Day 30: Mansfield - Edinburgh (train, Elise!)

Cycle: 47 km//2hr52min//16.3km/hr

Saturday Sept 7

Sheffield. For some reason, Sheffield sounds oddly familiar to me. As in, I know someone from Sheffield, or have been told to avoid Sheffield (or maybe to visit Sheffield?). All the same, we left our campsite and headed for Sheffield, where we'd catch the train to Edinburgh (we're trying to get to Scotland before the weather is completely unbearable). Quickly we began encountering long drawn out hills en route to Sheffield, the kind that make you work hard, harder than we're used to working coming off the Rhine Route, or the oh-so-flat Netherlands. One way or another, we found our way to Sheffield's train station. We did not see anything else of Sheffield, but based on the train station, it seems a step ahead of Mansfield.

The train. Much like the car, the train is also exceedingly fast for our cycle tourist brains. Whisk goes the world around you!

Edinburgh. Elise met us at the station on her little white fixie. We dropped our stuff off, cleaned up, went for good Italian pizza, and proceeded to PUB crawl.  Eventually, we ended up at the "Cowgate", an Edinburgh institution of debauchery (hen-dos, stag-dos, carriage tipping, zombie walking, butt-baring for no real reason). The best beer of the night was undoubtedly: "Misspent Youth". Ironic? 

Brewdog: Misspent Youth (Scotland: Scotch Ale: 7.3% ABV)

Nose: Smoke. Honey. Chocolate malt drink. Barley fields. Treacle toffee. Slightly closed sour notes underneath.

Body: Honey. Milky chocolate and chocolate liquore. Low choc bitterness. Slick and thick texture. Treacle. Orange liquore undertones.