Our apartment in Edinburgh overlooked an open courtyard where a writer’s museum established to commemorate the works of Robert Louis Stevenson and Sir Walter Scott stands proudly. The entrance to the museum is via the small brown door at the bottom of the corner section with the circular roof in the following photograph.
There is also short cut to the courtyard from The Mound (below).
This morning we departed Edinburgh by train for Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. The transit was not without drama. I directed us to board the wrong train, and in the confusion and haste to join the correct train on another platform, I managed to lose one of the train coupons. This was not immediately obvious and when I did discover this fact I didn’t imagine it would have been a problem. However, when the ticket inspector came wandering down the carriage it looked like I’d be dispatched to the salt mines in Siberia. There didn’t seem to be any opportunity to discuss the logic of “booked” seats with associated coupons and printed “receipts” for the seats were we actually occupying. I was threatened with having to purchase a whole new ticket because I was travelleing without a “valid ticket”. I told him I would discuss this with the ticket agent when we arrived in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne and then spent the next hour and thirty minutes practising my logical arguments as to why they should just let us go because we’re really not terrible people nor were we trying to evade their train fares. We reached Newcastle-Upon-Tyne and alighted from the train. With pulses racing we approached the ticket collection gate; and finding it open; walked through happily, dropping our single spent ticket in the nearest recycling bin. Karma!
Our hotel is adjacent to the river Tyne and one of the many bridges that span the river is a modest replica for the Sydney Harbour Bridge but with a much reduced span. Still, it reminded us of home.
Tomorrow, we shall explore Newcastle-Upon-Tyne.