Faff-Free

We arrived in Edinburgh via train from Liverpool yesterday evening. Chris is relieved to be free of driving and should feel pretty proud of himself for navigating motorways as well as tiny roads more fit for foot traffic than cars.

We met up with our friends’ son, Oliver, who is working in London for the summer and taking as much advantage as he can of being so close to so many new places to explore. Edwin and Maxine grew up with him, and it’s been nice for them to catch up and branch off from us.

Edinburgh kind of takes your breath away; its twisty stairways climbing steeply up between ancient sandstone buildings begs for you to duck into the narrow passageways and follow them wherever they lead you. The only downside is the throngs of tourists. I guess we were a little spoiled by Wales; the tourism was minimal by comparison, and we seemed to be the only Americans until we arrived in Edinburgh.

This morning we hiked up to Arthur’s Seat to get a panoramic view of the city. The wind nearly knocked me over at the top, but luckily it was blowing up and over the peak toward the lee side. This excursion was met with a wee bit of complaining from Maxine; she thought she was done with hikes after Mt. Snowdon.

We split from the kids for the afternoon, and Chris and I hightailed it for pub on the non-touristy side of town. It was exactly what we hoped it would be: locals only (except for us), £3 sandwiches and savory pies, and good beer on draft. Oh, and over 700 kinds of scotch. We tried one, which the bartender served with a touch of water to “open it up,” he said. He never recommends adding ice. I didn’t hate it.

On our walk back to the flat, we came upon a sign advertising “faff-free” service. Chris looked it up and saw that it means free from unnecessary hassle, effort, or awkwardness. That’s pretty much what our journey has been so far. I hope it stays that way for the final four days!