Exploring Luxembourg

I wasn't as stiff and sore as I was expecting to be yesterday which was very good, not sure if it was cos I'm fitter than I thought, am getting used to running half marathons or cos when we went for a celebratory drink we ended up dancing which I spose is better for muscles than just lying on a couch lol. 

Eating overseas is a bit of a mission though, we wandered around for an hour before we found somewhere that could feed me, felt a bit sorry for Ramona and Remo as they could have eaten way sooner if I hadn't had been there. After lunch we went on the sightseeing hop on-hop off bus for a trip around the city. It rained pretty much the whole way but was still fun :)

After the bus tour we went back to the hotel for a nap then I said goodbye to Remo and Ramona, Remo had a test this morning so they had to head back yesterday. After they left I finished my nap then Missie and I went out exploring as it had fined up a lil. Had fun just wandering around and discovered that although I wasn't as stiff and sore as expected stairs weren't fun so wasn't 100%. Treated myself to maccas fries cos I could :) they were so worth it :) lol

We then headed back to hotel for an early night as was knackered and had to get up early for flight this morning. We are now at the airport and the flight is delayed due to bad weather in Amsterdam, it's Missie's first experience of delayed flying and turns out she ain't a fan of it. We were gonna have a few hours to explore Amsterdam but now we are unsure if will get the chance. And if it's bad weather we are not sure we want to either. Atlst we don't have a connecting flight we are gonna miss :) we is happy about that lol. 

Missie is all ready for her bus tour 

Random pics from our wander

Random library thing in the middle of a square 

Missie found a friend 

Scary looking drinking fountain

Random window display

Yum looking giant cushions, this ones for you Dons :) 

Big giant park that I dunno what it was called :) 

My treat/cheat :) so yummy :)

Missie's cranky look at the delayed flight

3rd one done and dusted :)

Half marathon that is :) 

Seemed easier and quicker than the others even though it took me longer, still stoked as training didn't go to plan what with injuries and illness. 

Got me a medal and wicked cool finishers shirt tho :) 

Official time - 2hr 26min 22sec - which I'm very happy with :)

Loot :) 

Luxembourg...

Made it to Luxembourg :) later than originally planned but there is a good story behind it...

Got a phone call last night from an unknown number but it came from Amsterdam (or so my phone said), not sure why I picked it up cos normally I wouldn't but something made me. So anyhow turns out they overbooked my original flight so were looking for people to move onto a later flight. Considering my orignal flight had me waking up at 5.30am to get to the airport on time I was keen to change, once I ensured it wasn't a fraud or trick call of course. So instead of flying economy via Amsterdam I flew business class via Frankfurt after a nice sleep-in :) yup we are not complaining :) 

Missie wasn't sure the extra leg room made any difference, I gotta say it was very nice and if I could would be business class for that alone. We also got free food (well not me cos some idiot made me gluten free), and lots of drinks, plus free magazines/newspapers to read. Def was nice travelling up front for once :)  we also treated ourselves to a taxi ride from the airport to the hotel as we weren't sure which bus to take and didn't wanna ruin a pretty decent trip with a wrong bus. 

Missie did sneak onto the flights (she hid in my pocket) cos she was wanted to and assured me she wouldn't get caught, she didn't either so she is very stoked :)

I then met up with Ramona and Remo and went into Luxembourg city centre for dinner and a lil explore :) we ended up eating at a nice something restaurant, think it mighta been French but not 100% sure. The gluten free thing might be a bit of a hassle over here, the waitresses/waiters seem confused when we asked at a few diff places. Oh the joys of travelling with dietary requirements :(

Missie stayed behind to sleep (and it turns out claim the entire bed as hers!!)

Tomorrow evening I shall run/walk and probably hobble/limp my third half marathon. It's def not about doing a great time this time around, more about finishing and still being able to mostly walk ok. 

On the bus to Edinburgh airport, oh Scotland I won't miss your weather this weekend lol

Checking out the view from my room

Missie is ready for bed...

Water of Leith Walkway

First off, the Water of Leith is a river. Ok now I've got that out of the way on Saturday Toni, Missie and I did the Water of Leith Walkway from the Union Canal entrance to Leith (which is a suburb of Edinburgh to some people and its own area on the edge of Edinburgh to others, I say it's a suburb but then I don't live there lol). It was the first time Missie and Toni had met and I'm pleased to say they got on well, which I'm glad cos it's always awkward when your friends don't get along. 

It was a very lovely walk and the only down part was the weather which went from sunny and warm to sunny and hot to rainy and cold to cloudy and warm to rainy and warm to sunny and hot to rainy and warm to cloudy and warm to you get the picture. I did decide Missie needs a raincoat though, she spent some of the walk with me holding her trying to protect her from the rain with my hands cos it was too warm to put my coat on. She ain't so keen on the raincoat idea but she also not like getting wet so who knows what will happen. 

The walk from the canal to the start of Leith was 7 miles according to the signs but I don't think the peps that made them can count cos we went past one that said 3 3/4 miles to go then bit further down we got told we had 4 miles to go, and then near the end got told 3/4 miles to go and the next sign said 1 1/4 miles to go... See total lack of counting skills, but no matter we had fun and ended up walking for around 3.5hrs so were pretty stoked with our effort :) 

Weather packed in when we were finishing so we headed to a pub for a drink, technically we was headed there anyhow the weather just makes a good excuse hehe. 

This is the bridge with the canal on it that we usually run across when running the canal

Couple of selfies

Wouldn't mind one of these houses...

A semi kinda waterfall thing

Nice quote found along the way

We just liked the combination of things for this pic

Deans Village (if I was loaded I'd like to live here)

Made it to the end :)

Relaxing time 

Just incase you was thinking Missie didn't share

1 year been and gone already

Wow time has flown! Today last year I landed in Manchester and caught up with Zan when she picked me up from the airport. Big thanks to Zan and Noel for letting me stay with them when I first got here, and Jo and Ben for letting me take over the spare room in their flat when I got to Edinburgh in June. 

At the same time I feel like I've seen lots but also nowhere near enough, as you can see by my scratch map below there is still loads of places I have to go :) and I can't wait to explore them. 

Pentland Hills aka The Pentlands

Yesterday Missie and I decided to go for a wander so we went to The Pentlands. The Pentlands are the hill range that I can see from work (and get mega excited about when there is snow on them) and you can also seem them from Arthurs Seat, and probably many other places around Edinburgh.

We bused to Hillend and started there, we walked up (according to the map I got later on) Caerketton Hill, Allermuir Hill and Capelaw Hill then semi up and around Castlelaw Hill (this was the one with the military danger zone signs).  Missie thinks I made too many view appreciation stops on the way up the hills and I tried to point out that sitting in my camera case which was clipped to my bag required little effort whereas walking up the hills required a great deal more so view appreciation stops were allowed.  She didn't seem to mind when photo taking was part of the stop, it was more when I just stopped and puffed and tried to catch my breath that she seemed to have an issue with.

Partway round Castlelaw Hill we found a nice place to stop and have lunch which was rudely interrupted by a very nosey sheep coming to close to me (yes I am a lil scared of sheep).  We did see lots of lambs though which was very cool, especially as lambs are smart enough to walk away from you when you get close to them and therefore are not a threat ;)

After lunch we walked to Flotterstone Information Centre which is where we picked up the map.  Couldn't find the bus stop anywhere around there so we went back to the information centre and picked up the Busing to The Pentlands map. It looked complicated to find the bus from here to home and it was also a fair way from Edinburgh so might have been more than £1.60 so we decided to walk over to the other side to get to Harlaw House Visitors Centre and Balerno where we could catch a bus for £1.60.  Turns out The Pentlands are wider than either of us really expected and the 'short walk' that the guide said it was from the visitors centre into Balerno was bit of an exaggeration, though there is also a very good possibility we took the wrong path from the visitors centre... Never mind we made it to the bus stop all good, just had a bit of a walk along a country road with fingers crossed we were headed in the right direction.

Partway up the hills Missie decided that she wanted a go at taking the photos, she figured she has been in enough of them and it didn't look too hard.  Turns out she is not a bad photographer, as you will see below :) We also chatted to a couple of lovely locals along the way.  One lady we got to take a photo of us at the top of one of the hills, this was before Missie decided to try the photography thing.  At the top of the next hill the lovely lady waited for us so she could point out the English Border that you can see from up there.  We also saw a nice man a little later on in the afternoon who for the past 3 weeks had been walking The Pentlands as next weekend he is going up the Munros with some friends who have been up them over 280 times and he doesn't want to be the slowest one so was getting prepared.  He reminded me a lil of Doffy with the making sure he was prepared and not wanting to be the slowest, also for the fact that he was chilling grabbing a bite to eat and had the sunscreen to reapply :)

Ended up walking for around 5 hours and took some real nice pics. It was a very lovely day so really happy, well minus the sunburn I got, and before you ask I was wearing factor 30 sunscreen that I reapplied at lunchtime!! Mum you are wrong, I do get sunburnt over here :(
There is still the entire other side of The Pentlands with 8 hills to climb that I plan to go back and do at some stage, for £3.20 it is definitely going to be a good place to go over summer while I'm trying to save money. Plus Missie thinks I am not fit enough if I can't climb these hills without stopping, I think she has forgotten I have trained for a half marathon in a couple weekends time so could def outrun her.

Missy just hanging out


On our way up one of the hills


Missie chilling at the top of one of the hills


We found a stile at some point between two of the hills so obviously had to test it could take the weight of a human and a friend....


At the top of the highest hill, see what I mean about Missie being a pretty good photographer :)


Sheep and lamb, just cos really


Our view for lunch


Enjoying lunch (a peanut butter sandwich if you was wondering)


A random seat at Flotterstone


On our way from Flotterstone to Harlaw


Same as above