Tried my best to sleep off the day off travel and recharge for a day of urban exploring. Our hostel had a full breakfast of cereal, juice, a fruit and a role for a very reasonable 1.5L Becca and I loaded up and ventured out to knock off some chores: SIM card, bike parts and an adapter-the usual bits. We set up in the downstairs hallway to install new brakes and tinker with componentry on Becca’s bicycle to knock off th necessary chores before a day of exploring.
With errands and packing done we set off on a Rick Steve guided walking tour to observe the centuries-old urban environment, political and social icons. Edinburgh is a quaint city with easy ambling through 18th century “skyscrapers” (3-4 level buildings) longstanding pubs, and knickknack shops. An early participant in the urban and industrial revolution, the city supported a confluence of commerce, industrial work and innovation. Relics of this past remain in the form of a scale mound where merchants would weigh goods for taxation and statues honoring its early thought leaders and philosophers. Fun fact: Adam Smith, a father of modern economic theory, is buried in a cemetery off the Royal Mile.
After a few hours trekking through the city, it was time to prep the bikes for our trip across town to our next hostel! With freshly installed brakes and greased threads we loaded our panniers and rucksacks on the bike, tied and tightened odds and ends and then poured over every pixel of blue marking google maps route to point B: Cowgate Hostel. Assuming confidence, we took a few breaths and started off down the hill, brakes on. We descended at a waking pace for a minute until Becca declared we were going unnecessarily slow so we released the brakes and swept down the short hill. Our first trial(ignoring my discovered loose handlebars) came at he first turn, which we missed by a few yards. Becca held our digital map and decided to lead the way onto our main road, passed a central square we frequented earlier(thank goodness, familiarity!) through one more intersection, left on a fork, under a tunnel and a yards down the road we saw a sign, our sign, the Cowgate hostel-we made it!
Trip: .4 miles
