard Class. Compare this with Virgin Trains, who now serve an excellent gluten-free breakfast.
I also had a seat with a table that rattled a lot and shook tea everywhere. I just think it needed the tightening of a couple of screws.
I think that next time, I go to Edinburgh, I’ll combine it with an intermediate stop like Liverpool or Newcastle or perhaps take the soft option and fly.
Mainly because I was getting distinctly hungry by the time I finished my journey.
I could have taken a packed lunch or bought sandwiches in Marks and Spencer in Kings Cross, but that really nullifies the advantage of First Class. Obviously with a shorter journey to say Leeds, York or Newcastle, this lack of food is less of a problem, as I can eat well at both ends of the trip.
As I Can in Edinburgh, but surely one of the reasons to take long distance trains, is to enjoy the travel and the views and hopefully some well-served food.
Kings Cross In The Morning
I started my trip to Edinburgh at Kings Cross by getting the 09:00 to the city.
Kings Cross In The Morning
I took this picture from the lift, that took me from the overbridge to the my train on Platform 1.
A guy with me, said he had been one of the engineers, who worked on the cleaning of the roof. He said, they got enough pigeon muck to power the country for several months.
Off To Scotland
I’m off to Edinburgh today by train to see an old friend. Then it’s over to Glasgow and on Saturday down to Bolton to see Ipswich play.
I’ll be having a good breakfast at Leon in Kings Cross, as it would appear that gluten-free food on East Coast is a bit thin. I may be wrong, but we will see!
Buying Tickets To Scotland
Next weekend, I’m going to Edinburgh and Glasgow and then down to Bolton to see Ipswich play.
All journeys were booked on-line in First Class and purchased using my Senior Railcard. It cost me £64.31 for the trip up using East Coast on Thursday and £57.45 for the split journey down using Virgin.
The journey down is probably cheaper, as it is effectively a typical Premium Economy journey in First Class on Saturday.
As I can now collect tickets from my local station at Dalston Junction, I was able to collect the tickets, whilst taking a constitutional walk to the pub in the evening.
Would people use the trains more, if it were easier to pick up tickets?
The Honourable Company Of Edinburgh Misogynists
The Sunday Times has it’s knives out for golf today, using the title of this post to describe the men-only club that runs Muirfield; the venue of this year’s Open Championship.
It would be interesting to know if the misogynists had ever had a gay member! The law of averages said that they must have!
Interestingly, the Mirror says this of Fred Goodwin in this article.
He also likes to shoot pheasants on a friend’s estate, and play leisurely rounds of golf at the historic Muirfield course.
Fred maybe a man whose business practices have been condemned, but I suppose he isn’t a woman!
Do You Get As Much Free Bamboo As You Can Eat?
This story from the Sun is about testing the new panda-cams at Edinburgh Zoo.
I suppose it’s one of those jobs, that is in that category of tough ones, that someone has to do.
You can actually see the pandas using this link.
The Anonymous Widower 