Last night, thanks to the Captain’s decision to avoid a storm we crossed the Greenwich Meridian (0⁰ Longitude) travelling westwards to Edinburgh, something that upon departure we did not expect as we were hoping to go northeast.
At 08:00 we docked in Leith, the port of Edinburgh. From the cabin window we could see the Queensferry Crossing – the red 19th century cantilevered railway bridge, the white stay span suspension bridge of 2016 and in between the 1963 suspension bridge opened by Queen Elizabeth. Later the castle overlooking the city centre came into view and Arthur’s Seat towering over it.
After breakfast a walk took us to Newhaven, a former important fishing port for the area. Remains of the fishing industry are few but regeneration has made this a pleasant residential suburb of the capital and a developing cruise ship stop off point.
Adjacent to the ship was the Royal Yacht Britannia (closed out of respect) which was the monarch’s private transport before jet aircraft and regularly docked here after the annual tour of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland.
We departed at 15:00 and had the great view of the three bridges before heading to the North Sea and the Shetland Islands before the ‘short hop’ to Norway through the pending storm.
