Bye Bye Wee Scotland, Bonjour Paris
Trip Start
May 02, 2008
1
8
28
Trip End
May 31, 2008
Edinburgh,
Scotland,
United Kingdom
Friday, May 9, 2008
Packed up all our stuff, re-fuelled the car and then drove up to Calton Hill, a very high hill overlooking Edinburgh city. Great view but quite chilly up the top and we got a lot of dirty looks from all the people trudging to the top of it as we slackly drove past them.
After this we decided to take the car home and then catch a cab back in to see Edinburgh castle. A fun trip
through all the busiest streets of the city, and all the ones being dugup as poor old Navman/woman doesn't know
about roadworks. We got there in the end though and had a very quick look around the castle.
Calton Hill
On our free guided tour we found out that the canons commissioned by Queen Victoria to protect the castle were
actually Naval cannons and had never been fired. Apparently the crafstman in Portsmouth who was commissioned to make them was having a bit of a laff! Also discovered that some tourists think the land then can see over the Forth of Firth is... Norway... Ireland... or even Amercia! (It's more of Scotland of course - very sad!!)
Louisa came to see us off at the airport, which was very nice of her to leave work early. Thanks Lou Lou.
Hopped on the plane to Paris and touched town at Charles DeGaulle airport (aka "Bunny Airport" as every square cm of green has been invaded by wee little brown bunnies). They need to call Anti-Pesto as there's a bunny infestation! Provided quite good amusement for everyone on the bus!
The cuteness of the bunnies however quickly wore off as we searched in vain for about an hour trying to find where you catch the airport shuttle bus from. After phoning a friend (Jim), asking 2 information counters, and catching a inter-airport shuttle to the wrong terminal and back again, we eventually found where to go
Looking Down the Barrell at Edinburgh Castle
. And when we got to the right place there were lots of brochures telling you where to find it in the airport ... yeah, thanks!To be fair, taxis, normal buses and trains are very easy to find ... just the mode of transport we'd chosen was more difficult.
The shuttle brought us into town and we trundled our cases the 300m or so to our hotel ("Hotel Residence Foch" http://www.residencefoch.com/uk/navigation.htm ).
We'd been allocated a beautiful room, the only one on the top floor of the hotel (it's only small - 7 floors and about 20 rooms in total). We're staying in a really beautiful part of Paris, near the Champs-Elysees and Arc de Triumph.
So nice to get to the room and fall asleep!
