June 6, 2013
Three: Near Pebble to Edinburgh.
It only gets dark for a few hours and I wake with my body-clock at quarter to five, though I listen to the radio if I can get reception upto half past the hour before I get moving. Is thinking of a short ride into Edinburgh today, to update the journal; or, a whole day south east to Berwick-upon-Tweed in England. In the end it was easy to go with the flow. All the A roads headed to the city. I did have a five mile interlude along a quiet B road through a pastoral valley, towards a place called Romannobridge before entering the traffic; the road was wide enough that I didn't feel threatened and the final stretch was white lined off for cyclists, which it being the morning rush hour, there where plenty.
A bespectacled man with a peaked cycled helmet asked when he drew level with me and as we rode together briefly where Is cycling to. "Iceland" I answered. "Iceland! How long will that take?" "Perhaps to August" I replied. "I should think so" he exclaimed with raised eyebrows, then went on to point out Edinburgh Castle, the Royal Mile and the other places, but I said I'm looking for a cafe with wi-fi. "There's a Starbucks down there" he pointed, before he bade me good luck and rode on to work.
I bough an Americano and a chicken-rap in Starbucks and sat down to a long updating session. The photos and maps for three pages took three hours alone to upload. I saw many changes of customer at the table next me. First two French matrons and a man the same age, browsing through their Edinburgh guide and viewing their photos. Then three lanky Danish girls, each with a huge suitcases which would hold all my four panniers and there'd be space for more. Then a young Israeli guy with a laptop open on the table, who was fiddling with his phone. It was four o'clock before I'd had enough and I still had to find somewhere to stay. I could've done it on the computer but decided to do it the old fashion way, go to tourist information office.
The closest hostel to Waverley Street was in a back street wihich smelt of rotting food from the rear of a restaurant, and was up three flights of stairs. There were cheeky backpackers painted on the wall at each landing with a speech-bubble mocking, "only 39 steps more" and "only 23...." It wasn't going to be easy getting the bike up; though, when up in reception, the man said there was no space to store the bike, which was as well. I looked at a few more. They were all upstairs. Then I headed down the Cowgate which continues as the Grassmarket to another marked on my map, and found this one was on the ground floor. Called "Budget", it's cheap and clean. One drawback, the wi-fi isn't working, so I'll be back in Starbucks tomorrow.
Today's ride: 35 km (22 miles)
Total: 288 km (179 miles)
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