Amsterdam to Edinburgh

Well it's been a long time since we've written the blog ;-) Since I last wrote...

We caught the train from Amsterdam to Groningen to visit Zoe and Pedro. We had a wonderful week with them. Pedro cooked us some fantastic Porteguese meals and we had many laughs all together in their little apartment. We were lucky to see them both performing in Camerata Ardesco at a lunchtime concert, and we met Jana, the lovely woman who has looked after Zoe over the last few years. We spent a great afternoon with her chatting ;-) It was a lovely time together and we are hoping to go back soon ;-) Groningen is a really pretty city and has a great feeling about it!

Back in Amsterdam we did some more wandering of the steets, walked around the beautiful Vondelpark which is a great park near the centre of the city which is used by lots and lots of people, walking, jogging, riding around, music and people sitting - we can imagine that in summer it's really busy! We did some yoga with Jose and Lee which was great and had some fun meals with David and Jose and Lee. We also went wandering the streets and found some great secondhand shops - i managed to pick up some clothes for work which are really nice (and wool, so are super warm also!). Amsterdam is a magical place - the trees were all dropping their leaves, and the canals are just really lovely. We tried to avoid the touristy areas and as a result had a lovely time there. And we were very pleased to be able to stay with David and Jose in their great apartment which is on the corner of two canals and on the top floor so has fabulous views!!

But of course the holiday had to come to an end eventually. We were due to catch the ferry on the Tuesday evening but in the morning it was really windy, so our ride to the coastline didn't sound so great. So we cycled down to behind the Amsterdam train station in the super strong wind (it almost blew me off my bike as we crossed over a couple of the really exposed bridges over the canals - because we had all our luggage with us!!). But i managed to hold on!! So we caught a high speed ferry from Amsterdam to the town where the big ferry was leaving. Unfortunately they wouldn't let us bring our bikes and gear into the ferry, it had to go on the roof, but it was a hydrofoil which travelled at about 60km/hr, so we spent the whole time (about 25mins) wondering if when we got there we would still have our two bikes, trailer and all our gear! A little stressful!!!! But we managed to keep our gear and it was an incident free trip. We then cycled around in circles around this town looking for somewhere to grab some lunch and sit out the afternoon, as we didn't need to be at the ferry till about 5ish. In retrospect, we should have spent the day in amsterdam and then headed out late afternoon, but we're a bit worrywartish so needed to be early!! We eventually found a cafe (after cycling round for about an hour in the rain and wind!!) and settled down for the lunch and afternoon. We enjoyed it actually, just sitting and writing some cards and reflecting a bit together on our fantastic journey ;-) Angus still being concerned about our ferry which was due to depart at 6pm suggested we leave at 4pm to make sure we got there on time. We did, and then spent the next 2 hours watching trucks load onto the ferry, standing in the freezing wind with our bikes. Not the greatest experience but luckily it was quite lovely with the sun starting to set and the birds flying around and all the big ships around ;-)

So we boarded the ferry and locked up our bikes and the trailer and carried our gear up to our room, which was actually pretty nice (but cozy!) We had a short wander around the ship and then freshened up for dinner. We went to the bar and sat and had a drink looking out at the lights waiting for the ship to depart, but it left over an hour late which was a bit unfortunate. We went for dinner which was not bad but very expensive! Then we were both pretty tired so went back to our little cabin. Unfortunatly when we got up in the morning there was some bad news - becasue of the fact we'd left late and that there was a strong headwind we were running late. very very late. like we were meant to arrive at 9am and we were due after 2pm. I had booked us train tickets to leave Newcastle at 1pm, thinking that would be _heaps_ of time, but it wasn't to be! Luckily we arrived about 1:30 and then we rode for about 1.5hours into Newcastle, getting a bit lost along the way. We got to the train station and had to rebuy tickets (eek - wow expensive!) but then didn't have to ait at all for the train as it arrived right away and we loaded all our gear on (the experts we are now with bikes and trailers on trains!!). It was a very chilled our train journey actually, and we arrived in at Edinburgh about 4:30pm. We then rode straight to our apartment (which work had organised for me) and checked in. It was great to arrive in Edinburgh after such a long journey.

We actually didn't do much sightseeing except wandering around the lovely city and trying to work out where we wanted to live. We got straight onto looking at flats. We must have looked at about 12 i think. The first few were really terrible. While waiting to look at one, we met a couple of guys in a bar- both had just finished theri architecture exams, and were keen for a game of pool and chat. They both seemed pretty nice ;-) We had some luck with flats on friday afternoon. We went to see 4 and thought 3 of them would be great to live in. The first was in a great location, but had no storage space. The second had no furniture but the owner offerred to 'ikea-ise' it, which we thought could be good. The third was fantastic - massive (as big as Sizer St in Adelaide) and painted great colours and seemed really cool and quirky, but was a looong walk from the office - about 45mins. I wanted to be able to walk to work easily and it also wasn't in a great are. So the next morning we looked at two flats in the area of town (Stockbridge) which we had really liked on the friday, and we found the flat we are now living in.

It's really cool. Not really big, just one bedroom, but lots of cupboard space, the kitchen is great - good appliances and nice and large, the bathroom is nice - a 19th century bath (but shower added recently!), and bright and airy. The lounge/dining is great - wooden floorboards, big bay windows, it's on the ground floor and we look out onto a quiet street. Around the corner in one direction is a supermarket, and one of our Yoga classes (2hours of full ashtanga primary series - really really hard work), the other way around the corner is a funky street with some cool shops and little supermarkets, bars, cafes and lots and lots of op-shops!! At the end of that road is the 'stock bridge' which the area is named after. And in another direction about 5mins walk is a lovely big open area with sports grounds that is annexxed on to the botanic gardens (we hope to go there this weekend). And it's about a 25min walk for me to work (which is also the distance to the city centre and shops and bars etc). The castle and royal mile would be about 35mins walk. Our other yoga class is about a 10min cycle (ashtanga dynamic, about 1hr 15mins - a fun class). We also have a massive sainsburys and other shops about a 10min ride in the other direction. So we basically have a great apartment. And we've been shopping and kitted ourselves out with tv, computer, nice plants and it's really feeling like home. We hope that we will have visitors soon to try out our fancy new blow up mattress ;-)

That's all for now folks. More about checking out the lowlands last weekend and my first week of work to come soon. Photos will be up soon too of our flat and the weekend away. Missing you all, keep emailing us!! ;-)

Selina & Angusxox