Edinburgh

To make after a lean period of writing I have used travel as inspiration more than once. In fact travel has over the years been an enormous inspirational source for me during different writing phases of my life. I remember when my ambition didn't go beyond writing a blog (long before doing anything with the OU) writing (what I believed to be at the time) hysterical accounts of holidays in Spain, France, and other parts of the Mediterranean. I must try and re access them and see what paltry disasters they actually were!

I'm just back from a short visit to Edinburgh  It was a very short visit but was almost unique in that I learnt very little about the place due to drinking far too much single malt on the first night I was there. Foolish, yes, but very Scottish so perhaps excusable though there were unfortunate consequences. The main one was that I felt ill most of the following day rendering the open top bus tour that we had promised ourselves pretty pointless - just felt too tired and queasy to take in the sights or listen to the commentary - which was, too be fair, rather poor.

Plenty of cobblestones have remained from the previous last couple of centuries  - I liked that. Tram lines exist, but no trams. Plenty of eateries - almost too many I would say. Some high quality coffee houses including Artisan Roast which was cool. The only problem I had was making a choice between Brazilian and Ethiopian coffee beans! In truth you simply could not hope to get away with asking for a cup of coffee as there are countless beans, variations of bean blends, and blends withing blends.  I think it's almost possible to go in and invent one for yourself by asking for certain mixtures - seriously turning the dimmest of dolts into a coffee connoisseur for the day.

Princes Street is so named so that you'll always call it Princess Street and entertain the locals with your ignorance.  And it's nothing special. There's great architecture all over the place - bits of it look like Georgian Bath - other bits like London. loads of iconic statues, luminaries like Robert Lewis Stephenson, David Hume the philosopher - Adam Smith the economist (OK Edinburgh is scratching around a bit - where there is no Churchill or Dickens you have to kind of make do). A cool castle - sitting high up at the end of the old town which I have to say caught my intention.  As did The Witchery: Boswell's old place apparently, said to be haunted by one of the thousand people who were burned for witchcraft on Castlehill in the 15th and 16th centuries. I liked that. One thing I did spot from the bus during a rare lucid moment was the hanging point now commemorated by plaques. Unfortunately I didn't take proper notice of where it was and couldn't begin to find it again once we were off the bus. Nor did I take note of the Heart of the Midlothian - I'm sure that was a different place -  where you're allowed perhaps even encouraged to aim a mouth full of spittle to demonstrate your protest against the prison toll booth that was once sited there and from where many unjust hangings were authorised. (something like that).

Travel does inspire but I feel it's a bit of an uphill battle for me today.