Day 5: Kilmarnock to Edinburgh – 103km

103 k with 900 meters climbing

Some step roads but overall a better ride than yesterday. In the morning quite a bit of climbing but pretty much downhill from 61 k where we had lunch. Rode quite a bit of the afternoon with Shirley and Dan.

Mostly country roads but coming into Edinburgh was pretty busy.

When we got to the hotel it was only 1:30 and we had to wait until 3pm for the room to be ready . We are staying at the Apex Hotel Grass Market.

 

Edinburgh Castle from our hotel

 

To fill in time we went to the Fiddlers Inn and had a cold beer and a tasting platter that included haggis balls. They tasted ok but hard to tell with anything fried, especially when it was that big, whether you are tasting the frying or the actual flavour of the food.

While we were at the Fiddlers Arms a March for Irish prisoners rights came past complete with bands followed closely by police.

For dinner we went to a pub called The Worlds’ End. It is called this as it was where the golden mile from Edinburgh Castle stopped and that was considered the end of the city. We had a couple of drinks and dinner there, it was ok but nothing outstanding.

After that we went to to the White Hart Inn and had another drink before going back to the hotel. We all had an Edinburgh Gin was quite nice. The pub had a security guard that made us laugh, was not quite what you would expect and not sure they would be able to do the job in NZ.

After that, off to the hotel, yay a sleep in tomorrow.

 

Bodyguard outside the pub