Possibly I'm the last one to realise this, but there's
a great offroad route which takes you almost all the
way from the city centre to the Gyle.
I had to get from my home in south Edinburgh to the Gyle shopping centre yesterday, and tried cycling there.
Having never done it before I asked Cyclestreets for a route, but didn't fancy any of its suggestions - the "Quiet" and "Balanced" routes seemed awfully fiddly and prone to getting tangled up in tram works, and the Fast route looked a bit too scary for me.
Then I realised: the Union Canal towpath goes offroad right from Tollcross to Wester Hailes. Consulting the map I found that it's even better than that, it takes you right to the edge of Sighthill industrial estate.
All you need to do is leave the towpath just before it curves round and crosses over the City Bypass, then go downhill for a hundred yards to Edinburgh Park station, under the railway line, then just go through Edinburgh Park and you're there!
So much simpler. And so much of it was offroad that I almost felt I was in the Netherlands. A somewhat neglected bit of the Netherlands, maybe, where the cycle paths are for some reason not 4 metres wide and super-smooth, but it was a lovely ride nonetheless.
The illusion was enhanced when I passed an
elderly couple, bursting with health, gliding along
on big upright bikes. Must have been Dutch tourists :-)
posts
