July 16, 2025
Leith to Edinburgh
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We planned to spend two nights in Edinburgh and it was only a 6 km ride into town. My notes indicated we could check out at noon from the Holiday Inn so we used the extra time that morning to do laundry - more accurately - Dave did laundry. I had found a launderette down the street but it was the kind that did the laundry for you. Dave showed up at 9 am when they opened (before breakfast) and had to cajole the fellow to do our laundry right away. He returned and we had an indifferent breakfast in a very busy, somewhat chaotic breakfast room full of international tourists, who I am sure are staying here rather than in Edinburgh due to the higher hotel costs in the city.
We enjoyed sitting in the lobby and working on the journal and for me, trying to figure out additional travel plans for the rest of the trip. Unfortunately, and notwithstanding my notes claiming Holiday Inn checkout was noon, we learned at 11:30 when we tried unsuccessfully to access our room that the checkout was actually 11 am. I am pretty sure when I did the booking that checkout was at noon, and they subsequently changed it. It's not that I can't make a mistake, but noon checkout is so unusually late I had specifically noted the later time back in the spring thinking that this lent itself to the possibility of doing laundry that morning before heading to Edinburgh. Happily the front desk clerk was kind. Dave picked up the laundry right at noon and we cleared out with no damage done. We liked the Holiday Inn notwithstanding the less than stellar breakfast atmosphere, and the lack of tub. The rooms were small but comfortable with a little sitting area (for all our stuff) and good a/c, which makes Dave happy. (But of course, it was $336, whatever).
A theme of this trip is we are visiting all the Tiso’s of Scotland. Today we stopped by the Edinburgh Tiso down the street from the Holiday Inn. Since I had used a stuff sack for the goodies delivered last night to Melinda for Nick, I was now one short, necessitating a quick purchase. These stores make us happy: Glasgow, Perth, Aviemore, Edinburgh.
We had ridden Uber into Edinburgh the previous night for dinner and the drive was chaotic and full of random tourists so I was expecting the same this morning on the bike. But it wasn’t that way at all. From Leith there is a lovely leafy cycleway most of the way into the town center. It wasn’t quiet but it was pretty and there was no traffic other than runners, baby carriages and other cyclists.
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We stopped by the Hotel du Vin, our accommodation, and dropped off our bikes and gear so that we could do a bit of sightseeing before our room was ready. We had lunch first at the Foodie Bistro around the corner and there we met Vanya, our server, who is studying economics and policy at the University of Edinburgh, right across the street from our hotel.
She grew up in California and Austin, Texas, but has family in Scotland, and is lucky enough to have two passports. This summer, besides working at the Foodie Bistro, she is an intern at the Scottish Parliament.
We wandered down to the National Museum of Scotland, a huge place, because I had particularly wanted to see the exhibit on the Cold War in Scotland. It took us 15 minutes to find the exhibit, notwithstanding having received specific directions, because the Museum is so big. Scotland was on the front line of the Cold War, as there were some key naval bases and listening posts used primarily by the Americans to listen in on Soviet communications and naval activities. During this buildup, there was a core group of Scottish activists that objected to this use of their island and had some pretty harsh opinions of America. They knew that with all these US and NATO bases, they had become ground zero for any nuclear attack.
We also saw an exhibit on the Jacobite Rebellion and how the Industrial Revolution affected Scotland. Slowly but surely the myriad pieces of Scottish history are starting to take root in our brains. It’s funny what historical events wind up taking on romantic and significant importance in a country’s history - Bonnie Prince Charlie and the Jacobite Rebellions certainly had a huge effect on the Scottish psyche.
Our hotel is great, very fancy because we have a junior suite, but again it’s up in the attic which was the only way to get a tub. There is a lift but it’s of marginal help because it only goes up two floors and then we have to go down a half flight and then up another flight to our room. It’s easier just to climb up from the ground floor. Obviously, these buildings were all retrofitted with lifts from earlier times. Happily the manager hauled our gear up to our room when we were off visiting the Museum, so we got to skip the hassle of doing it ourselves, although we are quite used to it by now. The bike storage is excellent: a small garage with bike slots and our own code to get in and out as we pleased, and no stairs.
The story of why we wound up in an expensive ($550 per night) hotel is due to the challenge I had getting anyone to agree to store our bikes. I went through about four hotels in Edinburgh before I found the Hotel du Vin, so by that point I was just relieved someone would take the bikes - damn the expense. It is pretty frustrating: there just does not appear to be the mental sense of hotel proprietors to get to “yes, we can figure this out.” In Europe we have parked our bikes all sorts of different ways (conference rooms, garages, luggage rooms, hallways, back courtyards, in our rooms, in the stairwell), but here they just don’t seem to have the desire to work the problem. In Edinburgh I even had one experience where I emailed a hotel beforehand asking them about bike parking and the person answering the email said “yes, we could store our bikes” and then when I booked I noted I had confirmed bike storage already. The owner emailed back and rescinded the previous agreement.
As a result I started to do two things: (1) when this happened and I had to cancel, I specifically noted that I was cancelling because of the refusal to accommodate bike parking and suggesting that the UK was missing out on some good business; and (2) I always do a review (usually on booking.com) and specifically acknowledge when we have good bike storage. That way the hotel knows we appreciated it and tourers that need bike storage can see by reading reviews that bike parking is possible. Okay, enough of this rant.
After a nice afternoon break enjoying our room we walked down to David Bann for dinner. This is an established vegetarian restaurant (a Rick Steves recommendation) that does a high end dining experience. The vegetarian angle does not detract at all from the quality and creativity of the meal. We had an excellent salad to start and split a cauliflower/ broccoli main with a side of smoked tofu - the main had a fancier name and was delicious, as was the ice cream dessert we split. A good and welcomed change of pace.
Today's ride: 6 km (4 miles)
Total: 2,752 km (1,709 miles)
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