Friday there on my day off I had to pick. Up three art books [heavy, but designed to make my eldest look intellectual - Hokusai, Rembrandt and err David Shrigley, the latter is just hilarious]. I then met some ex-colleagues at the ultra hip market next to THe Shore Bar called Browns [what used to fix ships].
So what, you say, we dont need to see your social diary Gembo, we are a cycling chat group?
Ah but I had been out the night before for a meal with Mrs Garto and an old pal from school. Very nice in Cask and Vine.
Get on with it Gembo, Ok,ok, alright ALREADY. THIS MEANT I had to go into the office to swap my work suit for my bike gear and pick up the bike.
I left the back door of the office and rolled long Calton Road and up to the bike lane. I then took the Zig Zag Wanderer bike route down Leith Walk, all great. I even crossed over when the two way becomes one way and you are meant to be on the other side.
At the foot of the walk I found by accident the lovely smooth curving bike lane that goes almost all the way to the Shore A thing of beauty.
Short cobbled bit and lights to get across to The Shore. I had two locks [no key for the one in my pannier] but the maitre d was happy to allow me to bring the bike in. I like to feel it added a millimeter of hipness to the already ultra hip atmosphere in Browns. Beards, kids running about in handkerchiefs, dugs with their own blankets etc
If you dont know it - Haze [dear wine and nibbles and coffee and cake] Civerinos Pizza and something called Shrimpwreck. Open 8am to 8pm - all you need to do is find a table. Can be super busy. THen you go and order what you like. It is ideal if the people you are meeting are a bit hard to pin down on their movements, whether they are eating, et cetera. Also - the hand dryers in the loos are under the shelf like on a train.
At the meal I was given another heavy hard back book and a small tin of loose leaf tea,
I then took a short spin through Leith and onto the cycle path heading west, all the way to Granton then up the side of Fettes to pick up a bottle of very nice Portugeuse wine from Appelation Wine and added it to my pannier, then retraced. My steps to beteeen Broughton High and Fettes and took the on road cycle route up to Craigleith then the Roseburn path to Roseburn then the stenhouse path to Hermiston Gait then the canal towpath to Heriot Watt then the backroads home. All into a stiff Westerly I was fair puggled. With all this infra though it was all easy peasy
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