Glasgow Queenstreet to Edinburgh Waverley

Edinburgh in winter

Can there anywhere be a more beautiful and beguiling city to arrive at by train early on a crisp, dark Novembery evening than Edinburgh? To emerge from the bustling, subterranean bowels of Waverley Station and find yourself in the very heart of such a glorious city is a happy experience indeed. I hadn't been to Edinburgh for years and had forgotten just how captivating it can be. Every momument was lit with golden floodlights - the castle and the Bank of Scotland headquarters on the hill, the Balmoral Hotel and the Sir Walter Scott Monument down below - which gave them a certain eerie grandeur.
    -- Bill Bryson, Notes from a Small Island, pg 56

Perfect winter lunch; Bovril and venison roll

On this dark Novembery evening, I could not agree more. What makes it even more wonderful, is when you head from that dark, gritty, seductive city to the top of a moor. They are two extremes in an impossibly short distance. I learned to fly eagles by taking the train to Edinburgh Waverley, meeting my friends Neil and John Hunter at the station entrance, and then driving to a nearby moor to fly the eagles. We'd spend the day chasing hares, and then I'd descend back into Waverley station and be home in Glasgow by evening.

Those were happy days.

Eagle on hare; describing the flight

Update: I've just seen this beautiful short piece by Rachel Dickinson on living in Edinburgh. As someone who ran away to Glasgow at 19 without knowing a soul, I found her writing moving.