Saturday Family Walk - Into town for a wander and some lunch

We have had a relaxed saturday today. Its been a busy week for all 3 of us; I was away with work, my daughter was at school camp - and my wife's work was full on. So we decided to just have a nice relaxing stroll into town today for some lunch.

It was quite a nice day - cloudy, but still sunny and warm. Above is one of the old private schools that we passed on our way into town. Its been redeveloped into very expensive apartments now. The cost is rather high - but the setting is fantastic and they are located right in the city centre, and close to a train station.

We then dropped into that station (Haymarket - above). We are going to London for a short break next week and we wanted to pick up our tickets. Its an old station but was redeveloped a few years back. I love how they have put the new canopy over the concourse, but used the exterior of the old ticket building to add character to the inside - good architecture !

I like the Haymarket area in Edinburgh. Its a busy intersection, but has nice pubs and restraunts. They are putting this new building up on some ground that has lain empty since atleast the 90s. Its huge, and dwarfs the other buildings in the area (which are only around 4 stories max in height - see below)).

You can see that its much bigger than the 3 storey traditional Edinburgh building on the left. But needs must, etc. It will make a big change. By the way, that smaller building on the left is the Haymarket Tavern - its a great pub. I spent many a good time in there when I was a student !

Above is another pic of Haymarket, and again you can see the new building rising behind the older buildings.

I spotted the door knocker above on one of the buildings there. I think it may have been a bank at one point. I love art-deco architecture and features, and this sits squarely in that bracket.

We also spotted the box above when we were out. These are all over the city, and they are actually police boxes. They date from the Victorian era I think (so 1800s), and it was a place for policemen to take a break, report in, etc. They stopped getting used around 20 years ago and got sold off. Some have been turned into coffee shacks, etc. And they are the exact same thing as Dr Who's tardis (if you know what that is - British cult TV viewing).

On the way back we took a path that gets us most of the way home while bypassing the main traffic routes, which is quite nice.

It was an old city commuter railway line. Above is one of the old bridges that carried the railway over a main road. Youths have taken a liking to scrawling their name all over it - which is a shame, but its also representative of the time so I'm ok with it.

The decorative panel above is mid-way along the bridge. I just love the fact that when it was built, they took their time to add something beautiful. You dont see it so much these days because it costs too much. In this design you have the lion rampant of Scotland, on either side of 3 flowers - the thistle for Scotland, the rose for England and the shamrock for Ireland. But nothing for Wales ?

And above is one of the old railway platforms - they left them intact when they stopped using them (probably in the 1960s) and its great to see nature taking control back !

Its a beautiful path. The birds were singing, and it was really peaceful. These steps actually take you right up to our daughters school. Its is great that the school goers can get around easily by using the path, avoiding busy traffic in the City.

And then I took this last pic about 10mins before we got home. The sky was looking rather 'large', and I tried to catch it on camera - but hey-ho, better luck next time !

Anyway, I hope you are all having a great weekend too. We've been watching Obi-wan kenobi, and are now going to watch the European cup final between Liverpool and Real Madrid - come on Liverpool !!!!

All the best @hoosie