My First Observations of Scotland

A few days ago I arrived in Scotland for the very first time. I haven’t yet had time to explore Edinburgh since my body is struggling to adjust to the new time zone (six hours ahead of NYC and Florida, my last locations) and I’ve also needed a few days to just settle in (unpacking, setting up stuff, groceries, cooking, getting into the dog-care routine, etc etc).

So I don’t yet have anything exciting to report about historic and stately Edinburgh. However, I have made many initial observations during my arrival and settling in. Since these sorts of ‘first time observations’ (often quite interesting observations) tend to be forgotten quickly and taken for granted, I thought it would be worthwhile writing them down and sharing them before I’ve had a chance to take any photos of Edinburgh’s amazing historic places… (coming next week!). So here goes…

A. Arrival into Edinburgh

Deep green landscapes

I flew from NYC into Edinburgh via Stockholm, Sweden early one morning last week. As my plane descended over the North Sea then down over the eastern reaches of Scotland and Edinburgh, I looked out the window and was treated to gorgeous views of a startlingly deep green & rich countryside. I knew immediately that I was going to love Scotland.

Huge golf bags luggage

After passing easily through immigration I proceeded to the luggage claim belts. While awaiting my bags, I noticed some absolutely massive & long bags filing along the beltway. They put me in mind of all the huge bagged surf boards that pass through Bali airport.

But these bags were even bigger and bulkier. I wondered what the heck they could be. I soon remembered that Scotland is famous for its world-class golf courses and I had my answer. Clearly, lots of golfers really do travel to Scotland to enjoy their sport here

Extremely lax customs

After loading my big heavy bags onto a free airport cart, I headed to customs. I was prepared to declare all my food items, but what I saw up ahead was simply a long hallway with big green signs announcing ‘Nothing to Declare’.

Over to one side there was a small enclosed booth, apparently un-manned, with a red sign saying ‘Goods to Declare’. I approached the booth, where I discovered that it was indeed completely un-manned. In order to make a declaration, you have to ring a buzzer to get service! What the heck?!

In over two decades of international travels and with over 200 hundreds flights under my belt, I have never seen such laisse fair customs counters. I was astounded.

Since I didn’t actually have any food items that were prohibited, I decided to just walk through the ‘Nothing to Declare’ hallway and exit the airport. Easy!

B. Food & Grocery Shopping

My first big task, besides dog care, was to go grocery shopping so I’d have food to eat. Luckily, there’s a huge Tesco supermarket just a 15-minute walk from my pet-sitting place. Tesco had lots of surprises in store for me, all good ones!

Very low food prices

As soon as I started searching through the fresh produce section, I was immediately amazed at how unexpectedly low the prices are here. Part of that is due to the fact that prices are stated in GBP rather than $US. Given that currently 1 GPB = $1.25US, prices visibly look lower to Americans accustomed to the $US value. For instance an item at 4 GBP has a value of $5 US. That makes some difference in how prices seem to be.

Even so, food prices are definitely noticeably lower here than in the US. A few quick examples I came across at Tesco the other day:

One loaf of fresh-baked high quality bread = 2-2.50 GBP / $2.50-2.75 US

In Florida, equivalent bread costs about $4 US / In NYC and Alaska, it’s $6.50 US

One whole chicken = 3GBP / $4 US. In Florida, that costs about $8-10 US

Packet of fresh mint = 0.52 GBP / $0.73 US. In Florida, mint usually costs about $4 US.

I found prices like this across the board at Tesco. That means food here is 2-5 times cheaper than in the US!

Huge variety

Granted, I visited a Tesco Super Store, which is equivalent to a Walmart Super Center, so there’s bound to be a huge selection and variety of foods. Even so, I was surprised at the huge variety of choices, brands and options in all areas of the store.
Unusual / unknown food items

Not surprisingly, this being Scotland, I came across many different foods that I’ve never seen before. One that I opted to try is called ‘Lemon Fool’. It seems like yogurt, but it consists of whipped yogurt, cream and lemon compote (whatever exactly that is). I also found a ‘Gooseberry Fool’. Both are delicious!

Huge selection of pre-prepared meals

One department with the largest variety of options is the pre-prepared meals section. Entire isles of refrigerated, packaged meals are on offer. There’s a whole section with Indian meals, another with Asian dishes, and yet another with vegetarian options. Besides those, there are various fresh salads, meats prepared for cooking, sandwiches and wraps, and other almost-ready-to-eat meals.

I don’t recall seeing this many ready-to-go meals in any US supermarket.

C. My pet sitting neighborhood

Very upscale residential ‘gated community’

Quite luckily for me, turns out that my hosts live in a very upscale, leafy-green suburban residential area, about 20 minutes by bus to downtown Edinburgh. It’s like an exclusive, gated community, but without the gates.

It’s full of beautiful, large house-like apartment buildings, many of them historic brownstone buildings. They’re all scattered through well-manicured lawns, landscaping, flower gardens, meandering walkways and beautiful trees. Around the edges are walks through shady forests.

I’ve noticed that most cars here are Mercedes, BMWs, Jaguars, Mini Coopers, a few Alfa Romeos, and all the other usual brands.

Extremely quiet

The very best thing about this lovely community is that it’s incredibly quiet. I’m talking silent! It’s even quieter than my stay in Juneau, Alaska. Quieter than my parent’s super-quiet residential Florida neighborhood. Even quieter than Stuyvesant Town in Manhattan. This is my ultra-silent dream location! I have only put in my earplugs once, and that for a short time period.

D. Weather

Much colder than expected

Of course I looked ahead at the expected temperatures in Edinburgh in April well before my trip. Reports called for highs in the 50sF / 10-12 C and night time temps in the 40sF / 7-9C.

So when I arrived I was shocked to find the daytime temps in the 40s / 8-9C for most of the day. The slightly higher temps I was expecting do kick in, but not until about 4-5 pm! So all mornign and most of the afternoon, it’s in the 40s, not the 50s.

On top of that, there’s often a chilly breeze. And most of the time the sky is filled with heavy clouds, which of course, makes it feel even colder. The same temps with blue skies and sun would certainly feel warmer. Instead, it feels pretty much as cold as it was in Juneau, Alaska during my last two weeks of March… in fact, it mostly feels colder here.

Very changeable weather

Besides the cold, so far I’ve found the weather to be extremely variable. Overall, there are dark, heavy dramatic clouds everywhere. But then sometimes they dispurse and a blue sky emerges, with scattered sun shining down.

In my five days here thus far, we had one day of beautiful blue skies and warm sun, then another morning of the same, which gradually turned back to heavy threatening clouds.

And it looks like we’re in for a cold snap for the next few days, with highs in the mid 40sF / 7-9 C and night times dipping down into the 30s F / 2-4 C. Yikes !Winter all over again!

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