erin x edinburgh

This is a picture of yours truly,caught in the act, falling in love with Edinburgh!

Sunday on a stroll of underground Edinburgh, my husband snapped this shot. I was admiring a stone arch; one of many making in George IV bridge, but one of few visible from a city having been built up around said bridge. I was taking a moment to appreciate my find. I was enjoying something so much older than myself. I was imagining how many other eyes have looked upon this with apathy or admiration.

I also seem to match my environment- cobblestones, sky and me- grey! But not my outlook today!

Enjoy the stories of this Sunday Stroll, coming soon...

edinburgh x erin

Sunday Stroll or Steve Zissou and the "c" word

Today the sun was out so we hopped on a bus bound for Edinburgh's answer to the suburbs: Cramond. Daypasses for the bus cost 3 pounds 20 pence and so began our 50 minutes bus ride. Cramond in fact isn't all that far from the Edinburgh city centre (or downtown for all the Canadians), four miles to be exact, but we wove through little villages lined with brick walls and bursting with the type of greens that can only mean Spring in Scotland. The bus ride was worth the adventure in itself and I loved seeing areas of the city I have not ventured into yet. An exodus of people piled off the bus at our stop and wound there way down to the waterfront pub where our walk was to start.

Any warmth the sun may have been giving off was quickly blown away with the wind off the Firth of Forth along with our hairdo's and ice creams. We started by walking along the causeway that leads to Cramond Island, which is only accessible at low tide. It was no where near low tide so I took this picture of my husband Steve Zissou, known amongst his piers as Lumberjack, and ran back to shore before the sea spray did any more damage to my ice cream.

Our three and a half mile journey was on a multi-use paved path several meters wide. We were joined by folk on bikes, many a playful pup as well as both wind surfers and kite surfers braving the white-capped waters. Surprise! Castle sighting! I am not pretentious, Scotland just has the most castles per capita (not a fact), so spotting one has become a bit of a daily occurrence (I have to pass by one on my way to work, wierd eh?). These little fellas in all their fairytale splendour pop up more often than gas stations, or petrol station as they are called here and certainly make for incentive to keep your head up on hikes.

Moving along...

This walk reminded me of the sea wall in Vancouver, BC, but in the place of North Van we saw the Kingdom of Fife across the water where we had been camping two weeks prior. The golf courses to our right eventually became blocks of flats, and by late afternoon we arrived at our bus stop in Granton.

One last look over our shoulder just past Granton docks!

So our gloriously sunny stroll, from Edinburgh to Cramond to Granton and back again, came to an end. Our day ended with another wonderful bus ride, this time through New Town, and traditional fish and chips eaten in the Meadows.

Check next week for another Sunday stroll in Scotland and a review of our local 'chippie' too!

Edinburgh x erin

Sunday Stroll- A "Close" Call

Close: A narrow Edinburgh Street passing between two

tenement buildings, which at one point would have
been closed off at either end by gates

'The Town Below the Ground' a book by Jan-Andre Henderson, a local tour guide with an interest in Edinburgh's underground and slightly occult history, was the inspiration for this weeks Sunday Stroll.
This was one of my second hand books I picked up last week on the topic of Edinburgh's legendary underground city. This morning seemed to be sunny one minute and showering the next, so we deemed it unsuitable for our original plans, but perfect to stuff some cameras in our pockets and go explore the Old Town.
We infact live in what is known as Edinburgh's Old Town, the setting of both Henderson's book and numerous tours for visitors and those interested in unearthing Edinburgh's unearthly past. We conducted our own self-guided tour based on some of the locations mentioned in the book to avoid the cost of hiring a tour guide and to avoid having to go into these areas at night! We wove through alleyways, always remembering to look up, as so much can be learned about Edinburgh's past from the varying height of its infrastructure.

Edinburgh was built on seven hills now hardly evident as the city grew both up and down, essentially closing in some areas, using some as foundations and others dug underneath existing structures. This city planning at the time was one concerned with defence of its Castle, a product of eventual over-population within the cities existing defensive wall having been built upon a landscape formed by volcanic activity and mottled by glaciers. So, though at first glance the old town might appear to have even roof lines, it actually consists of bridges, vaults, various levels and building ranging in height from 3 to 14 stories tall. Some of the remaining architecture dates back to the 16th Century, but all is covered with the stamp of time- blackened by the elements and years of pollution, mossy and worn, windows and doors sealed up with stone, with uneven cobblestone streets and steep, greasy passageways. All hints about what once was, Old town also has its share of modernized apartments, repurposed buildings, tourist attractions and grafilthy tags.

Had it not been for the ghost stories and snipets of history I had read, our day would have been without event or discovery, making our way from A to B through an area that might otherwise go unnoticed. We recounted the rumours, we peeked over embankments, we searched for clues or signs of life long gone. South Bridge for example, which I walk over nearly everyday and appears to be more of a street than a bridge, was built 1785-88 and consists of 19 arches though only one of which remains visible.

Cowgate Arch crosses over an area once the slums to the cities poor, having been home to criminals and squalor. Cowgate's reputation of being the notorious underbelly of Edinburgh remains. Though no longer home to poverty and crime it is now ironically the location for many of the Burgh's dance clubs and bars. So basically, once a seedy area always a seedy area. (ahem)

This picture was taken around 1860 by William Donaldson Clark of Cowgate arch. If you live here you will note the light coming from where ANOTHER arch was once visible, but has since been filled in. I was beyond thrilled to find this picture after having scurried around the streets last Sunday, stories bouncing around from my book, hunting for clues to the past and aching to see signs of those hidden arches to no avail. (I later found out this artist died after falling off a tram car in the very neighbourhood I currently reside! Strange coincidence I'd say!)

And this little gem of technology is a map of our journey, and 'neat-o'...it's interactive! You can zoom it to see some local landmarks or change it to satellite view to actually see the building for yourselves and read a bit about their current occupants.

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View Close Adventures in a larger map
That is all for today:

I don't know which is creepier- the haunting stories of Edinburgh's hidden underground or Google Earth being able to track our every move by satellite and cell phone!

Hope you enjoyed my Sunday Stroll!

erin x arches