Like every year when I can, I headed to Ypres to pay homage to fallen clansmen, together with members of other Scottish clans in Belgium.
Personal Site & Travel Blog
Tag: train
A day with nothing planned, and a special offer from Eurostar, that can only mean one thing: day trip to London! By sheer coincidence, there was a beer festival on the day I visited, so all of a sudden, that became my main destination.
The annual Amsterdam Pride Canal Parade was about to set sail, so I put on my Pride of LGBT tartan kilt, and headed to Amsterdam, to run the Amsterdam Hash House Harriers’ “Gay for a Day” trail again, and of course watch the parade!
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If you want to read about this trip from start to finish, instead of in reverse order, click here!
All good things come to an end, and so did this trip… I rolled up my kilt again—the Eurostar metal detectors don’t like its buckles and pin—and for the first time in two weeks, I was back in breeks again.
After an early breakfast in the hotel I successfully finished the packing puzzle: even with an extra T-shirt, pyjama bottoms, silly kilt towel, eight new items of haberdashery—of which six for others—and a bottle of whisky, I was able to zip up my bag quite smoothly!
After chilling in the Avanti West Coast Lounge of Glasgow Central for a bit, the staff announced our train was waiting for us at platform two.
Five minutes after boarding I already had my first cup of tea, and I would be well catered to for the whole 4.5 hour trip to London Euston.
After arrival I quickly went to the lounge in Euston, mainly to use the toilet—too many people queuing to go on the train—and enjoy the air-conditioning for a bit. Apparently outwith Scotland, there’s some kind of heatwave!
On to BrewDog Camden then, mainly just because it’s BrewDog Camden, and of course to try some more beers.
Before heading to St Pancras International, I managed to squeeze in a new place for dinner: Beer + Burger. Don’t know why I postponed it for this long, since the beer selection is impressive! And the burger was tasty…
Then there was only the slightly delayed Eurostar, taking me back to Brussels and thus marking the end of this trip…
Another visit to Edinburgh without seeing the Royal Mile at all? Yep, because there’s so much more interesting things to see and do elsewhere, even outside of the city! Especially if you’re an Outlander fan…
Since my first destination would take a train to get there, I had my breakfast right outside the station, at the Mòr Bakery. I was spoilt for choice, but decided to go for a haggis sausage roll, and a pork, feta and chutney sausage roll.
My train was a Transpennine Express, a company I had never travelled with before. The service was definitely excellent though, and I was well taken care of, even for the short fifteen minutes it took to get to East Linton.
After a short walk I arrived at Preston Mill, where I had booked a guided tour. As it turned out, I was the only one who booked that timeslot, so the very friendly and knowledgeable Alistair gave me a private tour. I’ve learned that oats need to be dried before they can be milled, and that the drying happens o floor very similar to one used in the malting process!
Back in the city, my first stop was at Red Kite Cafe for my daily dose of coffee and cake.
Next was Old Eastway Tap. I had actually forgotten why I had added it to my itinerary, but it quickly became apparent when I had a look at the beers on draught: the bar is owned by Cross Borders Brewing Co., a brewery in Dalkeith.
Let me just take a minute here to appreciate the fact that so many places in Scotland have power and USB outlets here to charge your devices, even in buses and right at the bar!
For lunch—and a beer—I went to Leith Depot, where quite unexpectedly I found a croque madame on the menu. And I must say: their interpretation of this French dish was quite good!
Another coffee at Ground Floor—which actually had a radio studio in it—and I was off to the centre again!
Well, I actually went past the centre, and continued into the west end, to visit BrewDog Lothian Road, since I’ve come to realise that collecting stamps in Beer Visa 3.0 actually has some real perks!
But I was also there to revisit The Hanging Bat. Last time I was there, I mentioned that it didn’t quite feel the same anymore. Now, the bar recently has been taken over by the Northern Monk brewery from Leeds, and it has had an immediate impact on their beer offering. In a good way.
To collect another stamp, I then made a quick visit to BrewDog DogHouse, and then went on to the Salt Horse.
So, the original plan for dinner was to go to Wings, my favourite chicken wings place in Edinburgh, or anywhere basically. I had my checklist ready to make sure I’d only try rubs and sauces I hadn’t tried before. But when I got there, the venue was empty, for hire, no longer serving any chicken… How a genius concept like that couldn’t survive, will forever remain a mystery to me, but in its stead, I went to Bubba Q, a barbecue place nearby.
To finish the night, I went to where it al began—my craft beer journey at least—BrewDog Edinburgh, the OG at the Cowgate.
