We had to get up very early in Leeds since breakfast was only served until 8:20. (and what was even stranger was that almost everyone else had left by the time we got downstairs for breakfast) We got to Leeds station ok, then due to miscommunication and it being difficult to hear mobile phones, Jo was waiting on one platform for Phil to come out of the loo, whereas he'd been to the loo on a totally different platform and was waiting on the train. Luckily it was sorted out and Jo got on the train just in time.

We took the Seattle-Carlisle route to see the scenery and the Ribblehead viaduct. The scenery was very nice if a little bleak. The viaduct was probably very nice but we couldn't lean out of the train windows so we couldn't actually see very much Pity. Ribblehead station was very nice though and we will have to go back there one day and do some walking. We got to Carlisle in good time and took some photos of the impressive paintings on the wall. We then wandered off to a nearby pub to have some food and a pint before our (late running) connection turned up.

It turned up eventually (remember - there were speed restrictions in force due to the hot weather so this was not entirely unexpected.) As usual, the reservations weren't working and neither was the air conditioning. We can't remember much about the journey - being so hot, Jo survived most of it by drifting in and out of sleep.

We arrived in Edinburgh about 4:30pm and were eager to do a bit of exploring. Thus we found ourselves on one of the Edinburgh tour busses. The town centre was nice to look round. The castle looked very impressive from the hill and the park below it, nice and friendly, the windy streets and shops looked interesting although very busy because it was the fringe festival. During the bus ride we were surprised by how cold it got. When we started off, it was lovely and warm and the breeze from the top deck of the bus was nice and refreshing. Within the hour we were on the bus, the mist came in and brought quite a chill with it, making us both wish we had brought some kind of jumper.

When we got off the bus we made for the royal mile where the festival stuff was going on. We saw the first few minutes of a sample performance but it was so strange and unintelligible that we soon wandered off to the next one. This one was much better. It was 3 lads who were performing a sketch about male and females going to a club and how they interacted with each other and with the bouncers. That makes it all sound very intellectual but it wasn't, it was very funny and we decided to buy tickets to see the whole show later that evening. But first it was time to warm up with a bit of coffee/tea. After that we wandered off in search of somewhere not totally packed out where we could get some food. We soon got distracted by the Lothian and Borders Police Museum. It was only a small place but it had some interesting displays about the history of Policing in Edinburgh and of course, the criminals involved too. The most notable of these were Burke and Hare who wanted more money from the medical school for dead bodies so they went and murdered a few people of their own. We also bought some nice souvenir maps - 'The darker side of the Royal Mile' One of which is on the wall in our house.

We found somewhere not particularly exciting for food then proceeded back towards the theatre where we saw the whole of the play, entitled Bouncers. It was really good fun (with 1 or 2 serious bits), and all too true as well. Phil had a minor crisis because he forgot to tell the time and thought we had 10 minutes to get to the station instead of a couple of hours Oops!!

We did get to the station on time for the sleeper service to London and the helpful staff member showed us to our 'room' and determined what drink we wanted for breakfast the following day. The sleeper train really is a strange phenomenon. We had 2 bunks against one wall with a shelf above the foot end. Next to the foot end was a sink and on the wall opposite the bunks were a couple of coat hangers. On the beds were our goodie bags containing toothbrush and paste, soap, plastic cup and probably some more things that we've forgotten. Trying to sleep on a moving train was weird, especially trying to squeeze both of us in one bunk (well it was our honeymoon, you didn't think we were going to sleep separately did you?) and we trundled thorugh the night to London, with Phil only wndering off once to investigate some noise or something that was going on.

This page is part of Phil and Jo's online madhouse. The links below are what is in the madhouse - please look around.