Not all those who wander are lost
Date published 14 March, 2019
Edinburgh. How did you get here?
I like Edinburgh. It is a great capital city. There is interesting architecture, some decent street stalls, a castle and the Royal Mile.
But like most cities, a visit to Edinburgh had previously gone something like this. You get out the train at the station, which is fairly central, do the tourist route, and get back on the train. You can do this in York. In Glasgow. In Newcastle. I think you have the picture. And there is nothing wrong with this, but Edinburgh has another great feature.
Edinburgh is compact. So are other cities, sometimes. And a compact city offers a different choice of how to do the visit.
You can walk in. Right from the outskirts. Actually, I walked in from the Firth of Forth. That is about 4 to 5 miles depending on where you start, and that distance takes you right onto the Royal Mile.
This changes your understanding of the city. Now, instead of stepping off a train right into the middle of the tourist bit you see the build up. You experience the evolution from river bank, to suburbs, to business bit, to tourist bit. It all makes sense, and actually, the whole city is the opposite way around to what I thought before. If you can manage to see Dean Village, as well, do that, too.
This, I guess is my muse after doing this. The way you travel to a destination actually changes the destination.
So this is my new thing. Walk into the city. This will work with market towns too.
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